Do we really not have a thread on this? If so, feel free to merge or take down, but I figured if not then we definitely should.

Favorite episode so far? Any topic that hasn't been touched upon yet that you believe should be? I'm absolutely enamored with this series and feel it's something we've all needed for a very, very long time. Specifically for me, I knew very little about Dino Bravo going into his episode only to find myself scouring for his matches on Youtube after the fact (we were robbed of Bravo vs. Hogan, btw) and learning more about my favorite 70's/80's wrestler - Bruiser Brody - was a gem as well.

Has anyone been keeping up with the series as of late? Thoughts so far?

There was a thread for the Benoit episode, but it's been buried by a number of party posts.

pwcom.proboards.com/thread/2864/dark-side-ring-benoit-1

It's well put together and it's a nice reference point for newer fans. I don't think it really brings anything new to the table for hardcore fans, but it's a nice refresher course and usually a nice excuse to re-examine events like Montreal. I'm surprised by the amount of Bret screwed Bret fans out there.

The Owen Hart episode also inspired me to read a bunch of Hart family books and watch the Owen Hart WWE DVD. What I like about that is that by participating in the documentary, Martha has found a way to celebrate Owen's career without allowing the WWE to profit off of it.

The first episode of Season 3 is available and it's the first part of the Brian Pillman story. It covers all the main beats of his life and career before he ends up signing with the WWF. It's a really truncated story and they basically cover everything leading up to the Loose Cannon in 10 minutes. His early struggles with his health, somehow against all odds making it into the Bengals squad only to do his ankle, getting into Stampede Wrestling and the Hollywood Blondes.

Then it pivots into his personal life and that's when the story gets really interesting. I never really read into Brian's personal life before, I knew he was with somebody before Melanie but didn't realise he had two daughters with two different women going into the relationship or the drama surrounding his first wife, Rochelle. The episode really paints her in an innocent life while it doesn't hold any punches when it comes to Melanie who is in really rough shape. I don't think anyone realised how bad the drama was with her until Brian Jr spoke about his relationship with her in a couple of podcast interviews.

The star of the episode is Ken Wood, Brian's former strength and conditioning coach at the Bengels who acted as a mentor to Brian. He just has so many quality one liners and really just tells it how it is.

I thought they round up all the right guests here. Outside of his family you get Austin, JR, Bischoff, Cornette and Meltzer who really does a good job of giving the smark opinion of the time.

I'm pretty sure the second part will cover his run in the WWF, his death and basically what happened with his family afterwards which is going to be really interesting because we've only really heard hints of what happened to the Pillman family.

Watching the Pillman thing now, and just saw the preview for the rest of the season. They are going to do Nick Gage. Suggest everyone watch that episode as Gage's story is utterly unreal. His comeback is one of the strangest things I seen in wrestling.  Set to air next week.  

Gage legit is one of the toughest SOB in wrestling.  His injury at ToD is one of the sickest things I seen in wrestling.  Putting a towel on the wound and seeing it go from dry to instantly dripping blood was unreal.

May 4, 2021 5:57:54 GMT c said:

Watching the Pillman thing now, and just saw the preview for the rest of the season. They are going to do Nick Gage. Suggest everyone watch that episode as Gage's story is utterly unreal. His comeback is one of the strangest things I seen in wrestling.  Set to air next week.  

Gage legit is one of the toughest SOB in wrestling.  His injury at ToD is one of the sickest things I seen in wrestling.  Putting a towel on the wound and seeing it go from dry to instantly dripping blood was unreal.

Ya know I think when he got busted is when I was in peak CZW mode so it was very disappointing to read that. And then my sympathies went to laughing to someone tweeting he wrestles in a mask but robs a bank showing his full face.

Still I loved him during that period, will check this out if I remember.

