10 Topics Dark Side Of The Ring Can Cover In Season 6
Season 5 of Dark Side of the Ring has officially concluded. It was a crazy season where I learned so much and I hope that the show gets extended to a 6th season. I heard so much nonsense that the show has run out of topics to cover, but that is not true. There are so many more topics that can be covered. This got me to brainstorm a few ideas and I came up with 10 topics I want to see covered if a Season 6 of Dark Side of the Ring was made.
10. Art Barr
I am surprised to this day that Art Barr has not been covered in an episode on Dark Side of the Ring. Barr has often been considered one of the big what-ifs in the pro wrestling world. He was really good in the ring, but he passed away at the young age of 28 years old due to a drug overdose
Bar was super influential and even was one of the first to popularize the frog splash. Every time Eddie hit that movie, it was to pay tribute to Barr as both were super close. They were even a big tag team called Los Gringos Locos.
Something also super dark was the alleged rape allegation that surrounds Barr. He allegedly did this to a 19-year-old girl in Oregon and pleaded guilty to those charges, which don't paint him in the best light at all
The Strange gimmick that Barr had in WCW has to be talked about because it is so weird. The Gimmick was inspired by the movie Beetlejuice and Barr was called "The Juicer". Gee, that's a great name knowing the steroid abuse in the pro wrestling business.
However, an episode on Barr would be both dark and super sad to watch.
9. Wrestlicious Takedown
It has been a while since Dark Side of the Ring covered a promotion and there is one promotion that is just crazy existed, but it did. It is called Wrestlicious Takedown, and it is such a bizarre pro wrestling company and the name itself is telling.
Let's just say this was a promotion that was run by a 19-year-old who recently won The Lottery and decided to use that money to start a women's wrestling promotion. Yep, this is an actual thing that happened and there are legit episodes of this promotion, and it was freaking terrible with the focus on the sex appeal. I barely got through episode one.
There are a lot of notable names that were involved in this including Jimmy Hart, Serena Deeb, Leva Bates, Daffney, Lacey Von Erich, Mercedes Martinez, etc. This would be an intriguing option to cover, and I want to know what happened to Jonathan Vargas (the owner of Wrestlicious Takedown).
8. Perry Saturn
Perry Saturn would be an intriguing topic to cover. He is one of the most underrated wrestlers in WCW. He also made a big jump with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit to WWE during the Attitude Era of WWE. That moment was one of the many nails in WCW's coffin.
As for Perry Saturn, his time in WWE was a disaster. Especially when he legitimately beat up a jobber named Mike Bell in a match. I mean my goodness after a botch in the ring where Saturn lands on his head, he just snapped.
In the match, Terri Runnells was terrified of what Saturn was doing and even broke out of character saying, "What are you doing? You going to kill him". Footage of the match was tough to find, but I managed to locate it, and if you want to watch it will be below. Remember to skip to around the 2-minute mark where Saturn just snaps.
This was the moment that his career was pretty much done with WWE. Now, yes, he got punished severely with the whole Moppy gimmick. Now the Moppy gimmick was that Saturn had a relationship with a mop after he suffered a severe concussion and was cheating on Terri Runnels with it. Yes, this happened folks.
The craziest thing was this gimmick got Saturn over. The fans just loved it, and it was the most memorable thing he did in WWE. Now it was never capitalized on, mainly because it was not in Vince's plans, and he was not a big fan of the guy. So, it got dropped and Saturn was released not long after the gimmick ended.
He was briefly in TNA, but all of a sudden, he would just disappear. Nobody heard from the guy, including his friends and family. Well, he resurfaced and did not look well. Saturn had a really bad drug problem and was dealing with health issues. Saturn was even seen with a new tattoo on his skull.
His drug problems/health issues all started in 2004 after a traumatic incident. Saturn saved this one woman from being assaulted and raped, in doing that he suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and shoulder. Ever since he was addicted to meth and was homeless for so many years.
