Barry Blaustein, a long-time writer and director, had died at the age of 72.
Blaustein’s connection to professional wrestling was through the 1999 documentary, “Beyond the Mat”, chronicling the careers of several performers at various stages of their careers.
Blaustein had been battling Parkinson’s disease for the past nine years and was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer last month.
The Hollywood Reporter story on his death noted that the wrestling documentary was the “favorite thing he had ever done.”
The documentary was released by Lions Gate Films and featured early cooperation by the World Wrestling Federation, which provided Blaustein backstage access for filming in 1998 and 1999.
The documentary focused on Terry Funk, Mick Foley, Jake Roberts, and aspiring pro wrestlers Tony Jones and Michael Modest out of Roland Alexander’s All Pro Wrestling promotion in Northern California.
The participants had mixed experiences with Foley, calling it among the proudest things he was associated with, while Roberts hated his portrayal and accused Blaustein of misleading him in terms of what the documentary would focus on.
The climax includes a frightening recap of Foley’s match with Dwayne Johnson at the Royal Rumble in 1999, where he takes countless unprotected chair shots (more than the agreed number) as Foley’s family is an emotional wreck in the audience, with his children in tears. Months later, Blaustein screened the footage for Foley, who felt enormous guilt after seeing what he put the family through.
Despite being on board throughout the filming process, Vince McMahon hated the final version and went to great lengths to prevent the documentary from being promoted during the broadcast of Raw is War and led to the marketing, “The movie Vince McMahon didn’t want you to see”.
Blaustein was a writer on Saturday Night Live from 1980 until 1983, directed The Ringer in 2005, and worked with Eddie Murphy on many of his films.
