Interview: Dark Side of the Ring Producers on Von Erich Episode & Working with Wrestlers

As noted before, a recent episode of the Smark to Death podcast show had the producers of Viceland’s Dark Side of the Ring series, Evan Husney and Jason Eisener, as guests and other topics discussed included the upcoming Von Erich family episode and working with wrestlers during the creation of the series.

On the topic of this week’s episode focusing on the tragic demise of the Von Erich family, Husney stated they spent several days with Kevin Von Erich at his home in order to get the most intimate version of the family’s tragic downfall from a very personal perspective.

Husney – “Obviously that’s been chronicled in WWE documentaries, independent documentaries, ESPN 30 for 30 spot on it. Every time you’ve seen Kevin tell that story, he’s always put in a studio, he’s lit, and there’s a backdrop and it seems very produced. We wanted to try to tell the most intimate version of that story. We are gonna go to his turf and we’re gonna spend time with Kevin, we’re gonna spend days with him to get the real emotional story of what he went through.”

Eisener – “He said after he did it it was the most open he’s ever been about his family story. It was super emotional, even for us, we had to take a lot of breaks during that interview because it would get really heavy. Evan and I were tearing up while we were doing it because it was so emotional.”

Husney – “It’s going to be a major gut punch when it airs May 1st.”

On the topic of working with wrestlers during the creation of the series, Eisener stated there were a few instances of Husney and himself feeling intimidated based on who was being interviewed. Husney stated that this was due to the production setup used for interviews and the aura from certain wrestlers due to their history in the business.

Eisener -“There were certain ones I’d be nervous about, and Evan would be nervous about.”

Husney – “If you’ve seen the show, you know that most of the interviews are attached direct camera. The way it’s achieved is through a gimmick you attach to the camera that allows myself to have a conversation, it’s like a set of mirrors that reflects my image over the lens so that when they talk to the camera they actually see my face and vis versa I can see their face. And sometimes it can be a little intimidating because some of these guys are just intimidating, like Abdullah the Butcher.”

Husney – “I think approaching it as a fan, it’s like you have to be careful not to be too much of a fan. You have to harness that, like going to Bret Hart’s house for example. If you were to tell 12 year old me that I’m going to Bret Hart’s house and looking at his Wrestlemania arcade machine, it would blow my mind. You have to be as cool as a cucumber, these guys are gonna open up to you, they’re gonna tell you their story, they appreciate wrestling fans, but they’re conditioned to put up a front to wrestling fans. We have to act like this middle ground between professions but also like well researched that know what we’re talking about so we can communicate on a level that they know we know what we’re talking about.”