10 Subjects Dark Side Of The Ring Should Cover Next
Speaking truth to power.
Viceland's Dark Side of the Ring has emerged from an uneven first season to dominate a slow wrestling news cycle with its exceptional second.
Ironically, Dark Side of the Ring series excels when it captures a sense of levity. The tragedy of the Von Erichs story is as familiar as it is wearying - it is every last sort of difficult to watch - but what last year's doc lacked in new information and insight, it compensated for with beautiful, warming footage of Kevin Von Erich living in relative peace in Hawaii. The exploration of the Chris Benoit tragedy humanised its subject to a very slight degree, but never lost focus of the gravity of his unspeakable last actions - and brought together many of those affected by it.
The series is mostly excellent in its tackling of lurid subject matter and a steadfast refusal to sensationalise it, even if that which is considered "dark" is conflated very bizarrely. The Brawl For All probably doesn't belong in the same anthology as the deaths of Benoit and Owen Hart.
As just announced, a third season comprised of 14 episodes is in the works - covering the lives of Brian Pillman, the Dynamite Kid and Grizzly Smith, in addition to NJPW/WCW's infamous foray into North Korea - which, rather neatly, allows us to pitch a further list of 10...
10. The Sad Fate Of Terry Gordy
At his peak, Terry Gordy was an incredible talent.
A wild and charismatic enough brawler to get over as a veritable rock star in the southern United States, and boasting a mastery of the craft that propelled him to the vaunted Triple Crown in All Japan Pro Wrestling - the seminal legacy of which he helped shape - he was a giant and just possibly a great of the industry. He overdosed in 1993, suffering brain damage from which he never recovered. He was never the same performer, nor the same man, becoming quiet and withdrawn.
He turned up in the WWF in late 1996 - purportedly as a favour to his old Freebird stablemate Michael Hayes - under the mask of the Executioner. It's very distressing to watch in retrospect. It's as if a stranger is peeking out behind familiar eyes, eyes that dart around in near-bewilderment. He wrestles, methodically, as if carried by dormant muscle memory.
There are questions that require answers - how irresponsible was this run, to Gordy himself and his opponents? - but there's also a fading legacy to restore.