Evan Husney On Why Dark Side Of the Ring Did a Necro Butcher vs. Samoa Joe Episode

The new season of Dark Side of the Ring features an episode on the Necro Butcher vs. Samoa Joe match, something that Evan Husney recently spoke about. The new season premieres Tuesday with two parts of a three-part TNA and Jeff Jarrett episode, with an episode on the infamous IWA Mid-South match from 2005 airing on July 21st.

The match is infamous for its violence, unrestrained brawling and more, and Husney, who is the co-creater and executive producer on the show, spoke to POST Wrestling about deciding on that match for an episode. He related how season six’s episode on the Mick Foley vs. Undertaker Hell in the Cell match at King of the Ring ’98 was freeing for them in terms of the approach, and how they decided to do the same with this match. You can see the highlights below:

On The Origin Of the Episode:

“Well sometimes, you know, we can take great liberties with this platform that we have. And sometimes we decide — we don’t do this all the time, but sometimes it’s like, ‘Okay, we have this series,’ which is amazing. It’s incredible that we even have this opportunity, but sometimes you just want to do what you want to see on TV. And it’s like, ‘Nobody necessarily asked for this, but who cares? Let’s do it.’ And this was a match for me that I definitely remember hearing about, seeing on the internet a long time ago. And then I came across this video from a YouTuber named Justin Wang out on YouTube, and he had done this really great 20-minute deep dive on the match that was sort of like, ‘This is the greatest match of all time.’ Like, really putting it on a pedestal. And I was like, ‘Okay, wow.’ That got me to click, you know? So, I watched the video and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is magic. This is–‘ Yes, it’s two guys literally beating the ever-loving s**t out of each other in a match, and it’s pretty much real and we’re watching some insane street fight. It’s crazy.”

On How the Hell in the Cell Episode Felt Freeing:

“What we found with doing Hell in the Cell, like giving even more focus to a story. Like, ‘we’re just going to tell a story about 18 minutes’. That’s how long the match was, right? So, we’re going to forensically go through one match. And then of course, that match is significant because it’s the archetypal, it’s the microcosm of Mick’s career. It says everything you need to know about Mick as an individual and his philosophy towards wrestling, and it has all the dramatic stakes of like, ‘Oh my god, he could have died.’ And of course, there’s all these physiological effects that he’s dealing with now to this day; it’s changed him in many ways. And it’s complicated emotionally and things like that.

“So, for us that sandbox of working in like, ‘Let’s do one hour on one match’ just felt very exciting and new, and was cool.”

On Deciding to Do the Episode:

“So, then it was like, ‘Okay.’ Clicking on that YouTube video, watching it, and kind of reappreciating the match. And being like, ‘Okay, what would Necro Butcher and Joe say about this match? What was on the line for them? How does this represent them as performers? What are the stakes going into it? How did it come together?’ And then if you were to go through every spot in the match and make them revisit it, tell the story behind it, tell us the stories of the things that we’re not seeing with our own eyes, and so on and so forth. Then it just became really exciting.”

On Putting the Episode Together:

“It was awesome. It’s just an exhilarating hour of TV because it’s — you know, it’s an obviously very violent match, but it does also bring to light what was going on in the indies at that time. That was such an exciting time for the indies. Like, the next generation of talent came out of that, and what was going on with ROH and all that stuff. And of course, the rise of the internet, fan culture, message boards and what dream matches people wanted to see, and how the fan internet interaction kind of bled into wrestling booking and things like that.

“So yeah, I think it’s a cool time capsule of that period in time, but also just like, ‘Here is one of the craziest, most violent, insane matches you’ve ever seen, and let’s go deep on it.’

On Necro Butcher Being a National Star If He Came Up Today:

“You’re 100% right. I think it’s like, the timing of when his career kind of — when he was active most. Even though he’s still wrestling today, which gives me a lot of anxiety. But yeah, I mean, he really embodies, similar with Mick, maybe on like another level. He really embodies that sort of like self-sacrifice, impervious to pain, ‘you can’t hurt me’ sort of mindset going into this the wacky performative nature of wrestling.

“And I think we go deep a little bit on his childhood, and what he went through, and what are those traumas? What are those formative moments that made him impervious to pain and someone who is going to put himself and push himself past the limits like anybody. I mean, his head makes contact with concrete multiple times in that match. And then let’s not forget he after that was like, “Oh, I got another match. I got to wrestle later that night.” And it’s just crazy, it’s just wild. He was part of that sort of crew in the wake of ECW. He was part of that crew who just pushed things beyond anything we’d ever dreamed of in that underground deathmatch world. But he’s a compelling character, and he’s definitely a foundational person who is important, I think. And also, somebody who is a student of wrestling, understands the psychology. And even though you might write him off as a garbage kind of wrestler or whatever, he really does understand the philosophy and all of that stuff of wrestling and applied it to his wild and wacky craft.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit POST Wrestling with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.