Dave Meltzer and I are back for a brand new Wrestling Observer Radio. Co-creator and executive producer of Dark Side of the Ring, Evan Husney joined us on the show.
We talked to Evan about the new season of the show, including:
The reception to the first episode on Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch
When Dave first met Chris and Tammy
If they were missing that ‘tentpole’ episode
If they’d ever do a Paul Heyman/ECW episode
The Magnum TA episode
The Graham Family and why it’s an important episode
What Evan believes is their greatest work
Then Dave and I closed the show and talked about Superstar Billy Graham’s funeral, the AEW Dynamite rating, CM Punk and Collision, Ted DiBiase, and the contract status of Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks.
Because wrestlers die so frequently, there are a lot of ways you come to expect them. You expect years of heavy steroid and cocaine use to lead to heart attacks of guys in their 40s. You expect overdoses. In the 70s, you’d have the auto accidents. There’s even cancer and internal organ problems that could happen to anyone. And there are the occasional drug and other forms of depression induced suicides.
“It’s so baffling,” Mick Foley said. “The last thing you expect to hear is someone dying from complications of a broken ankle.”
The strange part is with Chris Candito (real spelling, changed to Candido for pro wrestling), had it been two years ago, for several of the above reasons, his death would not have really shocked anyone. Like Eddie Gilbert, Brian Pillman and Kerry Von Erich, Candido and Tammy Sytch–you can’t bring up one without the other because their lives were so entangled–for years, seemed to be a tragedy waiting to happen. For years, both were like drug addicts in denial. They would give lip service to recovery and talk publicly about their issues as if they were in the past. After so many relapses, they were thought like Scott Hall and Jake Roberts, where you actually become surprised their bodies continue to survive all the abuse, even if their internal organs are decades older than their chronological age. So when, over the past year, Candido said he was clean, most were skeptical. But he was showing up at indies for months, with no stories about relapses, incoherency, or the classic signs most wrestling veterans see when someone is on the pills. He had a hard reputation to live down, but he largely had.
One of The Rock’s earliest matches in his pro wrestling career will be tomorrow’s WWE Network Hidden Gem upload.
WWE Network News reported tonight that tomorrow’s upload will be a dark match between Dwayne Johnson and Bodydonna Skip, also known as Chris Candido. The reported synopsis lists a March 11, 1996 date meaning this would be his second ever WWE match, with a dark match against the Brooklyn Brawler the day before at a WWE Superstars taping being his first.
Johnson, who was a standout college football player, transitioned into pro wrestling and started training in 1995 under his father, Rocky Johnson. After working several house shows, Johnson was sent to the USWA for more seasoning.
After several months wrestling in Memphis as Flex Kavana, Johnson made his debut at Survivor Series 1996 as Rocky Maivia. He teamed with Jake Roberts, Marc Mero and The Stalker (Barry Windham) to defeat Crush, Goldust, Jerry Lawler and Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a Survivor Series elimination match, himself being the only survivor.
