Dark Side Of The Ring Recap: XPW

The third season of Dark Side of the Ring is nearing its end, and this final run has thrown up more talking points than the show ever has done before. Between the Plane Ride From Hell and Chris Kanyon, more eyes have been on Dark Side recently than have been in the past. If that was the case again this week, then many wrestling fans would have been introduced to a violent corner of wrestling history they may never have heard of before.

That violent corner is XPW. Described to New Jack as ECW on steroids, as he relays in the show, XPW was an extreme wrestling promotion run by Rob Black. Black made a name for himself in the porn industry and, as is shown in the episode, that half of his life overlapped a lot with his wrestling company.

Working With And Against ECW

Even though XPW claims to have been inspired by ECW and took what it did to the next level, it was actually born from a relationship with Paul Heyman's promotion. ECW was very much an east coast company during the late '90s. Heyman and Black saw an opportunity to expand that style of wrestling to the west coast, hence the intent to strike up a deal.

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ECW got its first network deal shortly after that. That meant its weekly show was available outside of its usual markets. Heyman, no longer having any use for Black, backed out of the agreement. That fueled Black to push his vision even harder and that's when XPW was truly born. When ECW held a show in LA, Black had wrestlers go sit in the front row and disrupt it. Security eventually threw them out and members of the ECW roster beat up XPW ring crew backstage.

Although it would never reach the same heights as ECW's fame, XPW actually outlasted the promotion that turned its nose up at it. ECW folded in 2001, at which point a number of its notable names gave XPW a try. Sabu, Shane Douglas, and New Jack are just a few names synonymous with ECW that wrestled on XPW shows after the company folded and Heyman joined up with WWE.

Escalate The Action

When Black said he wanted XPW to go beyond ECW, he wasn't kidding. That applied both backstage and in the ring. The promoter continued to work in the porn industry throughout XPW's run, even filming stuff in the offices backstage. As for what was happening in the ring, things got incredibly extreme.

One example that sticks out for a lot of people in the episode is a fire spot gone wrong. Supreme gets put through a flaming table. However, since an oil-based charcoal fluid was used to light it, Supreme caught fire and went up in flames after the spot. After being put out and then pinned, he was so burned that some of his skin stuck to his opponent when he stood up.

Luke Hawx, who has appeared on Dark Side in the past, detailed getting chewed out by Black for putting his hands up to protect himself from a chair shot to the head. Apparently, that was a no-no in XPW. To punish him for doing so, Black had Supreme handcuff Hawx and hit him over and over in the head with a chair. Hawx was not told this was going to happen. He suffered a severe concussion and still has a dent in his head to this day.

The Messiah's Missing Thumb

One of XPW's top stars was The Messiah, real name William Welch. Welch is a big part of the episode and explains how he became close with Black's wife, Lizzy. That eventually resulted in the two of them sleeping together which obviously angered Black. Welch was fired from XPW and told to leave the state, but he refused.

Welch continued his career elsewhere and one day decided to visit an XPW show as a fan. Even though he sat near the back, Black found out he was there and was furious. Later that night, two men showed up at Welch's house and attempted to choke him out. While they had him pinned to the floor, one of the intruders cut off Welch's thumb. They failed in their attempts to cut off the other one and Welch eventually fought them off. Even though many in the episode suspect Black was the one who sent them, there is no evidence and charges were never brought against anyone for the attack.

That Scaffold Match

Despite everything that happened in XPW, and everything that has already been mentioned above, perhaps the most infamous moment in the promotion's history is New Jack's scaffold match. New Jack wrestled Vic Grimes in the match and goes into it with the intent of killing his opponent, something New Jack openly admitted in his own episode of Dark Side.

Grimes had accidentally fractured Jack's skull in a match two years prior, and Jack saw this as his chance to get revenge. With the structure swaying, Jack uses a stun gun on Grimes and proceeds to throw him off of it, aiming for the concrete on the outside of the ring. Thankfully, Grimes' legs hit the ropes and he bounces back into the ring. Had Jack's plan worked, Grimes would have almost definitely died.

A new detail to arise from the retelling of the scaffold match is the reveal that XPW had no insurance for the show. The man in charge of setting up that sort of thing admitted on the episode that he scanned an old insurance document and edited it to include the details for that show instead. He fooled the people running the building and was subsequently terrified watching what went down between Grimes and Jack.

Challenging The Government

The beginning of the end of XPW began when the government came after Black for the new levels his work in the porn industry had reached. Black claimed people were bored with what they had, hence him including some pretty awful things in his movies. Black challenged a government official to try and take him down, and after multiple attempts they eventually did. Black and his wife both spent time in prison after that.

The revenue generated from Black's porn work funded XPW, which meant it eventually had to shut down as work the flow of cash into the promotion slowly dried up. Black is still alive today but didn't respond to Dark Side when they asked him to be a part of the episode. Apparently, he has a wife, children, and runs a burger joint now. Despite everything that went down, everyone who took part in the episode said they would do it all again if given the chance.