Dark Side of the Ring, VICE’s hit pro wrestling documentary series, is finally returning with a fourth season on May 30. Premiering back in May 2019, the show covered a wide variety of tragic stories from the pro wrestling industry ranging from the deaths of Bruiser Brody, Gorgeous Gino and Brian Pillman to the Chris Benoit double murder-suicide to WWE’s “Plane Ride From Hell” and Steroid Trials. The third season concluded in October 2021 and reports that the series had been canceled began circulating after a new season wasn’t announced for 2022.
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But executive producers Jason Eisener and Evan Husney confirmed the show’s return in a new interview with Variety on Tuesday. Topics featured in this season will include, “the emotional rollercoaster of one of wrestling’s most captivating and controversial couples, Chris Candido and Tammy ‘Sunny’ Sytch, the car accident that derailed the career of future World Champion Magnum T.A., wrestling’s most unhinged monster, Abdullah the Butcher, a focused look on the troubled life of Marty Jannetty, Shawn Michaels’ former tag team partner, and much more.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to our viewers for giving this show the life that it has had for the past 4 years,” Husney and Eisener told the outlet. “As lifelong fans of professional wrestling, our subjects continue to inspire us. There are so many fascinating and compelling stories left to tell and it’s a privilege to share more of them in our fourth season.”
“As the WWE sale works towards a close, Vice TV remains the leading chronicler of wrestling in America.” Morgan Hertzan, president of Global TV for Vice Media Group, added. “I’m cheering from the ropes to announce the return of ‘Dark Side of the Ring,’ as proven this show and its spinoffs have been incredibly successful for the network and insightful to produce, now someone tag me in!”
Husney spoke with the Two-Man Power Trip Podcast late last year and shot down the rumor that WWE attempted to get the series canceled, as it often didn’t portray the company and Vince McMahon in a flattering light.
“It was some rumor about how WWE was putting pressure on A&E to not air our shows and it could be too controversial, so they were going to cancel it. VICE would never do that because it’s their most successful show,” Husney said. “If Dark Side wasn’t successful, I could see not doing another season. It was this weird thing where, yeah, season three had some controversial moments, I could see where people put two and two together, we see that happen every day in the wrestling news cycle of people guessing with the rumor mill and speculating what one thing means and two things are similar, you put it together and you have a story. That’s how our news cycle works. I totally understand how people come to that conclusion. 99.9% of the time of anything, any conspiracy, is always the most boring answer or reason. In this case, the boring answer is that we just made another show for a second.”
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Photo Courtesy of Netflix
