The comic book world and the wrestling world rarely meet, let alone appear in the same comic book. Ringside, which can be purchased here, is a new comic book series published by Image Comics that follows a washed up former professional wrestler moving on with his life without the squared circle. This wrestler is Dan Knousso who has been training wrestlers in Japan until he received a call from a friend, Teddy, who needs his help back in the United States. In attempting to help his friend Dan gets beat up by a gang and ends up in a hospital where he must face the reality of being a washed up wrestler. Ringside unveils the life of wrestlers and the struggles they go through for the wrestling business.
The Good:
The comic exposes a harsh reality of the wrestling industry through Dan’s visit to the hospital. On the surface Dan did not suffer any life threatening injures from the gang beating him up. Yet the doctor reveals an X-Ray to him that shows his spine is damaged due to his wrestling career and he should stop what he is doing immediately. Dan’s spinal back injury is not a fictitious injury but a reality for many wrestlers. Due to the nature of wrestling with moves such as suplexs, superplexs and highflying moves like moonsaults as they put pressure on a wrestler’s back. When these moves are done one time to many without rest it begins to put stress on the back that eventually leads to vertebrae becoming injured much like Dan’s spine. These injuries result in wrestlers having to retire or have surgeries to meditate damage done to their back; in most cases it is a combination of both. This comic captures the harsh reality of injuries that wrestlers face and how they live with those injuries. While in the doctor’s office Dan captures a slightly modified version of a wrestler who has to decide what his option are going forward in his life and in wrestling.
The Bad:
The majority of this comic is giving readers information that will be utilized in the next few issues. This information is crucial such as Dan’s injuries raise the stakes as he can end up paralyzed but at the moment of receiving this information he is in no danger. Furthermore, Dan stole a tasers from Terrance, which is important as he is planning on using it to help his friend, Teddy, to even the score with the gang that beat him up. Yet the issue ends with him going to the bar where it all started with the tasers in hand ready to use it next issue. Thus we only find out on he last page that he has a tasers that he is going to use next issue, which could have easily been told in a few previous panels and pages. Not to mention the way the comic ended was a bit of a disappointment and made the issue feel like a tease to only move the story forward for the next issue.
The Verdict:
The concept of Ringside is a great idea for a comic to have a former wrestler deal with a variety of issues relating to wrestling and life. Issue 1 of this comic was a phenomenal read and really showed that this comic has hope for being something fresh in the comic world. Issue 2 was bittersweet as some elements of the comic were spot on about the truth of the wrestling world. Other parts in the comic felt as if it was there just to provide background information to be used in the comic later on. This is not to say that this information is not important it is, but it felt pushed rather than organic. Issue 2 of Ringside is a necessary comic to read as it provides information that will be utilized going forward in the series.
