Vice TV announced their 2022-2023 programming slate this week, and despite it being their most popular show ever, “Dark Side of the Ring” was not part of it. The show explores everything from the sex trafficking accusations of The Fabulous Moolah, Jimmy Snuka and the murder of Nancy Argentino, the closeted life of Chris Kanyon, Chris Benoit’s horrific act of familicide, and the infamous “Plane Ride from Hell.” The show has been mired in controversy from the very beginning, and that’s a very, very good thing. “Dark Side of the Ring” was not a perfect show by any means, and while plenty of the stories have been told in unauthorized retellings like Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham’s book “Sex, Lies, and Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment,” the docuseries allows the people directly involved to have their voices heard in a way that doesn’t require approval from federations.

Wrestling, as an art form, thrives in ambiguity. The lines between fiction and reality are so often blurred, that Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, had to testify in court that he does not have a 10-inch penis, but his character Hulk Hogan does. The magical realism of pro wrestling is part of its charm, but also allowed an abusive culture of deception to fester. If WWE is willing to lie and inflate their audience attendance numbers every year at WrestleMania, how can we expect them to be completely transparent with their controversial history? “Dark Side of the Ring” isn’t just a great docuseries about the underbelly of pro wrestling, it’s also a great piece of investigative journalism.