Evan Husney: In Hindsight, Maybe There Was A Better Name For ‘Dark Side Of The Ring’

The co-creator of ‘Dark Side Of The Ring’ discusses the name of the show.

The show, which has been on the air since 2019, has become one the most popular shows in all of wrestling. Despite the level of popularity that the show has reached, ‘Dark Side Of The Ring’ doesn’t have a perfect reputation among every wrestling fan in the community.

Many fans will often criticize the show for only focusing on the negative history of wrestling and bringing up old tragedies without any real reason other than to produce content.

In a new interview with the Under The Ring podcast, Evan Husney, who is the co-creator of the show, spoke specifically about criticism regarding not covering the lighter side of the professional wrestling industry. Husney noted that he thinks the name and branding draws the majority of the negative energy towards the show.

“Absolutely. How can you appreciate the light side without the dark, you know? The name and the branding is what triggers the most negativity towards the show, which I totally understand. I think hindsight 20/20 back in the time machine, maybe there was a better name for the show or something that might have helped establish that what this show is really trying to do.”

Husney went on to say that ‘Dark Side Of The Ring’ is more about humanizing wrestlers, which many fans will often look at as these larger than life figures.

“It’s less about digging the dirt up and it’s more about humanizing these wrestlers because these wrestlers that we grew up idolizing, we looked at them as larger than life figures. That’s not true, behind the scenes they are real people that we can relate to. I think because of the way that wrestling has been portrayed in media for so long, media has always looked down on it and has always sort of looked at it as this phony thing, ‘It’s laughable, who cares, it’s fake.’ For wrestling, we really wanted to try and elevate the perception of wrestling ironically, to show the real stakes and the real humanity of this and what they go through and what it is all about, so people can see them as real human beings like never before. That was kind of the real point of it, and I feel like that’s been lost with modern wrestling fans too. I think fans have this weird hybrid association with their favorite wrestlers as if they really know them deep down, but they don’t. I think we really wanted to show, try to show these wrestlers as people.”

On Tuesday, June 6, the second episode of Dark Side Of The Ring Season Four will air. The episode will be focused on Magnum T.A.

In a separate recent interview, Husney talked about the potential of a ‘Dark Side’ episode focused on Vince McMahon. Fans can learn more here.

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