Evan Husney Discusses the Challenges of Making the Big Boss Man Episode for Dark Side of the Ring

Speaking to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Dark Side of the Ring executive producer and co-creator Evan Husney discussed making for the episode for late WWE Hall of Famer Big Boss Man.

Evan Husney on the Challenges of Making the Big Boss Man Episode

“Big Boss Man—holy crap, so important to me as a kid. When I think back to when I first got into wrestling, actually, my gateway into wrestling as like a five-year-old was when my parents came home from [Toys “R” Us] and bought me a Big Boss Man Hasbro figure. Because I was into dressing up like cops or army guys or whatever, and they thought I might like it. I was like, ‘What is this?’ and then it was understanding who Hulk Hogan is; then the rest is history. But Big Boss Man is the beginning for me. So this was just personally awesome to be able to tell his story.

“But challenges, when you’re telling a story like this, unfortunately, Ray Traylor’s story, he’s part of that sort of epidemic, if you will, of wrestlers who passed away before their time, when there was that just awful mixture of the hard-traveling lifestyle of a wrestler, muscle relaxers, medication, just bad combinations of things. He was right in the middle of that, for sure.”

On Connecting With Big Boss Man’s Family

“But the challenges are really the family and connecting with the family and hoping that they want to be a part of something like this and that they have a story to tell and they’ve kept archive or they’ve kept things that can show a different side to the person, which in this case they did. They’ve kept everything, which is amazing. In the episode, you’ll see all this original Boss Man memorabilia, like the nightstick and the outfits and things, which is really cool to see.

“Also, all this home video footage, like Ray just filming around the house as his kids are growing up, and you can just tell he’s just like the most lovable, amazing dad of all time. It breaks your heart because here’s a guy who’s going out and trying to provide for his family, and just the lifestyle that you have to be on the road constantly and go through so much physical pain and torture to keep up appearances and keep your spot, and I think this story really gets into that.

“But of course it also gets into his final years in WWE, which, God, I remember when that, when that was happening and it was just so insane. Because at first I was really excited about it. I remember when they brought him in I was really excited because it was like they did this update to the character. They gave him the military SWAT fatigues, and now he’s going to be a badass. He’s inserted literally into the mix with McMahon and Austin. So he’s right up at the top there.”

On Big Boss Man Having a Proto-Shield Look When He Returned to WWE in 1998

“It’s like proto-Shield look. He’s killing it. It was very exciting because this character is back now. It’s like the Big Boss Man is back. It was very cool. Then it was like, what the hell is going on? I just had one of these; I don’t even know. This is kind of weird to share, but like I had this weird out-of-body moment where you kind of check yourself like, ‘Oh, yeah, wait, this is my day job.’ When I walked into our studio when we’re filming the reenactments for this season and just being taken aback by the absurdity of that, ‘Yes, we’re hanging our own Big Boss Man from the ceiling,’ you know? It’s just like, ‘What is this job that I have? To like re-stage these very esoteric and weird, eccentric, niche moments in wrestling history.’ It’s a bizarre job, but boy, am I thankful for it. It’s incredible how it’s all turned out, but it’s weird.”

New episodes of Dark Side of the Ring Season 7 debut on Tuesday nights on VICE TV. The Big Boss Man episode debuts on July 28 on VICE.