Second part of the Pillman documentary was pretty tough to sit through. It covers his run in the WWF and it's portrayed as somebody who was in really no shape to perform but was taking all these crazy bumps just to stay in a job. A lot of his personal relationships begin to break down which is a shame because Kim Wood's contribution to the piece pretty much ends with him shutting the door in Pillman's face when he showed up to his house and acted belligerant.

The RAW interview with Melanie is still really lousy all these years later. My perception of it was that Vince was just checking in which was a lousy thing in of itself but the line of questioning like asking about how she's going to provide for the family before they've even buried him is just so cold.

We didn't get too much detail about the aftermath. Going in I thought it'd be 10 minutes on Brian's run and death and 30 on the family. It was really the other way around and basically Melanie spiralled and the kids suffered as a result. Fortunately Brian's sister, their aunt has always been there for them so they have somebody to look out for them. It appears that Brian Jr is reconciling with Melanie which is nice. Just like the 1997 interview on RAW I can't help but feel bad for her in this because she comes off so poorly.

I think the part that hurt watching it was Brian Jr admitting that kids would make fun of him because he sucked so hard at sports. Nobody taught him how to catch a football or baseball. The one passion he had was gaming and even then his step-father broke that just to put him in his place. It's especially sad because if nothing else, Brian Sr for all the dysfunction was a good father and had he lived a full life you just know Jr would have excelled athletically.

Regardless it's a strong start to the season and well worth checking out to one of HoW's favourites.

The Nick Gage episode provided an interesting insight into a cult superstar who made a name for himself as an outlaw. The one thing that Darkside of the Ring does a good job of is highlighting who these gypies, tramps and thieves are as people and that's by highlighting their family life. In this instance above all the crazy light tube pizza-cutter artery tearing wrestling, Gage is a momma's boy and his mom was his whole world. Even when he was going around and working all these insane stunts he'd still find time to participate in all these breast cancer awareness campaigns just to pay his respect to his mother while she was still alive.

They also highlighted his relationship to his brother and fellow wrestler Justice Pain who died early last year. Justice was presented as the brother who had his life together and had little to do with Gage as he got into drugs and even worked an important CZW match high. However tragically Justice fell on hard times, his mental health waned and he turned to substance abuse himself. It's one of those deals where it could have just as easily been Gage but despite the train wreck of his life, Gage somehow carved out this niche for himself.

They briefly touch on the rise of CZW as this even tougher more psychotic version of ECW. Jon Moxley told a great story about how Gage pulled a Pizza Cutter on him and without any sort of consent starting blading him and cutting his mouth up with the cutter. Moxley was really good in this as one of talking heads and explaining what made Nick Gage such a stand out personality deserving of a documentary.

They go to the story where Nick Gage died while working a Death Match. One of the light tubes cut open an artery and despite wanting to finish the match, he was quickly rushed onto a helicopter and died while in the air only to be ressusitated 10 minutes later. They showed off some of his stunts and how it eventually led to him having no money becoming homeless and getting hooked on opiates. They then touch on the bank robbery where he was so desperate he robbed a bank without wearing a mask, went to Atlantic City, blew the money before turning himself in and serving 4 years in jail. He then served another 2 years for violating his parole not long after.

Eventually he straightened himself out, got into career best shape and capitilised on his stint and used it to form a connection with the crowd. I thought the doco did as much to promote the GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale who despite having some serious issues with Gage did everything to promote him as a star. This led to the David Arquette fiasco where Arquette got his neck sliced open which I thought was presented in the documentary as merely a phopa on Gage's behalf.

I think I enjoyed the episode more than I would have simply because I really don't know Gage's story. I just knew him as the CZW guy who robbed a bank, cut Arquette open and now he does all this BLM with. A lot of the CZW stuff is foreign territory for me so it was nice to get some more insight into it even if it was just a brief snippet.

Gage is the Henry Rollins of wrestling. He is always on or off with no half-messages and always super intense. Mox said there is no difference between Gage in the ring and Gage out of the ring.

Here is something to think of. EVERY SINGLE guy he worked with at the start of CZW retired. He worked the greats, as they came into wrestling and he is still working after they retire.

