Summary

Barry Blaustein, the writer, producer, and director behind the 1999 wrestling documentary *Beyond The Mat*, has died at 72.

His death was announced by Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, where he served as a longtime professor. Blaustein had been living with Parkinson's disease since 2016, and he said last month that he had stage four pancreatic cancer.

For wrestling fans, Blaustein's most enduring work was *Beyond The Mat*, which he wrote, narrated, directed, and produced. The film followed figures including Mick Foley and Terry Funk while pulling back the curtain on WWE, ECW, and the wider wrestling business. It later became one of the 12 finalists for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Blaustein's career beyond wrestling

Outside the wrestling world, Blaustein built a long career in comedy and film. He worked with Eddie Murphy on *Saturday Night Live* and helped write material tied to Murphy characters such as Buckwheat, Gumby, and Mr. Robinson.

Blaustein also had writing credits on *Coming to America* and *The Nutty Professor*, giving him a career that stretched well beyond the documentary that made him especially memorable to wrestling audiences.

Beyond The Mat's place in wrestling history

*Beyond The Mat* gave wrestling fans a rare mainstream look at the physical and emotional cost of the business, and Blaustein's death puts renewed focus on a documentary that still stands as one of the defining films ever made about pro wrestling.

Because the film centered names like Mick Foley and Terry Funk while also showing the realities behind the spectacle, it remains a key reference point whenever fans talk about how wrestling was presented to a wider audience at the turn of the century.

Sources

As reported by Fightful.