Dark Side of the Ring returned for episode two of season three this week with Nick Gage as its subject. Despite having been in the business for the better part of two decades, there's a very real chance you have never heard of Gage. That's because he has dedicated his life to deathmatch wrestling. A niche corner of the business in which some of its most violent matches take place.

This week's episode begins with a very brief introduction to the deathmatch scene for Dark Side fans who might not be all that familiar with it. One of the most prominent names to emerge from it in the west is Jon Moxley, who appears frequently during this episode. Both he and Gage explain that deathmatch wrestling isn't about the money, especially since it pays very poorly. It's about a love for the art.

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Seven Minutes In Heaven

After that intro, viewers are plunged right into what might well be the scariest moment of Gage's very scary career. Gage comes up against a German wrestler named Thumbtack Jack in CZW's Tournament of Death in 2009. The ring is surrounded by what is effectively a wall of light tubes, and Gage is thrown through that wall very early on. It is immediately evident something has gone very wrong as blood pours out of Gage's side.

Gage is taken away from the ring, at which point Moxley cuts in and explains if Gage is walking away, you know it's bad. Footage is shown of Gage asking the nurse to tape him up and let him go back. That doesn't happen, and on his way to the hospital, Gage dies for a full seven minutes. Even that doesn't stop him from continuing his craft, or even slowing down.

nick gage in czw
via Dark Side of the Ring

The doc then goes all the way back to the start as Gage explains what got him into the business. He recalls discovering deathmatches, watching Mick Foley and Terry Funk tear each other apart in Japan. That evolves into a love of ECW, and then eventually CZW where he would eventually compete on a regular basis. He and his brother start their own backyard wrestling show, the clips of which demonstrate Gage's love of the deathmatch really does stem from his childhood.

Cue the next clip that might want to make some viewers look away. In another CZW match, Gage is shown pouring gasoline over a table before he and another wrestler go crashing through it, once it has been set alight, of course. Gage explains he was told to stop, drop, and roll, but points to the clip and argues that tactic doesn't really work. The fire doesn't go out until Gage removes his shirt, by which point he is badly burned.

Jail, Drugs, And Deathmatch Wrestling

As you might have guessed by this point, deathmatch wrestling comes with a lot of pain. Pain that doesn't disappear when you go home at the end of the day. Like so many before him in the business, Gage turns to pain medication to help him through and develops an addiction. The trouble is, pain meds are expensive, and as touched upon above, deathmatch wrestling doesn't pay too well. Gage makes the switch to the cheaper but far more scary option of heroin to help manage his pain.

His addiction coupled with the death of his mom leads to Gage's life spiraling out of control. In an act of desperation to help ease his financial woes, after finding himself on the verge of homelessness, he robs a bank. Since the act was very much a spur-of-the-moment decision, Gage was ill-prepared. He may have escaped with an unspecified amount of money, but multiple cameras clearly catch him in the act. Moxley jokes that Gage almost always wears a mask to the ring, yet when he robbed a bank, he went without.

After a week of spending the money he had stolen in Atlantic City, Gage calls his friend and says he is ready to turn himself in. He is sentenced to five years in prison, of which he serves four. Upon release, the same friend who helped him turn himself in has started GCW. He kicks the promotion off with the Nick Gage invitational. However, it isn't too long before Gage finds himself back in prison.

Gage is required by law to take a drug test. The wrestler attempts to falsify that test by using someone else's urine. After being caught out, Gage returns to jail for two more years. By the time he gets out, GCW is in full swing and he gets a hero's welcome when he returns to the wrestling scene.

You Cannot Kill David Arquette

Then comes the part of the doc teased at the start and perhaps the most infamous moment of Gage's career, which is really saying something considering everything else he has done. If you had heard of Gage before today, it was probably because of this match. His deathmatch with David Arquette. The doc gives a quick recap of the time Arquette won the WCW Title 21 years ago, and also Arquette explaining that he wanted to make up for that and prove to wrestling fans he's not a joke.

The actor thought a deathmatch, which he admits to knowing little about at the time, would be the perfect way to do that. To show fans how tough he is. Arquette went for dinner with Gage the night before at which point the seasoned pro tried to make it clear what he was getting himself into. That there would be a lot of blood and pain. Arquette said he understood and asked that Gage not cut him on purpose, but that he knew he would bleed.

nick gage wresting david arquette
via All Elbows

Cut to the match, the highlights of which are shown in the doc, and things get out of hand, fast. It is clear that Arquette is very much out of his depth very quickly. Gage ties him up in the ropes and uses a pizza cutter to slice open Arquette's head, even shoving it in his mouth. Arquette is already mad at this point, and probably pretty scared. But the worst was yet to come.

Gage smashes a light tube over Arquette's head which slices the actor's neck. Arquette is then shown jumping on Gage and pinning him down by his neck. As Chris Jericho says in the narration, Arquette's neck would become one of the most talked-about things in wrestling at the time. While Gage claims the cut wasn't that bad, he pins Arquette to the mat and tells him to stay down or, well, things will get even worse.

The episode comes to an end with Gage's life taking yet another dark turn, but one that doesn't appear to have driven him off the rails like it might have done in the past. His brother killed himself by jumping off a bridge. A bridge Gage has to look at every single time he leaves his house. The closing minutes of the doc show Gage admitting he knows he will die young, but he is okay with it. Moxley hypes him up one last time, claiming Vince McMahon would kill to have someone with the connection Gage has to his fans under a WWE contract.

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