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The genesis of 'Beyond the Mat' and negotiating with WCW:
Well I wanted to, you know I grew up in the north east so I grew up watching WWF and so I was always a very big fan of that wrestling. I followed all the other regional wrestling too but that was my home wrestling, that's the one that got me to be a wrestling fan and when I decided to do this project I decided to approach the WWF and they were almost, they couldn’t be impregnable, there was no one who could get me through there and I had met Ted DiBiase through somebody and Ted tried to put in a good word for me with Vince but nothing ever happened, nothing ever happened and in that case then I went to Turner and this was just at the beginning of the Monday Night Wars and I negotiated with them and Eric Bischoff and Turner Sports for about a year and it would end up falling apart because Turner wanted the right that they could bring an injunction, I needed a wave of injunction which means that they can't sue and say this movie can't come out and they wanted some sort of editorial control and in that case then there was no purpose in me doing the documentary then I was doing something for hire. So it looked about dead then, but you've got to remember at that time Vince was number two and so I got in finally to see Vince and talked to him and he was a little more open because he was no longer number one and I explained to him what I wanted to do and his first offer to me was, well, how much is this going to be made for and I'll triple your budget and I went but Vince then I’m doing a movie for you and for this to really work it has to be independently made. And again it was like another year of discussions with Vince and every time we would begin with "so where are we now?" We are at exactly the same place we were the last time. And then I eventually convinced him, I caught him on a good day and he agreed to sign the release and part of the release was that he gave me access, as much access as I needed. There was some things he said he would be uncomfortable me showing. He didn't want me to film him doing any of the writing segments with the other writers. He kept saying because we all sit around and all grumpy and stuff, he just didn't want on camera what he really thought of some of the talent and I understood that. As a writer myself it’s very free flowing in a room like that and you don’t want it being inhibited and in exchange he would give me access all he asked was the chance to look at the film before it came out, he would have no control over it and he also had to provide me with clips. I think about the deal, how much Vince gave me and I was so appreciative and I was so grateful that he allowed me in to do it. So that’s how it began and then I started filming, then the filming took place over a two, two and a half year period.
The relationship with Jake Roberts and his Father as explored in the documentary:
That was very uncomfortable. You know I've heard all the stuff Jake told me about his dad and also heard other storied about Jake's dad and we get to this diner in the middle of nowhere and his mom was there too but his mom didn’t want to be photographed and then we picked up the dad and I’m in the car with the dad and everybody else is with Jake and we get to this spot and Jake goes down and they start doing this stuff and it’s so strange because they couldn’t even look at each other. And that was just like one of those things that happened where I was like “start filming, we’ve got to start filming, let’s start filming”. You know ones breaking locks, the other, I still can’t figure out what they were doing, they were cleaning out or something but there’s a lot of issues there.
Problems from the WWE during the final stage of filming:
They tried to stop me filming the last match which was the Mick Foley Royal Rumble match and I'd been planning that for months and he knew that and about a week before the guy who was the CEO of the company said you can’t film. I knew I needed that, whatever was going to happen there, I mean I knew Mick was going to lose but I didn’t know what else was going to happen, I knew I needed the end of that and I got Vince on the phone and he said "well it's just difficult" and all this stuff and I go "Vince you are too much like your character now. You can’t tell me that you don't know that this is wrong on some level that this is not entirely wrong, this is unfair and all that stuff, you are too good a person who helps these old wrestlers, there’s a kindness to you” and I go “you know this is wrong you know you’ll be screwing me over, right." "Well well I don’t know" I said "Vince I'm coming to film and if you kick me out that'll be on the film and if that's the way you want to end the film that’s fine." And he says "alright Barry, I'll let you in but this is the last time." I remember turning to my crew and going "we gotta get everything tonight because we ain’t ever coming back." So that's what happened.
(Transcribed by Shaun McAlister)
The full one-hour interview including tons of behind the scenes notes on scenes that were cut, his relationships with Roland Alexander, Mick Foley, Vince and Linda McMahon, a major project he was presented to produce on Vince, talent attempting to attack the crew during filming and more can be heard at http://www.thefightnetwork.
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