Dark Side of the Ring

[El-P]

Seriously ? What the fuck is this ? Three episodes about TNA ? Zach Gowen ? The Renegade ? Joe vs Necro Butcher ? What ? The only episode that sounds interesting is Missy Hyatt. 

With all the seriously dark shit that would need to be seriously talked about, that's what they came up with ? Major disappointment in term of topics. 

[The Thread Killer]

The Renegade might turn out to be pretty sad. Hogan pretty much used that guy to be his fake Ultimate Warrior, then he got tossed aside when he wasn’t any good (like the real deal was?) and he eventually gets released and ends up committing suicide. It’s definitely a sad story.

I remember the Joe vs Necro match vividly, since they basically stiffed the living hell out of each other, but I thought it was a good match and didn’t know there was really any story behind it. I can see them doing an episode on Necro, because you know, he’s nuts.

[JRH]

I am glad that they're focusing on actual wrestlers again, for a time it was looking like a true crime show that just happened to involve wrestlers (ie, the Johnny K9 episode).

[El-P]

Totally forgot that Renegade actually commited suicide, so yeah, that was tragic. But I really totally forgot about Renegade period, if I'm being honest.

And really, I probably will enjoy those TNA episodes. I guess there will be one about Jeff Hardy showing up high as a kite. Hopefully they deal with some serious topic and not turn this into a Conrad podcast episode though.

The issue is that the real interesting topic of the last 25 years won't happen because no one will talk about it, for reasons that don't need to be explain. But it's a shame. It really looks like they're now grasping at straws and doing random episodes about random wrestlers.

[DMJ]

^ Yeah. I think, to us, there's still stories we'd love to see told, but maybe there's not enough "meat on the bone" to really pad out a 42-minute show. 

My dream episode, for example, would be about Ranger Ross, who wasn't really a huge star but ended up committing a series of bank robberies as "The Motorcycle Bandit." Then again, I think that story, embellished and with lots of creative liberties like a thrown-in love story and an of-the-times soundtrack, would make for a tremendous and potentially hilarious movie or TV series. The actual facts of that story might be kinda straight-forward and boring. Plus, again, he wasn't some huge star (though that hasn't stopped them from making episodes about other non-stars either).

I'd also posit that this show was always going to struggle after 2-3 seasons. First, the wider audience is really only interested in the wrestlers they care about (stars), which is why episodes about Savage or Owen or Benoit made sense while an episode on Ranger Ross probably wouldn't work. Second, some stories are so sadly commonplace and unsettling that they're off-putting. For example, Buck Zumhofe. There's just not that much of a story beyond he was a child rapist who was a pro-wrestler. I'm not interested in 42 minutes about that just like I'm not interested in a documentary about any other random child rapist.

[El-P]

Ranger Ross. Now that's a deep fucking cut of a reference ! 😀 Talk about someone who's existence I completely forgot about, even more than the Renegade.

Yeah, I was thinking more about "Ashley Massaro" and "WWE talents being held hostage on a Saudi tarmac".  Ya know, that kinda stuff.

[rainmakerrtv]

Still waiting on that Buzz Sawyer episode. May well wait forever, but I am sure they won't have any shortage of wrestlers willing to talk about what an asshole he was.