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“Finding truth at the intersection of fantasy and reality in the veiled world of professional wrestling. ” The opening quote from this Viceland series that presents true stories from the world of professional wrestling describes beautifully the delicate balance that is this loved experience. And I say “experience” because professional wrestling is not just one thing.
Previously, we’ve discussed kayfabe and its role in professional wrestling. Today, the lines between kayfabe and reality are more obvious than before. As is apparent in the “Dark Side of the Ring” series, this was not always the case.
Episode 1 -“The Match Made in Heaven”
We begin the series with “Macho Man” Randy Savage and his real-life wife Miss Elizabeth. Their story seemed to be orchestrated as a Hollywood love story. Girl becomes wrestler’s valet, wrestler falls for girl, girl and wrestler get married and she solidifies herself in the history books. This was their on-screen personas starting in 1985, but as we learn in the series, the reality is that Miss Elizabeth and Randy had been married in 1984.
The story continues with Miss Elizabeth as a central player in Randy’s story in the WWF and WCW. Their story shows the difficult line of maintaining kayfabe and concealing reality. The same is true of the second story in the series about the Montreal Screwjob.
Episode 2 – “The Montreal Screwjob”
In the years since it occurred, The Montreal Screwjob has come to represent the ability of professional wrestling to incorporate unscripted moments and shatter the deep held beliefs of an industry that has been blown wide open. The Montreal Screwjob took what was meant to be an exciting win and retain of the WWF title for Bret “the Hitman” Hart in his hometown and turned it into one of the most controversial and talked about endings in all of sports entertainment.
From everything we knew about The Montreal Screwjob, “Dark Side of the Ring” gave a very exciting recap of the moments that led to that night and how the decision came down. But as with everything if life it seems, The Montreal Screwjob itself is not without those who believe it was an inside job.
Bret denies that he knew anything about what happened, as do any of the other players in the event, yet some still maintain that he had to have known and was just an excellent “seller”. I am firmly on the side of he had no way of knowing that was to be the ending of that match, but this just gives us another example of the excitement of professional wrestling. And though I don’t wish something exactly like this to happen again, being able to tell such a story is something that wrestling needs to get back to.
Episode 3 – The Killing of Bruiser Brody
I think the thing I love most about this series is its ability to provide a complete story in a matter of 60 minutes. With that, I also love its ability to expose me to events and people in wrestling that I had not known about before. One of those people is Bruiser Brody.
The tragic thing about Brody’s story is that his murder occurred during a time in wrestling when kayfabe was maintained at all times and, for a lot of wrestlers, there was no separation between wrestling and reality.
His style
Bruiser Brody was a titan. A huge competitor and set-up to be a “killer” or sorts. He had a reputation for being unstoppable and for his very aggressive and physical ring style. His in-and-out-of-the-ring persona meant that he almost never lost matches and was seen as an attraction that worked with most of the major promotions of the time. This was true in the US, Japan, and in Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, Brody was booked to be part of a promotion run by Carlos Colon. He had been part of the promotion before, and in a previous match, viciously defeated Jose Gonzales, better known as Invader 1. Following that match, according to the series, Jose said he would kill Brody.
A tragic night
In July 1988, as part of the WWC event, Gonzalez, who was the booker for the promotion, asked Brody aside to discuss business. No one else was there who had witnessed what happened, but screams were heard, and Brody came out with stab wounds to the stomach. Tony Atlas, who was in the locker room, says he saw Gonzalez with a knife. Brody later died from his wounds and Gonzalez would be acquitted of the murder on the grounds of self defense in 1989.
The worst part of this story to me is the fact that the authorities thought this was all part of the show and did not take it very seriously at first. This is a good example of kayfabe going too far, but we can not just say that no one could tell story from reality. From the series, it seems the confusion and lack of evidence from the incident will continue to keep it as one of the most controversial occurrences in professional wrestling.
Episode 4 – The Last of the Von Erichs
If we thought the story of Brusier Brody was bad, nothing prepared me for The Last of the Von Erichs. For those of you who don’t know (and that includes me prior to watching this), the Von Erichs were a wrestling family dynasty. Starting with the patriarch, Fritz Von Erich, who actually trained Bruiser Brody, and on down to 5 sons who carried the wrestling family legacy. The Von Erichs tale is a cautionary one of the price of fame.
The Wrestling Von Erichs
Through the ’80’s and early ’90’s, the Von Erich clan, which at the time consisted of David, Kevin, Kerry, and Mike. The 4 were international superstars and household names. Tragedy struck the family when the second oldest son, David, died in Japan from enteritis (inflammation of the small intestine). His death would start a chain reaction that would lead to the title of the episode.
A curse on the house
After David’s death, his younger brother Mike replaced him in the ring. Mike did not want a full-time in-ring career, but was reportedly “forced” to take on the role by his father. After suffering a shoulder injury, he acquired toxic shock syndrome following surgery, which likely left him with irreversible brain damage. In 1987, he committed suicide by overdosing on a tranquilizer.
Chris Von Erich was Fritz’s youngest son. Due to his short stature (5’4″) and health problems (asthma and extremely brittle bones), he never quite reached the level of success that his brothers and father did. Not being able to success like them and over the death of his brother Mike, Chris became depressed. In 1991, he committed suicide by a gunshot to the head.
Kerry Von Erich was likely the most popular Von Erich. He had had a very successful career in wrestling, was married, and had two children. But like Chris, the death of his brothers hit him hard. Bret Hart states that Kerry told him, “my brothers are calling to me,” indicating that he wanted to join them in death. He also told his brother Kevin that what their brother Chris did was very “brave.” Kerry joined his brothers in 1993 following a gunshot to the heart.
The last of the Von Erichs
At this time, that moniker is for Kevin Von Erich, the only remaining son of Fritz Von Erich. Kevin has sons of his own who wrestler under the Von Erich name and Kerry’s daughter also wrestled for years. The story is tragic and seems too strange to be fact, but it should be remembered for their contributions to wrestling and not for their ends.
Episode 5 – The Mysterious Death of Gorgeous Gino
The story of Gorgeous Gino is very interesting to me because it is a story I’d never heard. Gino was around well before my time and gone before my time. His death was shrouded in mystery and his wrestling career, though short, was very iconic.
He was called “gorgeous” based on his long black hair and his womanizer persona. He was part of many famous feuds, with one including the aforementioned Von Erichs. His wrestling career could have been long, but at the age of 28, Gorgeous Gino was found dead in his home.
The death was originally ruled a homicide, but the autopsy later revealed that Gino had died of an overdose of cocaine. The best part about this series was that the producers were able to get interviews with those who knew Gino so well and that they were able to dive so far into this story. Very impressive and very interesting.
Moving Forward
The final episode of this series and season is on The Fabulous Moolah. Once I dive into this episode, I will update with more thoughts. For now, just know that if you have not seen this series, I highly recommend checking it out here.
