Dark Side Of The Ring - The Double Life of Chris Kanyon FULL RECAP
Chris Kanyon was one of the most innovative and versatile performers of his era, living a secret he protected to a tragic end. Read the full recap of Dark Side of the Ring’s The Double Life of Chris Kanyon.
The Intro
DDP discusses how he loved working with Kanyon while James Mitchell notes that Chris was the Innovator of Offense.
In the 1990s, Chris Kanyon rose from absurdity to become one of the most innovative and versatile performers of the era pioneering a style that would set the stage for decades to come.
Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks states that Chris was one of the most underappreciated wrestlers of all time.
Despite success and the respect from his peers, Kanyon lived with a deep secret that he believed if revealed would end his career in an instant.
James Mitchell had no idea that Chris was gay. As one of his best friends, DDP had no idea either.
Concealing the truth became one of Kanyon’s obsessions which also led to erratic behaviour that terrified those closest to him. He was manic and out of his mind.
The Episode
The episode kicks off with a clip of Chris Kanyon in WCW asking, “Who betta than Kanyon? Nobody!”
The Young Bucks are introduced and point out that in the 90s, you had to have a catchphrase.
DDP noted how Chris Kanyon was in the Top 5% of workers he loved being in the ring with.
Matt and Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks believe that Chris Kanyon was doing the “Independent wrestling style” before anybody else.
Rafael Morffi, an executive from All Elite Wrestling, makes his formal introduction and grew up with Chris in Sunnyside, Queens, New York. The two attended grammar school and high school together. Even as a child, Chris adored wrestling. Rafael also pointed out that with him being Catholic, it’s a factor as to why he was never comfortable with his sexual orientation.
When James Mitchell (Manager) was first introduced to Chris, he presented himself as a tough guy from Queens, New York and very anti-homosexual. James wanted to get Chris into a ring, but the only one nearby belonged to the Fabulous Moolah. James insisted that he do the talking and bullshit her to get Chris in the door. Moolah only trained women but was very impressed with Chris. Mae Young was around and would jump in the ring and shoot on Chris Kanyon.
In 1996, Chris Kanyon caught the attention of WCW and would soon realize his dream of performing on national television.
Narrator Chris Jericho would then be in front of the camera and recalls him being part of the tag-team, Men at Work with Mark Starr. Their gimmick was that they were two construction workers turned wrestlers who wore jeans to the ring. They would also measure things for no apparent reason. Due to Kanyon’s lisp, he was always nervous to do a promo.
James Mitchell shares a story of when Chris called him to tell him he had a U-Haul and was with his cousins moving boxes. One of the boxes contained gay pornography which exploded all over the street like a pinata. When asked if it was his porn, Chris noted it was some sick rib from Daryl Van Horne, which was James Mitchell’s character name at the time. Chris then wanted James to call his cousin and read a very elaborate script about how he needed to get in touch with Chris because he left some “material” with him. James ended up being the only person who knew Chris was gay since he confessed it. Chris wanted James to cover for him.
The Blood Runs Cold storyline would cast Ray Lloyd as Glacier, a character inspired by Mortal Kombat’s Sub-Zero. Chris emerged as his nemesis Mortis with manager James Vandenberg (James Mitchell) by his side. This ended up being Kanyon’s big break.
Both Jericho and DDP joke that Vandenballs would have never had a career without Kanyon.
After celebrating a victory, James noted that he was about to drive him and Chris home, but the car wouldn’t start. Chris started to get angry until the car eventually turned on. During the trip, Chris would repeatedly elbow James while cursing him out. Upon dropping Kanyon off, he would kick open the car door and then kick out every headlight on James’ car. The whole ordeal was due to Kanyon being upset over the fact he had a lisp and depended on James.
Chris would start to grow even more paranoid about his colleagues discovering his innermost secret.
Matt Jackson pointed out that if you were gay in those days, you were portraying the heel.
Jericho said that back in those days, being gay wasn’t as accepted as it is now.
Brian Cage makes his first appearance to suggest that Chris was likely very worried about how he would be presented if it was discovered by the company or the boys in the locker room that he was gay. Cage introduces himself as an AEW wrestler along with a big-time fan, close friend and unofficial trainee of Chris Kanyon’s. Chris Kanyon was a mentor to Brian Cage who greatly influenced his wrestling style and even helped him receive opportunities.
James brought up the control center that Chris Kanyon had where he would spend days trolling for boyfriends and print long-winded conversations from these guys which would be alphabetized and organized in a metal box. There were always questions from others about the box, which Chris would dismiss. James referred to it as pandora’s box. James questioned why he contained the box if he was paranoid about being outed as gay and compared it to Richard Nixon keeping his Watergate tapes. James wondered if he was hoping that someone would knock it over similar to what happened with his cousin and the U-Haul.
DDP noted that what was great about the Mortis character for Chris was the fact he could hide behind the mask.