This is the Gage I absolutely love. I love his shoot interviews as he is brutally honest.

Not in this doc, but after the matches if Gage did hurt people he would be super apological Mox said in another shoot thing. Said Mox loved working when Gage when he was in the mood, as Gage would get excited, and he would get excited and it was like working with no one else. But he also said Gage sometimes gets too into things and he would have to beat on him legit at times to calm him down, but nothing he did to Gage he ever took personally.

Really happy to see Gage getting respect now. His life was awful for a while but since he went clean, he seen a new Gage that is oddly positive. I remember seeing a video of him, the fucking portrait of an American redneck, telling the crowd if they have a problem with trans people to get the fuck out of his shows, and he will fuck them up if they have a problem with that. The whole MDK thing is one of the most passionate fandoms I ever seen. They fucking love him and he is so psyched to have them.

Watching this now and they toned down the ToD stuff. It took a few minutes to get him to the back and you could just see the blood pooling everywhere. It was awful. Can't think of a worse ToD moment offhand. Was worse than Blood's cut, was worse than Eddie's cut.

Really cool to see Gage talk about what he loves in wrestling. Saw another shoot interview from him and it was the same stuff. Dude loves wrestling and loves it on a different level than most guys.

Fuck, may be super slow, never realized Justice Pain was his brother. I knew they tagged in the expanded H8 Club but did not know they legit were brothers. Always thought it was metaphoric when he talked about his brother. This makes his career that much more tragic with Pain's suicide. There was a time when Pain was the top guy in CZW. I remember the H8 club dead match with Pain vs Gage. It was nasty. Very sloppy, very fast, and very weird. Gage dropped a shitload of weight and you could really see how bad he was doing based on his looks. He also got really shitty in the ring.  

The doc does revise history a bit.  Gage was on drugs from nearly the start of CZW as everyone was taking pills to get through the shows back then.  Which is why so many from that era are also dead.  Every show had barbwire, tubes and tacks if it was allowed.  This is how Gage outlast everyone, the pills took so many workers out of CZW.  Gage when he went to jail had to get clean, most other guys did not have to.  They became addicts until they could not wrestle anymore.  Or you got psychos like Mondo and Thumbtack that never used them and had explosive careers that lasted only a few years.


Was awesome to see that his reform was because of fan mail.  I did not know that.  Explains the MDK stuff.  I knew he had a lot of fans, but did not realize so many stayed loyal while he was in prison.  I love he does not try to hide his mistakes and that he went back to jail cheating on his drug test.  In a weird way, Gage did need to go back to learn he could never lapse again.  Heartwarming to see him still tear up a bit talking about MDK.

Arquette is a crazy fucker but should have never faced Gage.  Gage is a different type of guy.  But no one else would have let Arquette literally do any spot he wanted, do matter how dangerous, to them.  Arquette fucked Gage up a bit for real after he got cut legit just bashing him with random shit out of nowhere.  Gage did his best too to end the match once he saw Arquette was freaking out.  But Gage was Gage during the match, and Arquette knew what he was getting into.  Being so beat up I still have not met Arquette when he is around, so do not know if he is keyfabing shit here or not.  I know he likes to keep keyfabe to some extent being an old school style guy.  Know Anthony works with him a lot tagging or feuding with him in this region.

Great doc overall.  Gage's story is one that is so unique and fascinating.  It is the ultimate story of redemption.  I wish they covered how controversial him supporting black rights or trans rights was in these circles though.  He legit is a good guy.

May 14, 2021 16:21:32 GMT Big Pete said:

I think I enjoyed the episode more than I would have simply because I really don't know Gage's story. I just knew him as the CZW guy who robbed a bank, cut Arquette open and now he does all this BLM with. A lot of the CZW stuff is foreign territory for me so it was nice to get some more insight into it even if it was just a brief snippet.

