For fans of wrestling, VICE's Dark Side of The Ring is a mixture of intrigue and sadness. Covering the tragedies in wrestling's history, this documentary series tackled new topics every week, with interviews from the people closest to the subject. While many of the topics are tragic, they are interesting dives into subjects that, oftentimes, don't get enough attention.
Season two of Dark Side of The Ring has wrapped up, and now that audiences have had some time to digest what they saw, let's highlight some of the biggest revelations from the show.
10 Owen Hart's Words To Bret After The Screwjob
The Montreal Screwjob is one of the most infamous moments in WWE history. Unwilling to give up his title to Shawn Michaels, WWE Champion Bret Hart went into Survivor Series 1997 thinking he would relinquish the belt the next night on Raw. Vince McMahon had other plans, and when The Heartbreak Kid put Hart into the Sharpshooter, McMahon signaled for the match to end. Livid, Hart spat on McMahon and signaled WCW at the camera while his friends and family came out in his defense.
Owen Hart was one of the people to come to the ring and was seen on camera saying something to his brother. During the final episode of season two, titled "The Final Days of Owen Hart," Owen's wife, Martha Hart, Ph.D., revealed that the youngest member of the Hart family told Bret that he still has his family and a lot of money in the bank.
9 The Godfather Didn't Like Pimps
While the second season of Dark Side of The Ring was bookended by two of wrestling's greatest tragedies, the middle episodes looked into some of the most fascinating stories in the history of the business. Episode four, simply titled "Brawl For All," was about one of the weirdest, nonsensical booking decisions in WWE history, which just happens to be the episode's namesake. While the story really focuses on how this real-life fighting tournament ruined the career of its winner, one man stood out as a fascinating member of the cast — The Godfather.
Going deep into the tournament, The Godfather provided a lot of insight into what was going on backstage, but what really stood out was his history with pimps. Before his time as a wrestler, Charles Wright worked as a bouncer at a strip club. He admitted to hating pimps and even said he would smack any who came into his place of work. Pretty ironic, considering his gimmick later in life.
8 Dino Bravo's Retirement Plan
For most of his adult life, Dino Bravo was one of the most famous wrestlers to ever come from his native home of Quebec, Canada. Yet, that may have resulted in his early passing. With nearly 20 years of experience under his belt, Bravo, who became a star in WWE, was starting to wind down his career in his 40s.
The issue, however, was that Bravo had no experience in anything else. Afraid of being financially insecure, Bravo looked to his uncle — by marriage — Vic Cotroni, who just happened to be the head of a crime family in Montreal. A year after his retirement, however, he was found dead.
7 Road Warrior Animal Quit Wrestling
The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom are arguably the most dominant tag-team ever. Consisting of Animal and Hawk, the duo won championships in every major promotion around the world, but it almost didn't happen. Episode nine, titled "The Last Ride of The Road Warriors," focused on the duo and the only remaining member of the team's original incarnation, Animal, revealed he actually quit.
It turns out, their early gimmick made them look more like the Villiage People than wrestlers, and Animal wasn't making nearly as much money as he was as a bouncer. So, he quit and went home. Thankfully, he was talked back into giving it another go, and the rest was history.
6 David Schultz's Post-Wrestling Career
As one of the most dastardly heels of his time, David Schultz was known as a loose cannon who could have taken the championship off of Hulk Hogan if things played out differently. However, after assaulting a reporter who asked him if wrestling was fake, his career was essentially over.
While he wasn't fired outright, Schultz was eventually let go, and the controversy surrounding him made it difficult to find work. Consequently, he became a bounty hunter, something he was really good at.
5 Jimmy Snuka Couldn't Read
Titled "Jimmy Snuka and The Death of Nancy," episode five of the season looks at one of the most popular wrestlers of his era, the death of his girlfriend, Nancy, and the trial regarding her death that did not see a conclusion until decades later. An interesting tidbit from this episode, however, was that Snuka could not read.
In fact, he signed contracts without knowing what they said. Interestingly enough, the episode mentioned that Vince McMahon assured Snuka that everything regarding the contract would be taken care of, and the wrestler trusted his boss enough to sign on the dotted line.
4 The Possible New Jack Stabbing Angle
Known as one of the most controversial wrestlers ever, New Jack was the subject of episode three of season two. Fans got a look into his upbringing, rise to fame, the "Mass Transit Incident" — where the wrestler bloodied a minor in an official ECW match — and more. One interesting take away from all of this, however, was the second in-ring controversy surrounding the star.
In 2004, far past the height of his popularity, New Jack appeared in a match for Thunder Wrestling Federation in Florida. He took on Jason Lane, but partway through the match, he pulled out a knife and stabbed the wrestler nine times. New Jack was taken to jail, but Lane later found him and told him he would drop the charges if New Jack agreed to tour around the state with him and turn the newsworthy story into a wrestling angle. New Jack agreed, was released, and left the state immediately.
3 The Reason Behind Brawl For All
Wrestling fans often wondered why WWE would even think about booking a real-life fighting tournament. Well, it turns out then-WWE writer Vince Russo overheard John Bradshaw Layfield telling the locker room that he would beat them in legitimate fights if he was given the chance.
Disgusted in the display of arrogance, Russo pitched the idea to Vince McMahon with the hope of seeing Layfield getting knocked out.
2 Chris Jericho Reunited David Benoit & His Aunt
The season premiere of Dark Side of The Ring focused on arguably the worst tragedy in wrestling history — the final days of Chris Benoit. This entry will not go into the details of the story because it's horrible and odds are most people are aware of the situation.
With that said, a lot was revealed in the two episodes dedicated to this topic. Audiences learned that in the months following the incident, Sandra Toffoloni, Nancy Benoit's sister, and the surviving child of the former WWE star were separated by their families. That all changed when Chris Jericho spoke to both of them on separate occasions and helped them meet each other after more than a decade. Viewers see the intimate moment, which took place at an AEW event, where the two see each other and embrace.
1 Owen Hart's Safety Latch/His Last Words
"The Final Days of Owen Hart" is a hard episode to sit through for WWE fans. At the Over The Edge pay-per-view, Hart was scheduled to repel from the rafters as the Blue Blazer, but something went wrong and Hart fell to his death. Legendary manager, booker, and everything between, Jim Cornette spoke about the incident with tears in his eyes, saying "when Owen was falling, everybody that was there said the last thing that he yelled was 'Look Out!"
Speaking with Owen's widow, Martha Hart, Ph.D., the documentary showed how she dug into what happened that night and eventually filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company. She found that the latch Owen used was not intended for a stunt of this nature, which resulted in it unhooking too early.