Once the nWo started taking over WCW, Chris Kanyon knew that his push was dead. The over the top characters would be phased out in favour of a more reality-based product.
With growing frustration, Chris would lash out at James Mitchell. One evening, Chris went off on James and choked him to the point of blacking out. Chris snapped back to reality and realized how much he loved James as a friend and would never mean to hurt him. James noted, “I was loyal to him, but there’s no reason to be beating my ass.”
After ditching the Mortis gimmick, Chris would be re-introduced to fans as Kanyon. DDP brought up how Eric Bischoff had a lot of faith in Kanyon, which led to his work on Ready to Rumble and teaching David Arquette to take bumps.
Making good money in WCW, Chris Kanyon would throw some lavish parties to the point where he turned his house into a beach bar nightclub. Girls would flock to him, but Chris no-sold it. At one point, a girl mentioned to James, “I think your friend might be gay.” James relayed this to Chris, who grew even more paranoid.
Chris tasked James to film a porno of him with a girl, so Kanyon could prove to the boys he was straight. Kanyon failed to show up, so this girl was wearing the Mortis mask and James Mitchell would film himself with her. James showed the tape to Chris, who would initially laugh and then become furious. Chris would suddenly grab a can of conditioner and accuse James of using it, despite the fact he was nearly bald. Mitchell started to notice that same look in Kanyon’s eyes from the time of the choking incident. Kanyon would knock James over the bed with both fists, but Mitchell had a 45 under a pillow and grabbed it. James would yell, “F*ck you! You hit me again, you’re f*cking dead!” The situation would then defuse.
A producer asked, “Were you planning on shooting him if you had to?” James responded with, “Yeah, yeah I was.” It would have been due to reasonable fear and he had to defend himself.
Despite the outbursts, Kanyon’s stock continued to rise. WWF purchased WCW, which allowed him to be on television and even become a double champion by holding the United States Championship and Tag-Team Championship simultaneously. Vince would even pull Chris aside and commend him on how well he adjusted to the company.
DDP felt Chris was in a great spot, but you don’t know what you don’t know.
Kanyon would frequently invite James Mitchell to stay with him for weeks or months at a time. James recalled Chris sitting on the floor to spend time stacking and restacking papers, which turned out to be from the IRS. Chris would also spend days in bed drinking, which James admitted in hindsight not identifying this behaviour as serious depression.
After suffering an injury, Chris was concerned about getting fired, so turned to steroids in an attempt to rehab his injury. After leaving the needle out, he sustained an infection, which caused him to lose substantial weight.
Despite a long road to recovery while battling severe depression, Chris would be brought back to SmackDown, citing to friends that this would be a prominent role.
The segment would be shown with Paul Heyman presenting The Undertaker with a gift, which was a big wooden box. Chris was instructed to open the wooden box and with a lisp, sing Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” where he would impersonate Boy George.
The Young Bucks recalled being at this show and popping for Kanyon since they were fans of his, but he would get viciously destroyed by The Undertaker. Why would they bring him out just to massacre him?
Chris Jericho speculated that it’s quite suspect that this segment would have been put together out of the blue as someone would have found something out about Chris, so let’s put him on blast. It was a bullying tactic meant to hurt him. Rafael wasn’t buying the theory that WWE wanted to publically humiliate him.
Following the segment, Chris would quickly be moved down the card and eventually released.
At first, Chris explained to James Mitchell that he was fired as punishment, but later confessed it was a lie and just using it as an ace in the hole if he ever wanted to sue them.
James couldn’t tell what was factual and what wasn’t.
Devasted by his release from WWE, Chris Kanyon would find meaning in mentoring a new generation of wrestling stars.
In 2005, The Young Bucks were booked on the same show as Chris, which was a thrill since the brothers both looked up to him. They all became friends.
Footage of a match between Chris Kanyon and a much younger and smaller Brian Cage was shown. Chris insisted on putting Brian over since Cage was the hometown favourite. Brian considered this a Top 3 match and moment in his life.
Professional wrestler Luke Hawx makes his introduction, who considered Chris a good friend. In fact, Luke has an image of Mortis tattooed on his arm.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit and Luke was impacted. Chris was the first person to call him and offered Luke a place to stay.
Apparently, Chris would stay up for 3 or 4 days at a time in Clearwater Beach. The Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization is also located in Clearwater. Chris would go looking for the Scientology building and claimed that aliens were inside. Meanwhile, this all occurred at home rather than in his car as he originally stated. Luke and others were forced to tie Chris down as he was determined to break into the building. Once Chris woke up, he was perfectly fine and had no memory of what happened.
Chris would underdo treatment for bipolar disorder. He would feel empowered to open up about his sexuality. Chris would confide in Luke, The Young Bucks and Brian Cage that he was gay. Everybody was accepting and very happy for him.
By this point, Chris had discussed performing as an openly gay wrestler, but James wondered how he would portray that.
