‘Dr. D’ David Schultz was a man dedicated to his craft. He engaged in pre-determined fights and made them look as real as possible. Then after the show was over, he would carry on as if everything that had happened was legit. No getting caught having a beer with your hated enemy after the match. Always keeping in character in case anyone recognises you. This practice is known as keeping ‘Kayfabe’, a tradition that has seen several wrestlers take drastic action to keep the illusion of their sport alive.

What does this have to do with David Schultz? Well, on December 28, 1984, David Schultz hit investigative reporter John Stossel so hard he had pain in his ear for months, just for inquiring if wrestling was fake. The incident put wrestling under enormous scrutiny for months, started a six-figure lawsuit, and ended Schultz’s career. This is the so-called ‘Slap Heard Around the World’, and it’s this week’s Dark Side of the Ring subject.

Now, I’ll admit the dangers of kayfabe is something I’ve been banging on about for years. It may be one of the most bizarre and unique features of wrestling, but kayfabe is obsolete in the information age. Many wrestlers, who decades ago would have whipped people for revealing their secrets, now make podcasts dedicated to blowing those same secrets wide open.

Then there’s the shady way that kayfabe has been protected, many times through intimidation and threats. No matter how you feel about the sanctity of kayfabe, John Stossel – a man many pounds lighter and inches shorter than Schultz – should never have been assaulted in the line of journalistic duty. But kayfabe isn’t the focus of the episode, Schultz himself is. Sure, the infamous slapping incident takes up the bulk of the running time, but the episode is mainly about the life of Dr. D, from his time training with Herb Welch, his feud with Hogan, his time in Japan, to his stint as a bounty hunter. And this decision is possibly why this episode of Dark Side is its weakest so far.

It’s understandable that Vice would want to stick to their brief. Keep one character as your focal point, and use them to humanise the topic. Make the show too broad, and casual fans might get lost or overwhelmed by the insane inner workings of sports entertainment. But for every rule, there is an exception, and this episode might have proven to be it for the series.

The truth is, the slap wasn’t that big of a deal. I mean, it was for Stossel, and I’m glad he made a ton of money out of it, but as far as wrestling is concerned, not even Dark Side themselves seem that convinced it was an important moment in wrestling. After all the fuss made about David Schultz having gone to extreme lengths to protect the business, it was Vince McMahon himself – the man behind the order to slap down Stossel, according to Schultz – who eventually blew the lid on the pre-determined nature of wrestling, somewhat rendering the events of that day redundant.

They understand the moment itself doesn’t have much meat to it, but they’ve got 42 minutes to fill, which is why they wade further into biopic territory, moving further away from the much more interesting theme of kayfabe. Even worse is that Schultz’s life may have seemed worthy of being documented by Dark Side if reality television hadn’t spent the last two decades endlessly documenting people with lives far wilder than his. Dog the Bounty Hunter looks like David Schultz with all of his attributes turned up to 11, even movie star Steven Seagal got into the crime-based reality TV action with his show Lawman, making Schultz’s time as a bounty hunter seem pretty pedestrian in comparison. It can’t even compete with other biographies in this series, like the New Jack episode, which is twice as enthralling and horrifying.

This program has covered the murder of Bruiser Brody, the allegations against The Fabulous Moolah, and the Benoit tragedy. This can’t help but seem a little inconsequential in comparison. Even as I saw what they were going for, I couldn’t help but think of more interesting angles for this show to cover.

Want to see a wrester go too far protecting kayfabe? Google, ‘Ric Flair, plane crash.’ Want to see wrestlers intimidating journalists? Watch McMahon himself lose his cool over being questioned about his worker’s safety. Want to see a good episode of Dark Side of the Ring? Literally, every single other episode is miles more vital than this one.

David Schultz & The Slap Heard Round the World airs on Vice TV UK tonight at 10 PM.

All images courtesy of Dark Side of the Ring Facebook, Vice TV Twitter, and video is courtesy of VICE YouTube