Dark Side Of The Ring Co-Creator and Executive Producer Evan Husney is tempering expectations ahead of the upcoming TNA-focused episodes of the hit Vice TV series.
As previously announced, season seven of Dark Side of the Ring premieres on July 7, with the opening episodes centered on the history of TNA Wrestling and company founder Jeff Jarrett. What was initially planned as a two-part story ultimately expanded into a three-part presentation, with the final installment airing on July 14.
Speaking on The Jim Cornette Experience (full episode below), Husney suggested that viewers expecting a lighthearted look at some of TNA’s more infamous moments may be surprised by the direction of the documentary.
“At first glance, you may think this piece might be just sort of an ‘lol at TNA’ episode or story,” Husney said. “But really beneath the surface is a really searing, emotional and very tragic story, that’s very emotional. I think that’s going to be very unexpected for a lot of viewers of the show.”
According to Husney, the scope of the project quickly grew beyond its original format once producers reviewed the material they had gathered.
The Season 7 trailer is here!
The season begins with a 3-part look at the controversy and backstage battles that defined TNA Wrestling through the eyes of @RealJeffJarrett.
The 3-part TNA event begins with a 2-hour premiere July 7 on @VICETV and concludes the following week. pic.twitter.com/WN5RHUHI1s
— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) June 3, 2026
“It was initially conceived to be a two-hour exploration that would open the new season. We had to go to the third hour, essentially.”
He continued, “We would have been trying to pack in too much. We would have breezed over too much. We would have left too much out.”
Husney explained that the production team actively pushed for additional runtime in order to properly tell the story.
“We kind of went to the network begging and pleading for that third hour so we could let the story breathe a little bit more and we could get into a little more of the side quests along the way.”
While some fans questioned whether TNA warranted a three-hour documentary treatment, Husney believes viewers will understand the decision once they watch the series.
“I knew that people’s reaction were going to be, ‘Really? Three hours for this?’ But I think once people see it, they’ll understand because we’re covering a long period of time here.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Husney revealed that the TNA project was originally envisioned as a standalone documentary series rather than part of the Dark Side of the Ring franchise.
“Originally going way back when we did that Who Killed WCW? miniseries, that was sort of a separate doc thing we did. The idea was to continue in that tradition and do TNA as the next sort of deep-dive exploration that we would have done on its own.”
He noted that the concept could have evolved into a larger series examining major wrestling promotions throughout history.
“Maybe we could have done ECW and it could have kept going as sort of like a promotion-by-promotion doc miniseries after miniseries. For whatever reason, Vice didn’t want to do that.”
Instead, the producers folded the project into the Dark Side of the Ring umbrella, though the original vision was significantly larger.
“The only way to really keep that alive was to make it part of the Dark Side platform that we have. Originally it was going to be six parts. That’s what it was going to be as a standalone thing. It was going to be The Six Sides of TNA is what we were going to call it.”
Featured below when to expect this season’s episodes:
- * July 7 – Jeff Jarrett/TNA Wrestling Parts One and Two
* July 14 – Jeff Jarrett/TNA Wrestling Part Three
* July 21 – Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher
* July 28 – The Big Bossman
* August 4 – Renegade Rick Wilson
* August 11 – “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff
* August 18 – Missy Hyatt
* August 25 – Zach Gowen
New episodes of Dark Side of the Ring will air every Tuesday night at 10/9c on Vice TV.
