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Ahead of the new season of Dark Side of the Ring season seven, I sat down for an extended interview with series creator and producer Evan Husney. Here is part three of the conversation related to the forthcoming Big Bossman episode and more.
Mike Johnson: Obviously, we've got Season 7 coming up. There are a lot of interesting episodes that have already been announced: Big Boss Man, Paul Orndorff...Other than the Jeff Jarrett episodes—and I don't know how far along you were when I watched the screeners—is there one episode you're especially excited for people to see? Maybe one you're even more excited about than the TNA story?
Evan Husney: We're actually completely finished with the season now, which is a luxury.
Mike Johnson: You're way ahead of the game, then.
Evan Husney: We never are. This is the first season where everything has been completed before the premiere, and I can actually sit back and watch the episodes on television. Every previous season, we've literally been delivering episodes only days before they aired. That's always terrifying because there's absolutely no margin for error. This year, everything finally came together. As far as the episodes go...The Big Boss Man episode is a very personal one for me. I have so many childhood memories wrapped up in that character. Big Boss Man was actually the first wrestler I ever became a fan of. He was my gateway into professional wrestling.
Mike Johnson: Oh, wow.
Evan Husney: Yeah.
Mike Johnson: Roddy Piper was that guy for me, but Boss Man was always a tremendous performer.
Evan Husney: It probably says something about my age. I think I was five or six years old. My parents came home from Toys "R" Us one day. They knew I liked dressing up as police officers and soldiers, so they saw the Big Boss Man Hasbro figure on the shelf and thought I'd probably like it. I remember looking at it—the bright blue and yellow colors—and thinking it was the coolest toy I'd ever seen. I asked them who he was. They explained WWF, Hulk Hogan, and all of that. I grew up in Minneapolis, so there were plenty of opportunities to see wrestling live. Eventually we went to our first WWF house show. Big Boss Man was on the card. From that point forward, I was hooked. So I have a tremendous personal connection to that character. Honestly, I'm surprised it took us this long to tell Ray Traylor's story. It really came down to reaching out to his family. Thankfully, they were fans of our work. They were incredibly supportive and excited to help preserve Ray's legacy. They had saved so much memorabilia. His nightstick. His gear. All kinds of personal items. That was really special. They're wonderful people.
It's definitely one of the saddest episodes this season, along with Paul Orndorff's story. Making episodes like that reconnects you with your childhood in such a powerful way. The fact that this is our job is still surreal. There was actually one moment while we were filming where I had a bit of an existential experience, because if you're telling Big Boss Man's story, eventually you have to cover the Attitude Era...
Mike Johnson: Oh, boy.
Evan Husney: Exactly. There were...Let's just say...Some interesting creative decisions during that period. You find yourself standing on one of our reenactment sets. There's a wardrobe department. Actors. A full crew. Fifty people working together, and then you suddenly realize..."Our job today is recreating the hanging of Big Boss Man." It's such a bizarre profession. Fifty people coming together to recreate one of the strangest moments in wrestling history. You just stop and think..."What an incredibly weird job we have."
Mike Johnson: I was there.
Evan Husney: Really?
Mike Johnson: Yeah. Philadelphia. WrestleMania XV. I remember watching the cell go up and thinking, "What in the world are they doing?" Then..."Oh my God.They actually did it." I couldn't believe somebody had even conceived that angle, but it was a different era.
Evan Husney: A completely different time.
Mike Johnson: I don't want to get ahead of ourselves... When does the conversation about another season usually begin? The minute I reported what this season's lineup was, I started getting emails. "What about Crash Holly?" "What about this person?" "When are they doing this story?" How early do those discussions start? Does the network come to you and ask for ideas? Or do they first decide they're ordering another season, and then you and Jason begin figuring out what the topics will be?
