When filmmaker Jason Eisener was round 10 years outdated, he went to a World Wrestling Federation present in Halifax. An encounter that evening terrified him and adjusted his life.
Because the wrestler Skinner made his option to the ring, Eisener and the cousin leaned over the guardrail and chanted “You suck” repeatedly to the wrestler. Skinner was billed as an alligator hunter from the Florida Everglades.
As the 2 screamed, Skinner locked eyes with the boys, came to visit and grabbed them by their shirt collars.
“I may see the chewing tobacco, like, oozing out of his mouth,” Eisener, 42, mentioned by phone from Hollywood. “And he pulls us proper as much as his face and he is identical to, ‘I will pores and skin you.’
“And we sat down. We had been so scared. We did not make a peep the remainder of that present that evening. However that undoubtedly had a big impact on me.”
In the meantime, Eisener’s godfather who took the 2 boys to the present did not have the identical response.
“Oh, he is laughing his ass off the entire time,” mentioned Eisener. “He thought it was so humorous.”
The Dartmouth, N.S., filmmaker is thought for films akin to Hobo with a Shotgun and Children vs. Aliens, however turned a childhood fascination and love of wrestling into the long-running tv collection Darkish Aspect of the Ring, now in its sixth season on Crave.
“Had my godfather not taken me and my cousin to that match that evening, who is aware of if I’d have gone down the trajectory that I did?” mentioned Eisener.
Darkish Aspect of the Ring takes viewers contained in the world {of professional} wrestling, retelling well-known and not-so-well-known tales that typically contain components akin to a wrestler’s rise and fall, crime, substance abuse, relationship issues and catastrophic accidents.
To do this, Darkish Aspect of the Ring often interviews the individuals on the centre of the tales, family members and other people from the wrestling world.
“They’re like the perfect storytellers I’ve ever heard,” mentioned Eisener. “And that I discover actually inspiring, how they’re in a position to inform yarn.”
Eisener mentioned the thought for the present was rooted in he and collection co-creator Evan Husney’s shared ardour for wrestling.
They needed to do a scripted drama, however discovered no curiosity, so that they turned it right into a documentary-style present as an alternative.
“The extra we seemed into [wrestlers], we realized how tragic their tales had been,” mentioned Eisener.
The present’s title is becoming, each for the subject material it covers, but in addition as a result of when not utilizing interviews or archival footage, the present is shot utilizing silhouetted figures who’re backlit.
Given the subject material typically delves into true-crime subjects, it is not stunning that Eisener mentioned he is obtained loss of life threats. He is even had his identification stolen.
Regardless of the present’s typically darkish subject material, Eisener mentioned the households of the wrestlers are sometimes very keen to speak concerning the tragedies.
“They’re at all times fairly open and their views are, I discover, essentially the most fascinating and seeing how they type of navigated the world of wrestling and noticed what their family members went by way of,” he mentioned.
Wrestler Maddison Miles has been wrestling for near a decade and has completed matches in 11 nations, together with Mexico, Germany and Australia.
The 25-year-old lives in Dartmouth and lately watched the present for the primary time. She was impressed.
“It isn’t put on the market to make the trade look God terrible … all these performers are individuals identical to you and me,” she mentioned.
“You realize, everybody has lives, everybody goes by way of troublesome occasions, and it is simply type of displaying the followers what actually occurs on the opposite aspect of the curtain.”
The place the themes of the present are common, Darkish Aspect of the Ring may be loved by non-wrestling followers.
Eisener mentioned that when he began engaged on the present, he by no means thought it could final six seasons. However he mentioned he and Husney usually are not working out of concepts.
One other encounter with Skinner
Skinner was interviewed for one episode. Eisener wasn’t there, however the crew requested Skinner if he remembered the encounter in Halifax. Skinner mentioned he did — and he had a message for Eisener.
“They filmed him reducing a promo on me now being like, ‘I keep in mind you from again then and I am nonetheless going to pores and skin you,'” mentioned Eisener.
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