That is super tragic, and I want to learn more about what else happened to Saturn after his wrestling career. This would fit the bill of a Dark Side of the Ring episode.
7. Missy Hyatt
Let's talk about the women in most of my Season 5 reviews that I called a piece of work. It's because she is when you look her up and it can easily be made as a Dark Side of the Rong episode.
Not only all the sex stuff that she did for money but the insanity of the website "Wrestling Vixxens" that she made and putting pro wrestlers on there too. She even was notorious for sleeping around with others in the business and causing havoc in the locker room.
You could probably throw in her relationship with Eddie Gilbert too when talking about her and how they both cheated on each other. Along with the drug issues that she had as well.
If this episode gets covered, they have to talk about her lawsuit with WCW as that is insanity. It also does not paint WCW in the best light. What also doesn't paint her in the best light is during the time the lawsuit was going on, she agreed to be a part of a sexual harassment angle in ECW.
I would go on with how much of a real piece of work she is, but there is so much more that can be covered.
6. Dick Murdoch
This one is a must to talk about because Dick Murdoch has been heavily linked to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Not only that but there have been many stories of Murdoch luring and bringing other pro wrestlers to these meetings to try and allegedly "Convert' them to be a part of the group, including Dusty Rhodes. Yeah, this guy is an absolute piece of trash.
Murdoch also had an actual KKK Membership card and was showing it around to everybody including Jim Ross. He was openly racist and had a nasty backstage fight with Rocky Johnson who is the father of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The disgraceful rib (joke) he did on Tony Atlas is just insanity as well.
To add to this, Mudoch was heavily known to have an issue with alcohol and there are some crazy stories regarding it. Murdoch passed away in 1996 due to a heart attack at the age of 49. It would be a great topic to cover Murdoch and maybe showcase more incidents with Murdoch.
5. WWE's Girls Gone Wild PPV
Oh boy, I have heard a ton of stories regarding this PPV that WWE was involved with. This PPV occurred in 2003 and it was a cross-over event between Girls Gine Wild and WWE.
If you don't know Girls Gone Wild is an Adult Entertainment Company. They used to film content where a large crowd of people at a party and women take their clothes, are in wet T-shirt contests, and do the "Horizontal Mombo" if you get where I am going here.
So, it sounds like a brilliant idea for WWE to have a crossover with a company like Girls Gone Wild. This is what happened in 2003 as Divas from WWE participated in this and it was so awful. It was a colossal failure and super embarrassing.
Once the event ended, WWE scrubbed all mention of this PPV from everything. WWE tried to scrub this PPV from existence. However, footage still exists on the Internet Archive.
It also doesn't help that not a few weeks later, the founder of Girls Gone Wild was arrested for filming 16- and 17-year-old girls and so much more nasty stuff. Joe Francis is a real piece of trash, just google the guy's name to find out all the heinous stuff they did.
This also had a black eye on Linda's run for office in the Senate as it was constantly brought up in her 2010 Campaign. Especially as it was her idea for WWE to do this in the first place. I also felt bad for Jonathan Coachman who hosted this event as he got a ton of heat from fans, and you can tell how uncomfortable he was through this show.
If they do this episode, I hope they talk about the fight between Snoop Dogg and WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn. I heard that both got into a nasty argument BTS and almost fought each other physically.
I would love for Dark Side of the Ring to cover this as it is one of WWE's hidden PPVs that they desperately want you to forget.
4. Jerry "The King" Lawler
This one has been one I have wanted to see since Jerry Lawler's involvement with the Tales of The Territories documentary. Now that Jerry Lawler's contract with WWE has seemingly expired, it makes the chances of an episode on him being done increase.
Jerry Lawler has had a dark life and there is so much to talk about too. The 1993 Rape Allegation during Survivor Series, his messy 2001 departure, his marriage to Stacy Carter, his beef with his cousin the Honky Tonk Man, the domestic Violence Incident, the heart attack on Monday Night Raw, etc. This man has been through a lot of things and survived so many health episodes.
