Best wrestling documentary to actually watch, and which one gets recommended too much versus not enough

[AuroraHermit]

There's a real tier system among wrestling documentaries once you've watched enough of them, some are genuinely essential viewing even for people who don't follow wrestling closely, some are decent but mainly for people already invested in the specific era or performer, and a few get recommended constantly purely on reputation without necessarily still holding up

Beyond the Mat from 1999 remains the one that gets cited most consistently as the genre defining piece, following Terry Funk, Mick Foley and Jake Roberts specifically to show the toll the business takes outside the ring rather than the performance itself, and it's held up remarkably well as an unflinching look at the human cost of the profession. Dark Side of the Ring as an ongoing series has become the modern equivalent for a lot of newer fans, digging into the darker, less publicized stories across wrestling history one episode at a time

Worth debating too, which specific docs get over recommended purely on name recognition versus which genuinely deserve more attention than they get. The Undertaker: The Last Ride is frequently praised specifically because it offers access to a performer who almost never breaks character publicly, while some of the more polished, WWE produced hagiography style pieces get less enthusiastic word of mouth once people actually sit down and watch them, since they tend to shy away from the harder, messier parts of the story that made Beyond the Mat land so hard in the first place

So the actual question, what's your genuine pick for best wrestling documentary, and separately, is there one you think gets recommended more than it deserves, or one that deserves way more attention than it currently gets

[DQ Eric]

Beyond the Mat still hits different from literally everything that came after it, that raw, unfiltered access to Foley and Funk specifically outside the ring is something WWE produced content since has never quite matched