Throughout its history, professional wrestling has seen no shortage of cautionary — and in some cases, tragic — tales.
This spring, Vice TV will examine 10 more of them in what will mark the fifth season of its Dark Side of the Ring series.
On Wednesday, the popular professional wrestling documentary series released a trailer for its upcoming season, which will premiere on March 5. Included in the minute-long trailer is the announcement that the following 10 subjects will be covered over the course of the season:
- Chris Adams
- Sensational Sherri
- Terry Gordy
- Black Saturday
- Chris Colt
- Sandman
- Earthquake
- Harley Race
- Buff Bagwell
- Brutus Beefcake
And we’re back…
Season 5 premieres March 5th on @vicetv with 10 all-new episodes.
What episode are you looking
forward to the most? pic.twitter.com/09GhwTzdfw— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) January 24, 2024
Previous subjects covered by Dark Side of the Ring, which first debuted in 2019, have included “The Montreal Screw Job,” Macho Man Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, Chris Benoit, Owen Hart, Brian Pillman and Vince McMahon’s steroid trial. While the upcoming season certainly has no shortage of interesting content to mine, it also seems to lack a clear high-profile tentpole episode.
From a mainstream perspective, the episode about Buff Bagwell will likely have the widest appeal, considering that his run in WCW coincided with the height of the “Monday Night Wars” in the late 1990s/early 2000s. It’s also worth noting that Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter had initially reported that there was expected to be an episode about Kurt Angle — which would have had plenty of mainstream appeal — although it ultimately never came to fruition.
Since first launching five years ago, Dark Side of the Ring has become a staple of Vice, spawning several spinoffs, including Dark Side of Comedy, Dark Side of Football, and Dark Side of the 90’s. The series’ success has also resulted in more wrestling programming on Vice, including Tales from the Territories and a recently announced series regarding the rise and fall of WCW, produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.