Honestly, this could be a 2-part episode if they want to also cover what happened to Jerry Lawler's son Brian Christopher aka Grand Master Sexay, not only in how he died but in how it allegedly got covered up. It is just so sad what happened to Brian Christopher, and it will be a tough episode to watch if this gets made.
3. Ashley Massaro
This needs to be covered after what was revealed with her when WWE went to Kuwait for a Tribute to the Troops PPV. What happened was that she alleged that a US Military Base doctor sexually assaulted her, but WWE persuaded her not to report it as they wanted a good relationship with the army.
Former WWE Head of Talent Relations and absolute scumbag John Laurinaitis admitted that everyone was aware of these allegations, and they did nothing. Then it was reported that Vince McMahon had "preyed on female WWE Wrestlers" and was pissed that Massaro had denied him. In the aftermath, he sabotaged her career all because she rejected advances from him.
You know it's stories like this that get me angry about the pro wrestling business and continue to rot the legacy of Vince McMahon. Again, my advice to Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis when dealing with their current lawsuit with Janel Gant is simple. Get your divorce lawyers ready as well, because you are going to need them.
Ashley Massaro had a tragic ending too as she passed away in 2019 at the age of 39 due to suicide. Just tragic what happened to her during her career and at the end of her life. I would even make this the Season Premiere of Season 6 of Dark Side of the Ring.
2. The JBL Bullying Scandals
Look John Bradshaw Layfield is a super talented pro wrestler/commentator, but the dude is an absolute bully. This is not like a normal teasing joke type of bully; this is a hazing and absolute piece of garbage type of bully. This guy has had so many bullying scandals, it is insane that he has not been blackballed from the industry.
How in One Night Stand he roughed up the Blue Meanie legitimately and beat him to a bloody pulp. Blue Meanie also sued JBL and the WWE about that as well. When Meanie and JBL had a match on Smackdown, Steve Richards gave the most brutal chair shot that I have ever seen. You can tell how much passion Richards had in that chair shot because it is just insane how hard he hit him.
What also was a hard hit was when Joey Styles legit punched him in the face, which is just crazy to think about. But JBL deserved it for how he harassed him in the locker room.
The Mauro Ranallo situation also has to be talked about. This man has been open about his battles with bipolar disorder and JBL would continue to harass and bully him out of the company. What a piece of garbage.
I hope that they can get Palmer Cannon as well for this documentary because what they had to go through with JBL is just terrifying. Palmer Cannon was bullied so much by JBL that he quit the company and flew himself home.
There are plenty more stories about JBL they can talk about too and there is this one crazy incident where he "soaped" EDGE in the shower while he was a rookie. That is an actual thing that happened BTW and EDGE wrote that in his book.
I can go on and on here, but John Bradshaw Layfield is gross, and a very shady guy. Say what you want about his in-ring talent, but these scandals have tainted his legacy.
1."Sweet and Sour" Larry Sweeney
This is the episode that I want to see the most as when I was starting to watch the independent scene, I was a big Larry Sweeney fan and still am today. He was so talented that he was legit being compared to and called the next Bobby Heenan.
I believe it too as he was so awesome during his time in Chikara and ROH. He was so awesome as a heel manager and was very solid in the ring. However, Sweeney had a ton of mental health problems and had a severe mental breakdown in 2009. He spent a total of 14 months away from the industry as a result.
Sweeney passed away on April 11, 2011, at the young age of 30. Sweeney committed suicide by hanging himself from a turnbuckle post at a Lake Charles, Louisiana wrestling school. That is just depressing and Sweeney to me is one of the greatest What Ifs in pro wrestling.
An episode on him would be super interesting and I want to know more about in my opinion one of the greatest Independent and Ring of Honor Managers/pro wrestlers of all time.
those are the 10-episode topics I would like to be covered if a Season 6 of Dark Side of the Ring was made. My question is, do you reading agree? What would you like to be covered in this show? Let me know in the comments section and don't forget to give the article a like. Don't forget to check out more wrestling content on Stadium Rant as well.
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