PhantomStranger

If anyone loved professional wrestling during the 1980s and 1990s, Dark Side of the Ring is a perfect documentary series airing right now. The first episode covering the ill-fated romance between Miss Elizabeth and Randy Macho Man Savage almost brought me to tears. They often rerun episodes if you check Viceland's late-night schedule.

They use modern interviews with participants and show a ton of old-school wrestling clips to tell the story.

The Questyen

You just described a documentary.

Boondock Saint

Great series. Hopefully there's a Season 2.

JeffTheAlpaca

It is good though I was kind of bored during the Gino Hernandez episode.

Never heard of him and hope they focus more on wrestlers most people know.

Red Hood

We've been discussing this series in the ProWrestling thread over in the Sports forum, and so far my favorite of the bunch has been the Von Erich one, which had a very different tone than the WCCW doc that WWE did around 10 years ago. In this one, the blame on many, if not all of the deaths and downspiral of the family was put on the father, Fritz, who should have known better, but because he was set in his old chauvinistic, old school ways, he kinda screwed everyone's life in that family. That shit of pointing a gun to Kevin's face for no fucking reason was just crazy.

JeffTheAlpaca

What does the extended cut of A Match Made in Heaven Macho Man episode have that was not shown in the episode that aired back in April?

Bill Needle

I was wondering the same. Looks like it is still only an hour long.

PhantomStranger

I think there was a little more interview footage with Brother Love recalling an incident about Miss Elizabeth getting slapped for theatrics and Randy kept telling the other female wrestler it was okay, hit her hard. It was amusing but I could see why it didn't make the initial cut.

dvdjunkie32

So glad to find out the other day that these awesome Vice channel series is coming back. Even if you are not a wrestling fan, it is still a must see as it covers the most controversial and unbelievable stories in the wrestling business.

devilshalo

I understand why the Benoit episode needed two parts (as a lot of part one dealt with Eddie Guerrero) and I'm glad that Jericho was able to give closure to David and Sandra. It is an unfortunate legacy that's forever tarnished.

Part one is on Youtube.. part two is available at Vice.

PhantomStranger

I cannot wait to watch the Benoit episodes. Have them saved on the TIVO.

JeffTheAlpaca

The Benoit episode good stuff

A shame he lost his mind though his head was messed up after Eddie G died and he should have sought help and maybe that tragedy would have been avoided though scary he could get to a place where he can do something so horrific.

Mike86

Posted this in the 2020 Professional Wrestling thread too, but not everyone who posts in this thread does in that one as well so figured I’d share my thoughts here as well.

Part two of Dark Side of the Ring on Benoit was a bit more interesting to me. I know a lot about the Benoit case and have seen so many things on it throughout the years. I knew a lot of what happened already, especially mostly of what was covered in the first part.

There were a few new things in the second part or at least maybe things I’d forgotten. It was interesting hearing from the detective who showed up for the welfare check, the crime scene photos, some of the descriptions as to what was found.

I’m not sure if I remember hearing about a knife being planted under Daniel’s bed. Horrifying how he was killed anyways, but the fact that Chris may have contemplated something more violent is truly sickening.

The text messages were pretty disturbing too. Curious how far back those were before what happened. A lot of people have different sides that come out behind closed doors, and while he may have put on this professional and unassuming face it definitely read like there were a lot of issues just from the few texts shown on screen.

Such a sad incident all around. I think it’s always going to be something haunting as a fan of wrestling, and in particular of his. Like was mentioned in this there are so many unknown factors as to why what happened that night did happen, and it’s unfortunate that he destroyed his legacy and took his family’s life with him in the process while almost completely destroying the business.

RIP Nancy and Daniel. I do miss Chris as a performer, but absolutely hate what happened.

dvdjunkie32

Benoit documentary was so well done. I'm glad we got to see the story through the eyes of David, Chavo, Vickie, Dean, and Nancy's sister. The doc doesn't give us any real conclusions as to why Chris turned into a monster that weekend but I wasn't expecting any. Only God and Chris know why he did it. Some things that stood out to me that I learned that were interesting:

I didn't know Chris took Eddie's death so badly that it damaged his own life

JR being despised at the funeral.

Chris showing interest in researching concussions and brain damage

The chilling internet searches about the story of Elijah and a young boy and fastest way to break your own neck

Also, Jericho described how back in the old days, you had to take a direct hard chair shot to the head. You would just have to grit your teeth, tense up and just take it head one.

