Before (Saturday) night it was not the plan to have the natural followup to
Beyond the Mat be this film, but I noticed it was a 99 cent rental on
Amazon so that is what I did. Jake the Snake Roberts was involved in the
most fascinating and most heartbreaking moments of Beyond the Mat as at
that point he had a messed up life due to his father not being a great
person, his stepfather was pretty rotten also and he was addicted to
various substances. In this documentary, he was still battling his
demons so another ex-wrestler (Diamond Dallas Page, who is now best
known for his DDP Yoga program that has helped many not only get in
better shape but also assists them in becoming better human beings)
brought him to his house to both get him in shape and finally kick his
demons for good.
I feel this can be watched by anyone-as the movie explains who Jake was and why so many were inspired by what he did as a wrestler-and this resurrection is seeing a person try to help their mentor through dire times. Jake is quite honest with himself in how he was human and due to a variety of factors has had a bad life and he does blame itself for becoming an addict. Now, I've never dealt with addiction but I do understand how it is such a difficult thing to battle and you do see Jake fail at various times as this was a big change for him. Tough love does have to be used but Roberts really does try hard to try and make this work.
A part of this is devoted to one wrestler who was arguably even more screwed up than Jake, and that would be Scott Hall. Both have great reasons to try and lick their demons, and that would be their families; they do wish to spend more time with their kids and grandkids. I've seen it argued that at times this seems emotionally manipulative and it's a good point. Even then, I am glad I saw this inspiring documentary which ends on a happy note. Since then both guys have avoided making wrestling news for all the wrong reasons; as a hardcore fan of pro wrestling, I can tell you that for years it was not uncommon to read about Roberts and Hall getting arrested, or making fools of themselves at wrestling shows due to being high and/or drunk. DDP had a lot of success in pro wrestling but the best thing he's done in life is creating a product which has helped out a lot of people in a litany of different ways.
I feel this can be watched by anyone-as the movie explains who Jake was and why so many were inspired by what he did as a wrestler-and this resurrection is seeing a person try to help their mentor through dire times. Jake is quite honest with himself in how he was human and due to a variety of factors has had a bad life and he does blame itself for becoming an addict. Now, I've never dealt with addiction but I do understand how it is such a difficult thing to battle and you do see Jake fail at various times as this was a big change for him. Tough love does have to be used but Roberts really does try hard to try and make this work.
A part of this is devoted to one wrestler who was arguably even more screwed up than Jake, and that would be Scott Hall. Both have great reasons to try and lick their demons, and that would be their families; they do wish to spend more time with their kids and grandkids. I've seen it argued that at times this seems emotionally manipulative and it's a good point. Even then, I am glad I saw this inspiring documentary which ends on a happy note. Since then both guys have avoided making wrestling news for all the wrong reasons; as a hardcore fan of pro wrestling, I can tell you that for years it was not uncommon to read about Roberts and Hall getting arrested, or making fools of themselves at wrestling shows due to being high and/or drunk. DDP had a lot of success in pro wrestling but the best thing he's done in life is creating a product which has helped out a lot of people in a litany of different ways.
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