The story of CZW is weird as it is basically like there are three factions of booking fighting for control over the years.  One of them watches the most intense deathmatches you can have and only wants to do that.  Then you got another one who wants the most innovative shit there is, and is looking for the next big guys to break them out in the US.  Then you have a traditional booker who just wants a balanced products.  So over the years the product goes through extreme waves.  One year you could have Gage, Mondo, Zandig and Lobo as the top of the card, then the next see Low Ki, Briscoes, SAT's, ect leading the card.  Then the next year Stein, Generic, Super Dragon, Hero and Kingston.  But it seems to swap around in extremes where a whole group of guys is in or out.  It is like CZW has no idea what it wants to be.  It goes through phases of all hardcore and deathmatches, then no hardcore and deathmatches.  It wants to do respectable wrestling sometimes, then goes to trash TV the next show.  Inconsistent is the name of the game for CZW really.  It really has started to hurt them, as it is hard to get the fans to really care about anyone when you never know what CZW you will see month to month.

I think during 07-12 CZW may have been my favorite of the major indies. Just seeing Drake, Mox, Cole and Ego rise up was a treat as a fan.

For people who liked this, Kenny Johnson on Youtube has done some good docs on Hardcore wrestlers. Matt Tremont's is full length and pretty good since he is such a weird dude. He is a super cool guy that is the polar opposite of Gage outside of the ring, but a fucking psychopath inside of it. Met him at a show when he was coming or still training and he was one of the nicest guys I met. We chatted a lot about CZW and FMW since he loved Pogo and Kudo. Was neat to later see him become a star later in CZW.


Matt Tremont amazing full length doc:




Two more great ones.

Joey Janela's crazy ass including doing the roof bump that ended Mondo's career:




Tim Donst's flash retirement and return:

The Tremont one was pretty brutal to me as I did not know Havoc died

I haven’t yet watched any of them from season 3 (running a little behind on the A&E biographies too) but a few weeks ago I finally sat through the Von Erichs episode. I mean I knew that there were a lot of Von Erichs and that they were mostly dead, but I never really dug in because my only experience with the family was Kerry as the Texas Tornado. Holy hell that doc is one gut punch after another after another. Oof.

I’m pretty hit or miss on the series as a whole. There’s only so much “this guy was ducking crazy” and “it’s really too bad he’s dead” that I want mixed in with my wrestling fandom.

Well after Ep3 ... I can confirm Deathmatch wrestling is still stupid and Nick Gage is an unlikable douchebag.

May 18, 2021 12:15:06 GMT c said:

The Tremont one was pretty brutal to me as I did not know Havoc died

Damn that was recent too. Wiki doesn't shed much light on it, so could it be suicide after losing his wife? I assumed drugs because death match indy guy, but...

Is it in the doc?

Edit:  Was wrong his wife had the heart attack.  So likely suicide / accidental overdose if no cause of death is listed.

May 18, 2021 19:26:59 GMT UT said:

Well after Ep3 ... I can confirm Deathmatch wrestling is still stupid and Nick Gage is an unlikable douchebag.

Most deathmatch guys can walk after their careers.  Many guys who worked only a "safe" style are now cripples.  Some may not like it but give me a choice, I will let a guy cut me with a pizza cutter over taking a backdrop any day.  

May 18, 2021 21:59:32 GMT c said:

May 18, 2021 19:26:59 GMT UT said:

Well after Ep3 ... I can confirm Deathmatch wrestling is still stupid and Nick Gage is an unlikable douchebag.

Most deathmatch guys can walk after their careers.  Many guys who worked only a "safe" style are now cripples.  Some may not like it but give me a choice, I will let a guy cut me with a pizza cutter over taking a backdrop any day.  

What about an APJW-style head drop?

May 18, 2021 22:07:43 GMT 🤯 said:

May 18, 2021 21:59:32 GMT c said:

Most deathmatch guys can walk after their careers.  Many guys who worked only a "safe" style are now cripples.  Some may not like it but give me a choice, I will let a guy cut me with a pizza cutter over taking a backdrop any day.  

