#‘Dark Side of the Ring’ will show side of Ultimate Warrior we haven’t seen

The Ultimate Warrior is one of pro wrestling’s most complex figures, and “Dark Side of the Ring” is trying to give greater context to the lightning rod performer.

Warrior, whose birth name was Jim Hellwig before legally changing it in 1993, is one of the subjects for the third season of the wrestling docuseries that premieres May 6 (VICE, 9 p.m.) with a two-hour episode about Brian Pillman. Series co-creator Evan Husney said he and partner Jason Eisener took on Warrior’s story after fans overwhelmingly pushed for a more “true” documentary on him. WWE has released separate DVDs highlighting both sides of Warrior and is collaborating with A&E on one that will air later this year.

“You have these two extremes, WWE’s former docs and all this vitriol and then you have the other one where now we’re kind of lionizing him,” Husney said. “It’s two different extremes. We just kind of wanted to bring it all back and say let’s just talk about the person and can we try to understand this person because largely he’s one of the more misunderstood and enigmatic personalities wrestling has even seen,” Husney said.    

The former WWF (now WWE) champion had a meteoric five-year run in the company. That stretch peaked with him defeating Hulk Hogan for the belt at WrestleMania VI in 1990 and came crashing down after he threatened to no-show SummerSlam 1991 if Vince McMahon didn’t play him the $500,000 he believed was due to him from a WrestleMania VII payoff. Warrior’s first run with the company ended not long after. He had a short second WWF stint in 1996 and spent six months in WCW in 1998.

Warrior was one of the WWF’s most larger-than-life and invincible-feeling characters of his era. But “Dark Side of the Ring” will give fans a different picture of the man behind the facepaint after a conversation with Warrior’s first wife, Shari Tyree. She revealed Warrior dealt with extreme anxiety and talked about how that played a role in his relationships with people at the company and some of the decisions he made. Eisener said as a lifelong fan of Warrior that it grounded the man.   

“I grew up with all his action figures and just saw him to be this very confident, crazy, over-the-top character, but to hear he had a lot of anxiety and he would be so nervous before matches, that stuff I could relate to it in a way,” Eisener said. “I get it. Especially going into public places and speaking in front of big crowds, I get huge anxiety about that kind of stuff. So I can’t imagine going into something like WrestleMania and you’re someone who suffers from extreme anxiety.”

Warrior mended his broken relationship with WWE and many of his former colleagues, including Hogan, when he went into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 5, 2014. After a WrestleMania weekend of closure and good feeling, Warrior died on April 8, 2014 of cardiovascular disease at 54. Husney said he learned while filming the episode that heart disease ran in Warrior’s family and that all the men on his side died in their 50s. Tyree told him and Eisener the reality of that was something Warrior was absolutely aware of all the time and felt his time may be limited.

“When you think about the quick rise and ruthlessness and cutthroat business tactics, all that he tried to manipulate his way to the top it makes you think, and his reconciliation moments before he dies makes you wonder if he’s all trying to get it in before his life ends short,” Husney said. “That to me was like, whoa that puts it in a different perspective.”