Kyle Dillon of Smark to Death sat down with Evan Husney and Jason Eisener, the producers of Dark Side of the Ring to discuss how Dark Side of the Ring came to exist, what sets this series apart from other documentaries, their unique approach to the Montreal Screw Job, and more. You can download or listen to the show in full at this link, and check out submitted highlights below.
What sets Dark Side of the ring apart
“With the Montreal screwjob story, we’re huge fans of Wrestling With Shadows and the way we engineered the full series, obviously we’re hardcore wrestling fans, we’ve been fans our whole lives. We wanted to engineer this series to be accessible to people that aren’t fans of wrestling. What we wanted to do for a new generation to show just how dynamic and interesting and singular and bizarre the world of wrestling is. Almost like, this is the type of wrestling show a fan can show their friends or significant others to help them understand the thing that you love.” - Evan
“Those are always some of our favorite compliments is when wrestling fans tell us they showed their loved ones and they become addicted to it. That’s one of the big reasons to do this show. We do the same thing, when you meet a non-wrestling fan you show them your favorite matches, some of the most emotional moments in wrestling.” - Jason
On how to approach the screwjob:
“With the Montreal Screwjob, there’s definitely fatigue around that story in terms of the hardcore wrestling fan, but for people like my dad or people that watch Viceland it is a super important story that kinda is the best entry point for a non-wrestling fan and how the backstage function, the backstage politics, how matches are orchestrated, what the stakes of that are ya know, it’s not just people going out and doing a bunch of ga-ga for the sake of it, and how important it is to be a champion. Really it’s to educate people on how that functions and it’s a perfect lead in to the other episodes.
We wanted to approach it at a different angle. One of them, which some people take an issue with, is the idea that here’s what happened, but also people still can’t agree on how this thing went down. It’s always interesting to me and it’s also fascinating to us that there are so many people that wanna take credit for this incidence, but they don’t wanna take credit at the same time.” - Evan
