WWF: Eve of Destruction [VHS]
Early in 2000, a full-length documentary calledBeyond the Matstripped away the facade of professional wresting, intimately profiling some of  the top names in the business and detailing the physical and mental hardships  endured by the stars. Often brutal and depressing, it was the type of dirty  laundry that people like WWF president Vince McMahon didn't want their audience  to see. (McMahon unsuccessfully tried to get the film banned.)Eve of  Destructionoften feels like McMahon's tepid response toBeyond the  Mat. The video looks back at some of the more infamous matches in recent  years, interviewing the participants and coming across like a sappy VH1Behind the Musicrip-off. In fact, two of the matches featured in this  video are profiled in far greater depth inBeyond the Mat. Both Hell in  the Cell and Last Man Standing feature Mick "Mankind" Foley taking horrific  beatings (during Hell in a Cell, against the Undertaker, he flies 20 feet off a  cage and onto a table adjacent to ringside, while the result of a Last Man  Standing match against the Rock leaves the man's face split open), but the  accompanying interviews are self-congratulatory and over-hyped rather than  probing. The whole video plays like a greatest-hits compilation, but fails to  give fans an entire match in its entirety. At 45 minutes, it's a             self-promotional scam, and for wrestling fans, a rip-off.--Dave McCoy