At World Wrestling Legends in 2006, Chris Kanyon would come out as gay following a match with DDP. By this point, it was too little, too late. In 2005, Orlando Jordan was on WWE television and they were going to announce him as an openly gay wrestler. Kanyon believed they were stealing his gimmick. James would tell Chris, “You don’t have a patent on being gay and you didn’t bring it up to them before.”
Chris would then write a letter to Stephanie McMahon asking to be the spokesman for gay athletes. Stephanie would respectfully write him back, but they never were in contact again.
Years prior, Chris essentially blackballed himself with the company after attempting to gain their attention by jumping into the ring at WrestleMania 20 and climbing the turnbuckle following the celebration with Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero.
Kanyon was invited to an afterparty but put his arm around Vince McMahon and said, “Thanks for inviting me to the party even though you fired me.”
Jericho brought up how there were stories of Kanyon sitting front row at a WWE live event where he would be screaming, “Give me justice!”
He started to become taboo to work with, which led him to disappear from the scene for a while.
Matt Jackson had grown close with Chris and before heading into the shower, received a call from his friend. Matt stated that Chris was crying, threatening suicide and asking for prayers. At 19 years old, Matt Jackson found himself convincing one of his heroes not to kill himself, which was undoubtedly heavy. Eventually, Chris would calm down.
In 2006, Chris Kanyon became a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show where he displayed his quick wit and made fun of himself.
Chris brought up a story where ahead of the segment where he was meant to portray Boy George, he was instructed to “sing like a f*ggot.”
An October 11, 2006 appearance with John Cena is shown where Howard brought up that Chris believes Vince is a homophobe and fired for being a gay man. John disagreed and noted Chris came out of the closest after being fired and it was due to “not being very good.”
Brian Cage was livid when John Cena made that statement.
One week later, Ric Flair called and chatted with Chris Kanyon. Now, Chris loved Ric Flair and was shocked that The Nature Boy wrote him off too. Ric would say, “I’m disappointed in Chris as a person. I’ve known Chris a long time but blames his shortcomings on something going on in his personal life.” This was Kanyon’s hero, but Ric was put in a position to say, you're a great guy, but you’re not The Nature Boy or Stone Cold. Ric agreed with John and felt Chris was not good enough to be on WWE television.
The last time James Mitchell saw him was featured in a match for Mikey Whipwreck’s promotion in 2010. James felt Chris looked horrible and it was undeniably his worst performance live.
Despite a flat finish, Chris was holding court at the bar with everyone enjoying his presence.
Later at the hotel, Chris was in pain and admitted to James it was due to the fact he jumped in front of a car days earlier to attempt suicide.
James was upset since he just saw the outpouring of love at the bar, but Chris explained it was James who was being selfish since no one knew what it was like to live inside his head, feel like a freak and hate yourself every day.
At this point, James Mitchell had tears in his eyes explaining the story then brought up how Chris calmed down and it suddenly transformed into an episode of This Is Your Life where they were howling over memories together. The good old days. James admitted to crying on the plane ride home and noting to his wife that he felt “Chris was actually gonna do it this time.”
James called every day for two weeks, but Chris ignored the calls. DDP admitted seeing him on the final day and knowing “he wasn’t going to be around for much longer.”
On April 2, 2010, Chris was found dead in his childhood home in Sunnyside Queens, New York. The cause of death was an overdose of anti-depressants and ruled a suicide. He was only 40 years old.
Brian Cage, Luke, DDP and others all felt numb and upset. James Mitchell knew immediately that a call at 6 am to learn about the news could only be for something tragic to have occurred.
Luke Hawk took comfort in at least knowing that his friend isn’t suffering, but loves and misses him deeply.
James Mitchell tearfully stated, “I f*cking owe everything to the guy. He’s horribly missed.”
Chris Jericho brings up how it’s rare to come across people no one really has a bad word to say about and Chris was one of them.
James described Chris as a tortured soul and wishes that he could have guided him the right way. Mitchell would plead with viewers, “If you know anyone who is bipolar or schizophrenic or anything like that to where there are mental health issues are interfering with their day to day existence, do what you have to do. F*ck any secrets you have, go out there and get them help and save them.”
The Young Bucks believed that Chris definitely opened the door for others to be more comfortable with coming out and was a pioneer.
Rafael believed that Chris would be a hero right now, but it was just too much of a cross for him to bear.
DDP brought up how now there are gay and trans wrestlers and it is essentially a different world.
Chris opened the door for a new generation of wrestlers who emulate his moves, such as Brian Cage.
Matt Jackson brought up a story about how Chris mentioned wanting to be in their shoes breaking into the business. The brothers were perplexed by this since he had been on national television, but Chris would say, “The journey there is so much better than the destination.”
The episode ended with James Mitchell joking that if he had an Oujia board, he would tell Chris how great of a friend he was, then hug him. After falling through, Chris would say, “Mother f*cker, you missed!”