Evan Husney: Every year is a little different. Usually, once the first handful of episodes have aired and everyone sees the audience response, the conversation starts. It's basically, "Looks like it's still working. Let's talk." We'll put together a presentation with the stories we'd like to tell. Every year there are incredible suggestions from fans. We genuinely appreciate them. There have absolutely been episodes we've produced largely because of audience demand. That's really cool. Obviously there are also some stories we'd love to tell that seem like obvious choices. The biggest factor, though, is always access. We want firsthand voices. We want people who actually lived through these events. Very rarely do we use traditional talking heads. We're much more interested in firsthand testimony. That's what drives the reenactments. That's what drives the storytelling. If we can't assemble the people who actually experienced something, then it becomes much less interesting to us. We don't really want to make a show where a bunch of experts simply debate wrestling history. That isn't what Dark Side of the Ring has ever been. So yes, usually around the time a season is airing—or shortly afterward—we begin discussing the next one. Hopefully people continue watching. Hopefully they continue enjoying the series. I honestly think several episodes this season rank among the very best we've ever produced.
We also have an incredible team. Some members of our crew have been with us for nine or ten years now. There are so many people behind the scenes who make this show possible. In the early days, Jason and I wore almost every hat ourselves. It wasn't sustainable. We've been incredibly fortunate to build a team that's talented enough to keep the show operating at this level. Even now, though...Everything still comes together at the last possible second. Nothing ever gets finished early. Nothing ever comes in under budget. That's just the reality of making this show. So I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who pours themselves into it. There's a piece of all of us in every episode. I'm just excited for people to finally see them.
Mike Johnson: Do you ever get to the beginning of a season and just scratch your head, wondering, "I don't know how we're going to come up with seven or eight episodes this year"? Has it become harder to find stories? I'm curious because, for me, sometimes it's difficult just to come up with fresh interview ideas after talking to so many people over the years.
Evan Husney: Oh, absolutely. I can think of dozens of conversations where we've all been sitting around at the beginning of a season saying, "What are we going to do?" "We've tried to make Story X happen." "We've tried Story Y." "They're not going to happen." "So...what else is there?" Every year I'm honestly surprised we're able to put another season together because so many things have to line up. It's not just about finding 10 interesting stories. That's actually the easy part. Then you have to ask: Do we have five or six people who can actually tell this story firsthand? Do we have the archival footage? Can we visually bring it to life? Will it work in 44 minutes? Does it have a beginning, a middle, and an end? Does it have twists? Does it have emotional stakes? Will someone who doesn't even care about wrestling still find it compelling? There are a lot of boxes that have to be checked. Narrowing everything down is always incredibly difficult. It usually feels impossible, but somehow we always manage to pull it off.
We've already covered so many of the marquee stories in wrestling history—the legends, the controversies, the famous tragedies. That's partly why we've started pushing the show in different directions. We never want to sacrifice quality, but if that means coloring outside the audience's expectations a little bit, I think that's healthy. I think people should evolve instead of just repeating the same formula forever. Some of the times we've done that recently have been among the most exciting projects we've made.
Take the John Tenta episode, for example. Some people immediately ask, "What's dark about John Tenta?"
Well...A wife losing the husband she loves. Children losing their father. Someone dying far too young from a terrible disease. That's certainly dark. You can absolutely make that argument, nut beyond that, we also had an opportunity to celebrate someone. We had the chance to spotlight his career. Not long afterward, we saw The Natural Disasters inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Whether our episode played any small role in helping remind people of John's legacy, I don't know.
Maybe.Maybe not. But just seeing that happen was incredibly rewarding. It reinforced the idea that we shouldn't limit ourselves by saying, "This isn't dark enough."
Sometimes we have an opportunity to do something meaningful for someone's family. The Samoa Joe/Necro Butcher episode is another example. It's a brutally violent match. The physical consequences were very real. The stakes were real. That gave us a different sandbox to explore while still remaining true to what Dark Side of the Ring is. So who knows where we'll go from here? Maybe we'll continue taking the show in directions people don't necessarily expect. As long as the DNA of the show remains intact...The integrity...The intensity...The emotional honesty...I'm excited by that. It's a way of continuing to evolve something that's now been part of my life for almost ten years.
