Wednesday morning, the highly discussed and anticipated documentary about former WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, ‘Mr. McMahon’, was released on Netflix. The documentary has six parts lasting about 50 minutes to an hour for each episode. During the documentary, many key figures in the wrestling world were interviewed, including Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Paul Levesque, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Paul Heyman, Bret Hart, Eric Bischoff, and John Cena.
This project was produced by legendary filmmaker Chris Smith and the founder of The Ringer, Bill Simmons. WWE was originally involved in this production, but after the recent allegations against McMahon, they ended up not having anything to do with this release. This documentary was created in 2021, and the story had to change, forcing the series to air at a later date than originally expected.
Here are my three biggest takeaways after viewing the entire series.
1. Vince McMahon is different from Mr. McMahon
This was an important point that McMahon wanted to make clear throughout the entire documentary. On TV he was ‘Mr. McMahon’ but in real life he is Vince McMahon and they are completely two different people.
“Perception is reality, you can’t change the way people think about you,” McMahon said in the series.
Although McMahon frequently stated that he shares zero qualities with the character he played on television throughout the past 30-plus years, his former wrestlers disagreed. Multiple wrestlers stated that the Mr. McMahon character isn’t fully who Vince is outside WWE but that both the TV personality and real person share similarities. Since he rarely has done interviews throughout his career, the majority of the time that fans have seen him has been in the heel persona he played on TV.
McMahon was willing to do anything and push the line of what was socially acceptable at times to get the most prominent reaction from the fans. If something would make McMahon or the company more money, then that is what they would do. Throughout the series, they show relationships between Vince and his family. During different times in history, each member of his family played a character on TV.
Vince talked about how he had a rough childhood and that he didn’t meet his father, Vincent J. McMahon, until he was 12 years old. In the documentary, he discusses how he always wanted the approval of his dad and struggled to gain his trust in the wrestling business early on. He talked about his upbringing without his dad and how he was abused by his stepfather.
2. Allegations and scandals aren’t a new thing for McMahon and WWE
From the first episode, the documentary details all of the different allegations against McMahon and his company throughout the years. First, in the early 1990s, McMahon was under investigation for his involvement in supplying his athletes with anabolic steroids. He was found not guilty in the criminal court case. Also in the ’90s, former WWF ring announcer Mel Phillips was accused of molesting multiple children who helped put together the shows. It was reported that McMahon knew about this and didn’t do anything about it.
Shortly after this period, two of the company’s biggest stars, Owen Hart and Chris Benoit, both died. Hart died at 34 years old in 1999 at the ‘Over the Edge’ pay-per-view when he was making his entrance from the ceiling. The Harness that Hart was connected to malfunctioned and resulted in his falling. Owen’s brother, Bret Hart, at the time, was angry at McMahon as he felt his brother’s death was partly his fault. But after the WWE sued the manufacturer, Bret forgave McMahon and there was no foul play in that horrific event. The other situation with Benoit was completely different as he murdered his son and wife before ending his own life.
In the final episode, the latest allegations of sexual misconduct and trafficking were discussed. In 2022, McMahon stepped down as WWE Chairman and CEO and retired. But he returned shortly after in 2023 to sell the company to Endeavor Group. In 2024, McMahon stepped down from the board of TKO Group and sold his remaining shares. Janal Grant, the former WWE employee who is suing McMahon, worked for the company from 2019-2022. McMahon had her sign an NDA and agreed to pay her $3 million but after he only paid $1 million of the amount, Grant issued a lawsuit.
Grant provided graphic text messages from McMahon in the 67-page lawsuit. If these details of McMahon sexually assaulting Grant and trafficking her to other WWE employees are true, he is an evil and disgusting person. As I previously mentioned, McMahon has been involved in scandals involving the law before, but nothing as serious as this one.
3. McMahon changed the wrestling industry forever
Although McMahon’s life outside of wrestling has been controversial, his impact on the world of WWE and beyond is undeniable. In the first episode, they show a behind-the-scenes look at McMahon buying his dad’s business, WWWF, for $1 million in 1982. When McMahon sold WWE, it had an evaluation of over $9 billion. That on its own is unbelievable. He took a regional wrestling promotion and made it one of the most popular sports and entertainment companies in the world.
McMahon discusses how he built the Superbowl of wrestling from scratch and named it Wrestlemania. Before McMahon took over for his dad, no one would even think of selling out an arena like Madison Square Garden, let alone getting to the point where they sell out a football stadium every year for Wrestlemania. In Philadelphia, for the 40th annual event in 2024, over 120,000 people filled Lincoln Financial Field for the fourth straight two-night Wrestlemania.
Along the way, McMahon has built not just wrestling superstars but global entertainment stars like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Some wrestling stars he created include Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, John Cena, Triple H, Randy Orton, Dave Bautista, and Roman Reigns. McMahon made wrestling a profitable business and took it to a level that no one else had done before.
Final Thoughts:
The bad thing about documentaries is they have a pre-written agenda for the entire piece, and for this one, it was to paint McMahon in an evil light. Yes, the latest allegations and lawsuit against McMahon are awful, and if true, he is truly a horrible person. But the reality of the situation is that McMahon is under a federal investigation and, currently, he hasn’t been charged or proven guilty.
It was cool to see McMahon in a sit-down interview because we haven’t seen that done in the past. However, his words were clearly chopped up and used against him. McMahon came out with a statement the day before the documentary was released. He didn’t see a final cut of the piece so we didn’t get to see his life’s story through his lens.
McMahon may not be a good person but no matter what he did or didn’t do in his personal life, it doesn’t take away from the impact that will span generations to come in the wrestling industry.
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