HorrorSage’s review published on Letterboxd:
Good evening and welcome fellow Children of Chaos.
Dark Side of the ring Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2.
Hooo boy Chris Benoit. What could very well be the most covered and analyzed event in wrestling history. And still so many questions.
Let me just drop this, and I know there is a subset of marks who are going to hate me for this.
Chris Benoit murdered his family. He was not the victim of Kevin Sullivan or the Wrestling Mafia or whatever the fuck these people want to spout because their hero turned out to be a murderer.
Chris Benoit did it, full stop!
Now why did he do it. Boy wouldn't we all love an answer. Was it because of the rage and evil of pro wrestling? No. Was it Grief? Was it steroid? CTE? Drugs and Alcohol? Stress?
If only there was a single answer. If only this was a movie and we could point to a moment and be like "The killer's motivation was revenge!"
But sadly that is not the case, it was likely a perfect storm of all of the above.
The first episode is almost more about Eddie Guerrero's death, and it actually is very relevant because everyone talks about how close Eddie and Chris were, and how in a lot of ways Eddie Guerrero was Chris Benoit's lone friend in the world. And you know how isolation can fuck a person up. And then losing that one last thing that you could hold onto, well you lose your grip.
Plus the CTE. I mean Chris Jericho said it man, in wrestling taking a chair to the face was a badge of honour. Having our head crashed was what got you over. So you did it. That's just what you did.
Yeah, it turns out that letting a dude smash you in the head with a bit of metal is really bad for you.
I love how blunt Chris Jericho is in this one. He just tells it how he thinks it is. And Chavo, how tragic. Hearing Woman's sister talk, honestly I really enjoyed, or well "enjoyed", her talking because so much of the story is about Chris, is about Wrestling. But Nancy Benoit's story is lost in all this mess. Nancy's legacy and story needs to be told as well
So let's ask this, should Benoit be in the hall of fame for what he did? I am going to say no, but it is an interesting question. Where do you draw the line, after all Snuka is in the hall of fame. Moolah is in. So, you know.