Documentary Review: "Dark Side of the Ring: Benoit" (2020)
Dark Side of the Ring: Season 2, Episode 1: Benoit (Parts 1 & 2) TV Documentary Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Released by Viceland
Directed by Jason Eisener
Written and Edited by Evan Husney and Mike Schultz
2020, 120 minutes, Not Rated
Released on March 24th, 2020
Starring:
David Benoit as Himself
Sandra Toffoloni as Herself
Chris Jericho as Himself
Chavo Guerrero as Himself
Vickie Guerrero as Herself
Christopher Nowinski as Himself
Professional wrestling is a business with an extremely colorful history. It’s America’s greatest sport, in my opinion- a spectacle that’s equal parts athletic prowess, acting ability, ad-lib skill, illusion, subterfuge, comedic timing, and pain endurance. There’s no other competition quite like it. There’s also no other job that’s as tough, all-consuming, and thankless in the quiet moments. When you give your life to wrestling, it often consumes you with a voracious appetite. While there are myriad examples of tragedies and scandals in the history of the biz, none are more notorious than the story of the life and death of Chris Benoit.
Viceland kicks off the second season of their highly engaging docuseries, Dark Side of the Ring, with a two-hour long deep dive into wrestling’s darkest hour. It’s a story that could easily take up more than two hours and keep you just as riveted. It’s also much more than just that one horrible incident that saw Benoit snap, murdering both his wife Nancy and seven-year-old son, Daniel before taking his own life. It’s the tale of multiple families broken by the act (Chris and Nancy’s family as well as the wrestlers) and how they are recovering years later.
Part One is all the stuff you already know (more or less). It’s the biographical side of the story, chronicling the tale of the freakishly talented and hard-working Chris Benoit alongside the story of his gorgeous and charismatic wife, Nancy. You hear from those closest to them (including Nancy’s sister, Sandra, and wrestling legend Chris Jericho) the story of how they met, booked into an angle where they fell in love. The first half also spends a considerable amount of time examining the friendship between Benoit and the late Eddie Guerrero. With a plethora of archival footage from various matches across the globe as well as the heartbreaking footage of the WWE Raw tribute show following Eddie’s death due to heart failure at age 38, Dark Side of the Ring takes you right back to how much it hurt to lost Eddie (and will have you tearing through some damn tissues!) Most importantly, we get to spend time with Benoit’s eldest son, David, and that is where it shines. If you have a heart beating in your chest, you can’t help but respond to the pain in his eyes and his words. It’s a stark reminder of who the real victim in the whole tragedy really was. He’s brave, honest, and sincere in what had to be a very difficult job.
Part Two takes you to the day of the crime and the facts behind it. The Fayetteville cop who was first on the scene is interviewed at length. Along with non-graphic crime scene photos, it really puts you in the house at the time and shows how it went down. Fair warning: it’s rough. I know, I know- you’re saying, “No shit, man. He killed his wife and young son!” And you’re right, but you don’t appreciate the gravity of the situation until you see how the pieces fit. Chilling is a pale adjective, but it’ll have to do.
Then it goes into full documentary breakdown mode. The steroid debate comes back to the center of the ring, as does the CTE controversy. Former WWE Superstar and co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation Christopher Nowinski is well-spoken and direct, looking right at the camera and laying it out plain without being slanderous or ugly. And you could certainly lay some ugly on the big, corporate doorstep of WWE. It’s clear that there were serious demons lurking about the biz at the time, and Vince McMahon’s great big machine bears some responsibility. However, it’s also made clear that pro wrestling is a true labor of love, and the blame doesn’t lay all on Vince’s shoulders any more than you can say that Chris Benoit was an evil and psychotic murderer.
That’s what Dark Side of the Ring keeps coming back to, and it deserves recognition. There is time spent on the murders, but this documentary is really about the human story of a man driven to be the best (which he certainly was) who needlessly took the lives of innocents and lost his legacy in the process because of brain damage, poor decisions, and the heartbreaking loss of his best friend. Excellent work is done in showing that the true story is anything but the cut and dried case of “roid rage” that the mainstream media tried to present it as.
Chris Jericho is stellar as both the full-time narrator and voice of reason. It’s important to the wrestling community to see those who were really right there in the situation finally tell the story from start to finish. Giving David Benoit and Sandra Toffoloni the closure they both clearly needed leaves it all on a positive note. That’s no small feat in such a dark story.
Dark Side of the Ring: Benoit will take wrestling fans back to the pain, confusion, and horror of the summer of 2007 when we all stared in shock at the story unfolding before us. This time, however, we get some answers and even a light at the end of the tunnel without having to be afraid to say the name Benoit.
It may not be the prettiest legacy, after all…but just like the business we all love, there’s much more to it than meets the eye.
