8 Ups & 4 Downs From Beyond The Mat

5. From The Bottom, All The Way To The Top

The packaging of this movie was so slick that it managed to cover two polar-opposite spectrums of the business in one single story arc.

It started in the All Pro Wrestling indie promotion ran by accountant Roland Alexander, whose business was run with the primary intention of whipping potential wrestlers into shape. From the outset, Alexander warns new recruits that wrestling on the indie level comes with a lot of craft and not a lot of financial rewards.

Along this journey, we got to see two of the organisation's most promising up-and-comers testing their mettle in a WWF ring. This dark match is diligently inspected by none other than Jim Ross, with Vince McMahon watching over his shoulder. A lot of pressure, then.

The resulting verdict is a mixture of optimism and turbulence, but what is even more apparent is the honesty and passion expressed by all parties. From the established names in WWF, all the way down to the struggling operations of APW, Beyond the Mat does a grand job of revealing the mutual love of the craft expressed across the board.