Brian Pillman will be the focus of the first episode of Dark Side of the Ring season 3, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin will be a part of the show to speak about his late friend and former tag team partner. With his in-ring career long over, Austin has since since been hosting his own USA talk show Straight Up Steve Austin. While promoting the series on Cari & Jemele (Won't) Stick to Sports, the Texas Rattlesnake confirmed that he'll be next be featured on Dark Side of the Ring.

"Other than our show, my favorite show on Vice is Dark Side of the Ring, which is a docuseries about pro wrestling, you're actually on season 3 to talk about the life and unfortunate death of your friend Brian Pillman," co-host Jemele Hill says to Stone Cold Steve Austin, confirming his appearance on the Vice series. While previous episodes have featured all kinds of wrestling stars from years past, this news is significant as Austin is one of the most famous pro wrestlers of all time.

You don't see a lot of pro wrestlers currently attached to WWE appearing on Dark Side of the Ring. Because the series highlights some of the very worst tragedies to happen to the wrestling business, from Owen Hart's accidental fall to the Chris Benoit murder-suicide, the show isn't something WWE necessarily wants to call attention to. But these stories, while heartbreaking, are extremely compelling, resulting in the show becoming Vice's highest-rated program on the network.

As of now, it's not clear what all else will be covered in the hit Vice show's 14-episode third season, but kicking off with Pillman is a good start. Known throughout his wrestling career as Flyin' Brian Pillman and "The Loose Cannon," Pillman's time in the ring was tragically cut short after he suffered a devastating ankle injury in a car accident. The injury resulted in a dependence on painkillers, and less than two years later, Pillman died in 1997 at the age of 35 due to a heart attack.

According to the PW Insider, another episode will cover the disturbing story of Grizzly Smith, a former pro wrestler and the father of wrestling stars Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Sam Houston, and Rockin' Robin. According to Jake, he was conceived after his mother was sexually assaulted by Grizzly. Robin would later claim that she was also abused as a child by her father. Smith died of Alzheimer's disease in 2010.

On his podcast 83 Weeks, former WCW personality Eric Bischoff also revealed that he would appear on season 3 of Dark Side of the Ring to discuss the WCW-New Japan event in North Korea. This refers to the Collision in Korea show in 1995 when a group of wrestlers, along with Muhammad Ali, traveled to compete in North Korea against all advice. The show would go on to set the record for largest attendance for a wrestling event with 340,000 spectators.

It's not yet clear when Dark Side of the Ring season 3 will arrive. The spinoffs Dark Side of the Football and Dark Side of the '90s are also in the works at Vice. This news comes to us from Cari & Jemele (Won't) Stick to Sports.