Tyrus Explains Why He’ll Never Do Dark Side Of the Ring

Tyrus is not a fan of Dark Side Of the Ring to say the least, and he recently explained why he refuses to participate in the show. Vice TV has found success with its Dark Side franchise that kicked off with the wrestling docuseries. The show has run for six seasons, with a seventh reportedly on the way.

Tyrus appeared on TMZ Inside the Ring for an interview and during the conversation explained why he has an issue with the show. The former NWA World Champion explained that he doesn’t like the show’s focus on negativity. Tyrus added that he has been asked to do the show and emphatically refused. You can see highlights below:

On Refusing to Do Dark Side Of the Ring:

“I would never participate in those shows, ever. And I was asked a couple times, and it was always the same thing. It was always, ‘Go F yourself.’ I hate it that they pick apart the — There’s a dark side in everything. There’s a dark side in your office. And they always want to focus on that part of the wrestling business.

“They don’t want to focus on the camaraderie. They don’t want to focus on — there was a time when those guys were working 320 days a year to support their families. And they relied on each other. They didn’t have the things that we had when I was there, they didn’t have the insurances. They didn’t have you know, if you were hurt, it was a trainer who said, ‘Hey, take it off.’ Back when they were coming up, if you got hurt you lost your spot. “

On Talent Taking Care Of Each Other:

“I can remember my son’s grandfather — Haku, Ming, whichever one you want to refer to him as. Him and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, had a tremendous feud over the crown, with the king. And Hacksaw basically ruptured his Achilles tendon. So both of them would have sat home, while he healed. But instead, every night Haku took care of him out there. And he just worked his leg. And they were able to do that on the road because that’s what you had to do.

On His Issue With How the Show Approaches the Industry:

“When I see them do the Dark Sides and they want to talk about the horrible side of like drug addiction, guess what? In that era, you look at one sport, you look at one person in entertainment, you look at the writers who talked all the s**t? Every one of them had a substance abuse thing going on. It’s just so easy to pick on the wrestler, because we’re easy. Because we’re in front of you. And that’s why I would never — I don’t care what the situation is. Kiss my ass.

“I will never do anything to talk about the dark side of wrestling. Because you don’t know what the sacrifices — you only see what’s in front of the camera. You didn’t see these guys on pay phones trying to raise their families and keep their wives in their lives. You didn’t see these guys sacrificing driving four or five in a car to make towns. So, I get heated when I hear people talk about that stuff. Because some things you don’t need to know. But if you’re going to talk about the the bad things, then you should spend as much effort talking about what they’ve done, how many people’s lives they’ve influenced.”

On Wanting to Focus on the Positive Of Wrestling:

“I always think about you should always push the positive in wrestling. It’s not an easy business. It’s not for everyone, and it’s come forward now to where guys are protected with substance abuse. Guys are protected with injuries, guys are able to parlay it into other platforms. So it has grown tremendously and it just frustrates me.”

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