Few wrestling tales have been lined, dissected, mentioned, celebrated and argued about greater than Mick Foley’s Mankind) being thrown off the Hell in a Cell construction at King of the Ring 1998. And whereas I at all times thought I had the complete story, that modified upon watching the Darkish Facet of the Ring Season 6 premiere and its breakdown of how the match and different troublesome moments within the WWE Corridor of Famer’s profession impacted his household.
Forward of the Vice TV present’s return to the 2025 TV schedule, I sat down with Darkish Facet of the Ring creator Evan Husney and requested him why he needed to deal with one thing that had been lined a lot. Primarily, it got here right down to trying on the match exterior of the lens as a wrestling story and extra as an exploration of the human ingredient of Mick Foley’s story throughout the match and past:
It solely was by way of different docs like Past the Mat, for instance, the place we noticed a glimpse of the implications of that, which is his household, who form of is alongside for the experience, and so they do not at all times know the issues that he is doing and, and placing himself in hurt’s approach to be able to put meals on the desk. And people are form of very underappreciated parts that us as followers do not actually think about as a result of we get so swept up within the drama of all of it. To listen to Noelle in our episode, Mick’s daughter, speak about how she’s blocked out all of her dad’s wrestling matches. I imply, that is fairly traumatic, you recognize, for anyone and, and to having to go together with this.
Within the Darkish Facet of the Ring Season 6 premiere, Noelle Foley revealed that she doesn’t have one singular reminiscence of watching her father wrestle. Although she definitely watched her father take 11 chair photographs to the top in his notorious “I Give up” match with The Rock on the 1999 Royal Rumble,she’s satisfied the occasions have been so traumatic that her mind merely blocked them out.
And this exploration of the implications, influence, and extra human facet of Mick Foley’s legendary and notoriously brutal profession was one thing that Husney and his group sought to cowl from the start. He continued:
And so our complete strategy was, sure, this match has been actually instructed a lot, however we needed to take a look at it from a extra recent standpoint by way of making an attempt to get deep into Mick’s psychology. What makes him tick, why he needed to go in by way of and obtain this. Take a look at his personal private sophisticated historical past with how he seems at it. How he kind of views it and just like the legacy of it, but additionally the implications of how that impacted his household.
Although extremely troublesome to look at at instances, particularly throughout the collection of unprotected chair photographs from the “I Give up” match and the notorious fall from Hell in a Cell, the episode does an incredible job of humanizing Mick Foley and exhibiting him as greater than the “Hardcore Legend” however as a substitute a person keen to do something and the whole lot to entertain followers and supply for his household.
To say Darkish Facet of the Ring, which is one half wrestling docuseries and one half true crime present, begins with a “bang bang” could be an unbelievable understatement. If you wish to see much more tales, try new episodes at 10 p.m. each Tuesday on Vice TV.