Evan Husney Details Working On The Renegade’s WCW Story For Dark Side Of The Ring Season 7

Evan Husney details working on The Renegade’s story for Dark Side of the Ring.

The 7th season of Dark Side of the Ring premiered this month on July 7. The season will cover Richard L. Wilson’s WCW gimmick, The Renegade, and that episode will air on August 4 on Vice TV.

Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, Evan Husney was asked about covering The Renegade’s story.

“Well, we’ve definitely looked at doing it in the years past. Mainly because a lot of the requests people have had for us tackling certain stories, it can’t be ignored the volume of people that wanted to see a Renegade episode. I think we had a thought in hindsight that was not very good, which was when we did the Ultimate Warrior episode in season three, we thought, ‘Hey, maybe we could touch on the Renegade stuff in that.’ Which, just in hindsight, would never have fit in, you know? So we looked at it back then, and then I think revisiting it in the years after, we were sort of like, ‘Is there enough here for a full hour long episode?’

Which is again, dumb in hindsight, because once you start making phone calls and you start talking to people, and you can fill out more of the story than what’s available, on the internet or what’s been talked about before. We were able to connect with his first wife. She filled in so much about Rick Wilson as a person, and what he was like before wrestling, because they got together before he got into wrestling. One of his former colleagues, because he was a male dancer prior to being in wrestling, or as Arn Anderson refers to him in the episode, ‘He was a dick dancer.’ I guess that’s a proper terminology. So she filled in that. Then one of his former colleagues, I guess, in that endeavor filled in also a lot about him.

I just, for whatever reason, was watching WCW at that time as a kid. But boy, oh, boy, I did not remember him lasting as long as he did in the company. I do not remember it lasting years, like three years or something. It’s like a long time. Obviously, the Renegade gimmick ran its course. But one piece of footage that really sealed the deal for me that I had not seen, and I don’t know how many people have seen, but when the Renegade character proved to be not successful, and they were ready to essentially hit the abort key on that, they did this angle with Jimmy Hart, and no shade at Jimmy, because I’m sure he was told to do this. But literally, Jimmy Hart is screaming at the Renegade in his face, literally inches away from his face, like, ‘You’re nothing, baby. You’re nobody,’ and he’s wiping the paint off his face in this really humiliating way and saying like, ‘You’re nobody, you’re just Rick. You’re just Rick.’

I’ve never seen a more like emasculating, humiliating assassination of a character on wrestling television. That was so unbelievably dark and tragic and then to know obviously  how Rick’s life came to an end under those just absolutely tragic and disturbing circumstances. I’m surprised we hadn’t done this episode years prior. It’s definitely a tragic one. But I think at the same time it shows what a great guy Rick was and especially prior to succumbing to a lot of the—for lack of a better term—sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle of wrestling. I think it does him justice.”

Sean mentions how The Renegade was completely removed from WCW history, despite being in the company for many years. Evan had the following to say about it:

“Yeah, and it might just not be obvious or it might not be a motivation or a driving factor to tell this person’s story from that company’s point of view or whatever. But it just goes to show, I never would have thought we would have been going into a seventh season. Every year it surprises me every single time. But it shows that still, no matter where you look, whatever rock you lift up and look what’s underneath there, there is a compelling, rich human story there. Even just a third tier player at WCW has that full three dimensional relatable story to tell. So I’m glad that we’ve done that and hopefully this brings more attention to his legacy and his life story. It’s unfortunately a sad and difficult one for sure.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Husney talks about the possibility of releasing unreleased interviews conducted for Dark Side of the Ring. Fans can read his comments here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s interview with Evan Husney in the embed linked at the top of this page. For more exclusive interviews, they can check out Fightful’s YouTube channel here.