10 Times Wrestlers Pulled Back The Curtain

5. Beyond The Mat

The Rock
imagine entertainment

Barry Blaustein's Beyond The Mat is a remarkable slice of wrestling and film history not just for what it inimitably documents, but for how much access it gained to the backstage area of WWE during visits in both 1997 and 1999.

The second trip to TitanSports in particular is the most interesting of the two. With the company still facing an uphill battle against WCW at the time it made sense for them to let a few outsiders in the door, but things were massively different a couple of years later.

WWE was a booming empire on the cusp of even greater growth thanks to considerable mainstream presentation and floatation on the New York Stock Exchange. But as Blaustein new, they were still a wrestling company first.

The Royal Rumble WWE Championship match between Mankind and The Rock was hard enough to stomach without watching through the terrified eyes of Mick Foley's family, but that's what we got. Ultimately, WWE didn't want the film getting out there, but any attempts to stop it only made marketing it's release that little bit easier.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett