The Mighty Mantaur Blu Ray Review (Burning Bulb Publishing)

The Mighty Mantaur is a 2023 documentary co-written, edited, produced, and directed by Faustus McGreeves (Endor, Level Up, Stuck, The Pedestrians, and Far from Gatsby). It was co-written by Mike Halac (No Clean Finish, Endor, Buzz vs Scooty, Family Property 2: More Blood, and Toxic Tutu). This is not just a story about professional wrestling. This is a look at a man who happens to wrestles. He’s much more than that, it’s time to learn his entire history before and after his fame. Mike Halac (WWE, ECW, USWA, and GCW) was at the biggest for sports entertainment in the WWF as Mantaur. He was known as half beast and half man during his brief run in the highly popular company before it was all went away. He ended spending most of his pro wrestling career in Europe. Right when he was trying to return to the big time again, he was forced to retire after a serious accident. His body was broken and he unfortunately never recovered from it. Through his personal stories plus a variety of detailed interviews with family, friends, fellow wrestlers Duke “The Dumpster” Droese (WWF) and Al Snow (WWE, ECW, SMW, TNA, JCW, 1PW, and OVW). This is the real life experience of struggle and redemption with life after wrestling!!!! The Mighty Mantaur is mainly a documentary about life after professional wrestling and what happens. It was directed by Faustus McGreeves. I enjoyed The Mighty Mantaur but it probably around 14 minutes too long and it would have had a better flow to it if edited down a little more. There’s some filler that could have been removed in this, regardless it’s worth the wait. Mike Halac goes over his younger days. He was adopted by a family and they always treated him like their own. He was raised right by them and he felt like he actually belonged there. He was a bigger kid so he got into sports early on with Hockey. He would begin doing amateur wrestling in school where he won all kinds of awards and he dominated the local scene. He found that his dad was friends with the legendary Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon from WWF and AWA. Mad Dog took the ambitious Mike to one of his shows back in the day. He met icons like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant there while backstage. After seeing how everything worked behind the scenes, he was hooked right away and he wanted to get involved in the wrestling business. A few years later, he would pay $5,000 to the rugged Larry Malenko to be trained. He’s related to Boris, Joe, and the most known family member Dean who wrestled for all of the major promotions. Mike Halac tells a story about one of his first training matches was with a young Bart Gunn and he accidentally broke his nose during it. He was in Nebraska, he looked very similar to WCW’s P.N. News and somehow the wrestler found out about it. He reached out to the ambitious Mike Halac and they decided to hang out when he was in town. He shares a hilarious and honest night with the Junkyard Dog. He was there for a wrestling show and he wanted the upcoming wrestler Mike Halac to score him $200 worth of crack. After training and dealing with some wild encounters with some of the pros. Mike finally got his shot at professional wrestling overseas. He traveled over there and he was paired up with veteran Fit Finlay. He wasn’t really getting it at first and he was already gassed right away. Fit almost had to beat the truth out of him after catching him in a lie. He originally claimed that he has been wrestling for a few years but Finlay knew better than that. So he made sure he told him to be honest and he helped him out to get over with the crowd. He got really close to a fellow wrestler while working in Europe. He witnessed his friend having a heart attack and dying in the ring one night. He made $5,000 during his quick run over there and they offered to keep him there longer but he wanted to go home after seeing all of that. He wrestled for free at a tribute event to him and he made sure his family made all profit to support the family of his friend that passed away. He chats about his big break in the WWF in 1995 as Mantaur. He claims that owner Vince McMahon paid around $10,000 for his original Bull Head mask that he came out with during his entrance. He said he only used it around 6 times because it was difficult and awkward to wear. That’s still considered one of the worst and most ridiculous WWF looks from the 90’s. They changed his appearance after that. He got the face paint and horns. They were promoting the half man half beast gimmick. He was squashing all kinds of jobbers at the time including future ECW champion when he was known as “Portuguese Man-of-War” Aldo Mondoya. He bluntly talks about an early match with enhancement talent where he really hurt the guy with his “Forklift” finish. They were building him. He even got a good spot at the Royal Rumble with some of the biggest names in the industry. They continued to give him some spotlight when he got to wrestle Bam Bam Bigelow and Razor Ramon. He says things got real with Razor aKa Scott Hall. He was coming back from being in rehab so he was trying to make a big impact with the boys in the back so he tried embarrassing Mike in the ring. He wasn’t acting here, he was actually trying to hurt him in the ring with real violence on TV. Owner Vince McMahon had to step in after that situation and calm it down. Soon after, the powerful Mantaur was getting beat every week by someone new. The final straw is when they let jobber at the time Bob Holly defeat him when he still had potential to go somewhere with his current role. He was tired of getting embarrassed every week on television so he left. He went to ECW briefly as Bruiser Mastino but it didn’t work out. He got another shot as Tank from The Truth Commission in WWF. He wasn’t used as much and he eventually got farmed out to the smaller USWA. He almost broke his neck and he tried getting help from McMahon but he told him he was on his own so he left the major wrestling promotion. Fellow wrestlers Duke “The Dumpster” Droese and Al Snow chime in about the wrestling business and the struggles of it. Duke goes over his feud with Mantaur while they both had heat in the industry. Al Snow brings up the limited television time and how everyone wanted whatever they could get so it was a very competitive job. Unfortunately, Mike Halac wasn’t really offered any stable wrestling gigs in the states after WWF so he went overseas again. He had a solid career over there. He tells a really funny story about losing his main groupie Monica before he came back to that scene. Remember how former WCW star P.N. News looked like Mike Halac? Well, he tricked Monica into thinking he was him while performing overseas. He was hooking up with her for a little before the real Mike showed up at the same spot and everything became very weird after that. He says he could have married that girl but not after all of that. He got in the best shape of his life soon after. He created a brand new Turkish role that would have gotten over and he was going to pitch to the WWE for a return but unfortunately he got into an accident before he could. After he recovered from it, he tried to start his own wrestling promotion but his health just got worse and he had to officially retire. He’s not shy about his dislike for Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Triple H, Bob Holly, and Vince McMahon. He would later file a lawsuit against McMahon for his condition after working for his company. His parents, kids, and close friends all have their own experiences with Mike. They are fully discussed in The Mighty Mantaur. He was almost killed at a party. He almost killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend. He begged his friend for a gun to do that plus he was planning on killing himself after that. He was in a very dark place after wrestling was done. He had to get several surgeries on his elbows, neck, and back during his retirement. He suffered around 20 brutal concussions during his time as a wrestler so he was diagnosed with C.T.E after taking way too many violent shots to the head. It forced him to be on disability for the rest of his life and he was not able to do so many normal things. Besides dealing with all of that, he stepped up and he got full custody of his children. He took the role of both parents and he did whatever it took to care of them. The Mighty Mantaur is a very fascinating and heartbreaking documentary that is focused on the aftermath of being a pro wrestler. It covers more than that, Mike Halac explores his entire history here. It’s a very truthful and honest story that doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Mike Halac passed away before it was released so I’m not even sure if he got to see the final cut before he died. This home video release doesn’t have a home screen, it goes straight to the movie. There’s no special features on the disc. It’s a professionally made on demand BD-R from Burning Bulb Publishing and Skullduggery Films. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com right now. I’ve covered and watched countless wrestling related films, The Mighty Mantaur is truly one of a kind, RECOMMENDED!!!!