What about an APJW-style head drop?

@misawa thoughts?

May 18, 2021 22:27:16 GMT @ness said:

May 18, 2021 22:07:43 GMT 🤯 said:

What about an APJW-style head drop?

@misawa thoughts?

Kobasbi his ass.

May 18, 2021 21:59:32 GMT c said:

May 18, 2021 19:26:59 GMT UT said:

Well after Ep3 ... I can confirm Deathmatch wrestling is still stupid and Nick Gage is an unlikable douchebag.

Most deathmatch guys can walk after their careers.  Many guys who worked only a "safe" style are now cripples.  Some may not like it but give me a choice, I will let a guy cut me with a pizza cutter over taking a backdrop any day.  

Yeah that’s why the aforementioned poster boy died in a match and then got hooked on pain killers and heroin. Not that it doesn’t happen in the big leagues either but it’s hardly the “safe” choice.

Though maybe Daniel Bryan is out there robbing banks to feed his addiction and we just don’t know.

I think I'd rather wrestle like Honky Tonk Man, whether or not it involved making 1987 HTM money.

May 19, 2021 0:53:54 GMT UT said:

May 18, 2021 21:59:32 GMT c said:

Most deathmatch guys can walk after their careers.  Many guys who worked only a "safe" style are now cripples.  Some may not like it but give me a choice, I will let a guy cut me with a pizza cutter over taking a backdrop any day.  

Yeah that’s why the aforementioned poster boy died in a match and then got hooked on pain killers and heroin. Not that it doesn’t happen in the big leagues either but it’s hardly the “safe” choice.

Though maybe Daniel Bryan is out there robbing banks to feed his addiction and we just don’t know.

I guess you are right.  Bryan is not Benoiting anyone...

May 14, 2021 20:12:47 GMT @ness said:

I think during 07-12 CZW may have been my favorite of the major indies. Just seeing Drake, Mox, Cole and Ego rise up was a treat as a fan.

Wait the QAnon ref from NXT is considered a CZW Hall of Famer :rofl:




:rofl: I know Cornette shits all over him and considers him in the same mold as Jelly Janela, Ian Rotten and Jimmy Havoc.

May 18, 2021 19:26:59 GMT UT said:

Well after Ep3 ... I can confirm Deathmatch wrestling is still stupid and Nick Gage is an unlikable douchebag.

I liked it for what it was but I still question how in the world did David Arquette think working with a guy who served 7 years in jail was a good idea to earn wrestling creditability :lol:

May 19, 2021 4:32:10 GMT Blindy said:

May 18, 2021 19:26:59 GMT UT said:

Well after Ep3 ... I can confirm Deathmatch wrestling is still stupid and Nick Gage is an unlikable douchebag.

I liked it for what it was but I still question how in the world did David Arquette think working with a guy who served 7 years in jail was a good idea to earn wrestling creditability

He had a documentary to sell and he saw The Wrestler one too many times.

He thought he was getting Necro Butcher...he got Nick Gage.

May 19, 2021 1:16:38 GMT 🤯 said:

I think I'd rather wrestle like Honky Tonk Man, whether or not it involved making 1987 HTM money.

He’s cool, he’s cocky, he’s 🤯

Arquette is actually super passionate about wrestling. My worked with him a lot in NEW.


And yeah, Drake Younger/Wuertz is a very well known deathmatch guy.  He was the KotDM and Ted Petty Invitational in IWA-MS and Best of the Best and ToD in CZW.  Made it to the semis in one of the Battle for Los Angeles in PWG as well.

When WWE got him he was one of the top unsigned guys.

May 19, 2021 13:49:56 GMT c said:

Arquette is actually super passionate about wrestling. My worked with him a lot in NEW.


And yeah, Drake Younger/Wuertz is a very well known deathmatch guy.

Your... What?

And New like RT's OG FF?

I'm so confused/intrigued.