GRILLING JR
04/22/20
DARK SIDE OF THE PODCAST: THE ASSASSINATION OF DINO BRAVO

Jason Eisener describing how he got Dino Bravo’s daughter to be interviewed for the show: “At first she didn’t want to do it. We were going to cancel the interview. Then we went out to dinner with her and her husband to talk. We got to know each other. She was trying to gage who we were as people and what our motives were for telling this story. I was expressing to her my admiration for Dino and hearing the story of how her mother is a ballerina and her father was a wrestler and how they are essentially are like two artists who came together…I thought it was a romantic and fascinating that those two people came together in that way. She (Dino’s daughter) was taken back and never heard it put in that perspective and never heard anybody talk about her father as an artist. I think she really appreciated that and saw we were approaching this in a way that had love towards her father and wasn’t something that we were just going to delve into the negative aspects of his life, but rather, show who he was as a person.”

The producers explaining why couldn’t interview Rick Martel: “We saw that shoot interview (with Rick Martel about Dino Bravo). It wasn’t our preference to show a shoot interview, mainly because we want to film our own interviews and have it look a certain way. I tried really hard. I got his contact information. I got his e-mail and wrote him a full letter, knowing full well he’s basically giving up on wrestling as far as I understand. He doesn’t want anything to do with wrestling anymore. He’s retired and has a real estate career and he wants to create that life for himself now. I knew that going in. I was basically writing him an e-mail saying the story we are doing about your friend, your former colleague, Dino Bravo, this isn’t a wrestling story. It’s about him, his death and his family. I was hoping that would be an angle in terms of him wanting to at least get on the phone to talk to me about it…He reiterated his wrestling days are over. He doesn’t want anything to do with it anymore and doesn’t want to be in the story.”

The full episode is available at this link.