Mike Johnson: Since you mentioned the spinoffs... We've had Dark Side of Comedy. Dark Side of the '90s. Dark Side of the 2000s. Dark Side of Football. Is there another spinoff that you've always wanted to make?
Evan Husney: Yeah...I'm sure there are several. Some we've actually pitched. Some we wanted to be much more involved with creatively. Sometimes another production company ended up making them. Other times we were already producing Dark Side of the Ring plus another series, and there simply wasn't enough bandwidth for us to produce a third. Last year, though, we had the opportunity to make what was essentially our own spiritual successor. We partnered with Hulu on a new series called Into the Void: Life, Death, and Heavy Metal. That allowed us to take everything we'd learned making wrestling documentaries and apply it to heavy metal. Heavy metal has always been just as important to Jason and me as professional wrestling. We got to tell these emotional, tragic, human-interest stories from the world of metal. We worked with Sharon Osbourne on the Randy Rhoads story. We worked with Pantera. We worked with so many incredible people. It felt like taking everything we'd learned over the past decade and applying it in a completely different world. Originally, that project actually existed under the working title Dark Side of Metal. That was always something we'd wanted to make. When Hulu became interested, though, it evolved into something else. So, in many ways, that really was the spinoff we'd always hoped to create, and fortunately...we got the chance to make it.
Mike Johnson: What would you like to say to the audience that's getting ready to watch another season—10 more episodes?
Evan Husney: I'm just incredibly excited. More than anything, I'm grateful that people are still interested in this show after all these years. I think if you don't know much about TNA—or maybe you're like I was several years ago, when Jeff Jarrett was just "that guy who sang With My Baby Tonight" and maybe you changed the channel when he came on—this documentary is going to surprise you. It's a fascinating story. It's an important chapter in wrestling history. Here's someone who tried to build a national wrestling company from scratch. A company that's still alive today, which is remarkable in itself. He helped create a legitimate alternative to WWE. He launched the careers of so many wrestlers who define this generation. When you really understand Jeff as a person—everything he endured, everything he sacrificed, everything he built—I think every wrestling fan will come away with a new appreciation for him. I'm excited for people to experience the TNA story. It's wild. It's dramatic. It's emotional.
Beyond that...Paul Orndorff's story is heartbreaking. He was an incredible talent, and his son Travis is phenomenal in the episode. I'm really excited for people to see that. The Missy Hyatt episode shines a light on someone who was incredibly influential. People sometimes forget how groundbreaking she was. She helped redefine what a female personality in professional wrestling could be. You don't get where the business is today without pioneers like Missy.
Then there's Zach Gowen.What an unbelievable story. I'm really excited for people to experience that one, too.
Mike Johnson: Can I ask one question about the Missy Hyatt episode?
Evan Husney: Sure.
Mike Johnson: Did Eric Bischoff sit down for an interview on that one?
Evan Husney: I don't believe so.
Mike Johnson: Okay. I was curious because he would've been running WCW when she filed her lawsuit, so I wondered if he'd been interviewed.
Evan Husney: I don't think he appears on camera. There may be some archival audio from previous interviews that we used, but I don't believe he sat down specifically for this episode.
Mike Johnson: Got it. I was just wondering because it's somewhat similar to the Dixie Carter situation. If someone isn't represented, it naturally changes the balance of the story.
Before we wrap up, do you have any final words for everyone who's supported the series over the years?
Evan Husney: Just...Thank you. Without people watching...Without people talking about the show...Sharing clips...Posting on social media...Recommending it to friends...This series simply wouldn't exist. It lives and dies with the audience. Vice TV isn't the easiest network in the world to find, and we genuinely appreciate everyone who goes out of their way to watch the show. Without that support, we wouldn't still be here.So...Thank you.
Season Seven of Dark Side of the Ring on premiered this week on Vice TV with episodes devoted to Jeff Jarrett and TNA and will continue every Tuesday.
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