Dark Side of The Ring presents its season four premiere tonight at 10 pm EST on Vice TV. The beloved and controversial docuseries’ first episode will focus on the tumultuous lives and relationship of pro wrestling stars Chris Candido and Tammy “Sunny” Sytch.
In an exclusive interview for Haus of Wrestling, co-creator Evan Husney discussed the decision to make this story the focal point of the season’s first episode. He noted that they have wanted to tell this story since season two but due to Sytch’s ongoing legal issues, they were never able to get her to sit down while they were filming and she was out of jail. The same is true for this season as Sytch will not be participating directly in the episode and, because of that, it will focus more heavily on Candido than Sytch.
“I’ve always felt that Chris Candido was super unsung,” Husney began. “I think that he was a little before his time. I mean, his size and his move set, and his style is now more in style now than it was then. I feel like in a lot of ways, and I think had he if you were around today, he would still be such an influential force in wrestling. I could see that.”
The tone of each Dark Side of The Ring episode can differ depending on the story. Some, like the one about the Benoit tragedy, are exceptionally somber while others, like the one centered around Nick Gage, are sad tales that have happier endings.
“Kind of a warning to everybody,” he prefaced. “This is a pretty sad story. It’s crazy because Chris Candido was somebody who was always on track to become a wrestler when he was five years old. And you see that in the episode that he is dying, his dream in life, was to be a wrestler, and anything he did in life was going to be towards that goal. And he achieved it, right?
“But then by chance, he meets Tammy in a wrestling match, and she had no aspirations to be in the wrestling business. She was a pre-med student and so they were a very young, impressionable, innocent couple that you see kind of getting swept up into this era of wrestling. This kind of era of wrestling that was wrought with painkillers and drugs and partying and access.
“And you just kind of see how they come out on the other end. Obviously, Chris passes away super young, and now, Tammy’s situation, it’s almost unfathomable how they started and where they wound up. And so it is a roller coaster, for sure.”
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My full conversation with Husney can be found on the Haus of Wrestling podcast feed or courtesy of the player below.