JeffTheAlpaca

I wonder why thy could not wait until Smackdown to do a Memorial show?

if they did that that would have given them time to call it off and not memorialize a murderer?

I remember his DVD after it was pulled and people paying $30+ at Ebay

There was a After Dark show with Chavo and Tommy Dreamer discussing this episode.

Mike86

In hindsight the Raw was obviously not deserved, but a tribute show wasn’t an unheard of thing. Same thing happened with Eddie Guerrero when he passed (he died the Sunday before Raw).

The show that was planned for that night would have been inappropriate as it was to be the aftermath of the Mr. McMahon character being blown up in his limo the week prior and was supposed to be a memorial show to the character. I’ll take the word of the people in the WWE that they didn’t know the full circumstances surrounding what had transpired with the Benoit family.

Bruce Prichard was asked by Conrad Thompson on their Something to Wrestle podcast when they knew what really happened and he said it wasn’t until the last half hour of Raw.

JeffTheAlpaca

This show is better than watching wrestling

Sucks Chris Gethard announced the winner of the Brawl for All for the promo for After Dark.

Bart Gunn seems like a cool guy and he got screwed and should have gotten a program with Austin

I would like to see Cornette vs Russo in the ring.

dex14

Yea, last night’s episode was awesome.

devilshalo

Like Corny said.. Bart wasn't anywhere near to where Austin was to start any type of program. I remember the Brawl For All and fans had all thought it was going to be Dr. Death (or Severn) winning. And once they split up Bart and Billy (and Sunny), Bart had no other program because he didn't have the looks or charisma. Much like when they split Michaels and Jannetty. And when they mentioned Butterbean for Wrestlemania, everyone knew he'd get his clock cleaned. And he got buried after that.

I didn't know it was because of JBL that Brawl For All existed. But everything Corny said was spot on. But you can't just blame Russo. Vince is just as responsible.

JeffTheAlpaca

I thought it was automatic whoever won got the program with Austin

I did not watch wrestling in 1999 so did not know about all the stuff you mentioned.

BrewCrew

WWE did mention the winner would face Austin so too bad for Gunn he didn't get one high profile match. Not mentioned in the documentary but an angle with Dr Death and Gunn with Ross turning heel did start a few months before Wrestlemania. However Dr Death got hurt again and it never really went anywhere.

Red Hood

I always though Severn was going to win due to him being an actual MMA fighter and at the top of his game at the time. As the doc showed, Severn quit the tourney since he felt it could ruin his rep but also because the rules were not being enforced as they were supposed to be. Back then I was surprised that Ken Shamrock wasn't in the tournament but the dirt sheets said that he didn't want to take part on it since he was in an upper mid card, almost main event run with the company. Being in the Brawl for All was a step down for him.

Bart Gunn at that point in his career was lower/middle card player but his career had gone downhill since the Smoking Gunns had split. Bart should still have gotten at least a small feud with Stone Cold, but clearly him winning caused Gunn to get heat in the back. At least they could have done something with him, like putting him with a manager to be his spokeperson and push him and see how fans react.

Original Desmond

I don't remember if i ever saw it back in the day, but i did watch the entire Brawl for all yesterday, every match, lucky to find a good quality (not you tube etc) complete copy online

If he didn't get injured, no doubt in my mind, Steve Blackman would have won. He had strong, explosive takedowns, and that was all he was doing. Remember every takedown was 5 points, a knockdown was only 10 points and dominating the punching was worth only 5 points. So 3 or 4 takedowns a round, you win easy. Blackman was working the rules well

I don't think anyone could have stopped Blackman's takedowns

i didnt really discover anything new in this Dark side of the ring episode

It was shoot contest, the favourite didn't win, lots of injuries, winner didn't get the push that was promised, nothing really out of the ordinary

The winners of Hells Kitchen never properly gets the prize promised

Cornette's reactions were over the top, it wasn't that bad. No one forced anyone to compete

I found the Brawl for all quite entertaining overall.

JeffTheAlpaca

I guess nobody that wrestled Snuka or in his era believes he committed murder.

I missed him when I got into wrestling around 1986-1990 or maybe he was out of the WWE by that time.

PhantomStranger

Having not kept up with wrestling in recent years, I had no idea Superfly actually went to trial for the murder a few years ago before dying. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine had some interesting things to say on the aftershow, explaining how Vince McMahon paid $80,000 to get Snuka out of trouble when he was caught in Israel with drugs at the airport.