Various: Dark Side of the Ring Season 3 Airing Update & Ratings, Friday’s NJPW Strong Card, Indies

Jun 11, 2021

Dark Side of The Ring Season 3 Resuming This September & Select Episode Ratings

Following Thursday’s airing of the Dynamite Kid episode, VICE TV’s Dark Side of the Ring series entered its mid-season break for its current third season.

The official Twitter account for the series announced that the series will resume with the second half of Season 3 starting this September.

Thank you all for tuning in 🙏 See you again in September.

In the meantime, we got some editing to do! pic.twitter.com/LObTNFfCBq
— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) June 11, 2021

In regards to the ratings for the first half of Season 3, the Nick Gage episode on May 13th reportedly drew 163,000 viewers and a 0.07 key demographic rating, according to Programming Insider.

The Grizzly Smith episode on June 3rd reportedly drew 243,000 viewers and a 0.09 key demographic rating, according to Spoiler TV.

Fightful reported that the viewership and ratings for both the Collision in Korea episode on May 20th and the Ultimate Warrior episode on May 27th are currently not known.

Full Card for Friday’s Episode of NJPW Strong

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for tonight’s Road to Ignition 2021 themed episode of NJPW Strong, which airs on New Japan World starting at 10PM EST.

Alex Coughlin vs. Hikuleo
Lio Rush & Rocky Romero vs. The DKC & Clark Connors
Jordan Clearwater & Misterioso vs. Wheeler Yuta & Fred Yehi

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Ring of Honor recently announced that Vita VonStarr is the next official entrant for their Women’s World Championship tournament, which takes place this summer.

Major League Wrestling announced that they have recently signed Arez to an official contract with the company. Arez was among those drafted to the company as part of this week’s MLW Open Draft Round 4.

MLW also announced that this year’s Battle Riot III event will take place on July 10th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Legendary Japanese women’s wrestler Manami Toyota reportedly has been hospitalized for the past several days in Japan due to recent shoulder surgery, according to PWInsider.

Former WWE tag team Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) recently denied rumors of them being retired from wrestling following their release from WWE in September of 2020. Fighful Select reported that several wrestlers in the indies had pushed for their respective companies to sign the team but it led to nowhere in the end. It was reported that AEW considered the idea of signing the team but decided against it due to not being sure they would be a good fit while NJPW was not interested due to monetary reasons. It was also reported that both are currently working regular jobs.

During a recent interview with Proresu Today (English translation via PostWrestling.com), Atsushi Onita revealed that he is currently working on plans to run a tour in the United States in the near future for his new FMWE promotion. Onita stated:

“The biggest challenge is finding a venue. The Fire Service Act is different in each state, and the restrictions are different depending on the venue. I have already asked an American friend to investigate legal matters and select venue candidates, but it is said that it is difficult. I’ve always wanted to show American fans my original [explosion show], I have to do it. American Deathmatch fans were at CZW’s 2017 [explosion match]. I was disappointed and disappointed in AEW during this time. Excuse me, but at the time of CZW, maybe because of the budget, I was told, ‘I can’t call Japanese engineers, leave it to us.’ I believed that. AEW sent a [congratulations] message to Kenny Omega and Moxley, but AEW prepared the [explosion] on its own and I wasn’t involved at all, but the fans were disappointed. In particular, I was disappointed and felt responsible.”