TJR: Vince McMahon Netflix Docuseries “Mr. McMahon” Review
A detailed review of the chaotic life of Vince McMahon in the Netflix documentary called “Mr. McMahon.”
The highly anticipated Vince McMahon Netflix docuseries called “Mr. McMahon” debuted on Wednesday, September 25th with six episodes. The runtime of the whole thing is just under six hours. I watched one episode on Wednesday, four episodes on Thursday when I had more time and finished it off this Friday morning. If you consumed all six in a row then that’s a lot of McMahon in your life.
This isn’t going to be a review where I recap every episode in detail. I’ll probably be out of order with my thoughts on things. I watched most of it while lying on the couch and trying to pay close attention.
My initial thoughts are that it was pretty good, but not great. For hardcore wrestling fans who read everything, remember everything, watch interviews, etc. a lot of it won’t feel new. However, if you talk to the casuals who stopped watching years ago, they might find it more interesting because they might not know a lot of this stuff.
At the beginning of the first episode, Vince McMahon said this:
“I wish I could tell you the real stories. Holy s**t. I’ll give you enough that it’s semi-interesting. I don’t want anybody to really know me.”
In other words, there was a lot he could say, but he was going to protect his image by not talking about certain things. As you watched this documentary over the six hours, Vince was constantly saying things like “oh that’s just me being a character” and things like that as if it’s not a big deal to him.
I think they should have covered more about Vince’s life before wrestling. There were a few minutes about it with Vince saying stuff like: “I barely knew my dad, then I worked with him and learned about wrestling.” They barely mentioned his mom, I don’t even think his brother was mentioned at all, and what about any friends he had when he was younger? We eventually learned about him marrying Linda McMahon when she was just 17 years old, but I don’t know much else about his life before he was an adult other than he had an abusive stepfather. That sucks, by the way. It certainly can affect somebody in a negative way, obviously. If Vince McMahon grew up with two loving parents who were together for his whole life, would he be a different person? I think it’s possible. It’s not easy growing up in a broken home.
When it came to the early days of Vince getting involved in pro wrestling, they didn’t talk about Vince killing other territories very much at all. Vince’s father Vince McMahon Sr. died of cancer, but that wasn’t even mentioned at all.
A lot of it was what I expected. Talking to millionaires who aren’t going to complain about Vince and only a few contrarians, but not enough of that. What about a wrestler who got fired for something that they felt Vince was wrong about? Let’s hear some of those people. The guys like Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, John Cena and so on don’t have much to complain about. They’re some of the biggest WWE names ever. I would have liked to hear from different voices.
Congratulations to perennial liar Hulk Hogan for telling the truth about how he was the one who ratted out Jesse Ventura when he wanted to start a wrestler’s union in the mid-1980s. Hogan denied it for almost 40 years until finally admitting it here.
The man who came up with the name WrestleMania was the late, great Hall of Famer Howard Finkel. I have read that in books and saw it on a WrestleMania DVD that was put out years ago. They didn’t credit Finkel for coming up with the name. That’s disappointing.
The WrestleMania 3 part made me laugh with Hulk Hogan still saying his bullshit about not knowing if he would beat Andre. It’s something Hogan has been saying for decades. I find it to be ridiculous. The way Hogan tells the story is that he didn’t know Andre was going to stay down for the three count after the leg drop until it actually happened in the ring. I don’t believe it for a second. Vince McMahon commented on it as if to say that Andre does what he wants, but in reality they aren’t going to put Andre in the ring unless he agreed to do the job because that’s what Vince wanted, and that’s what happened.
There was more about WrestleMania 3 with the attendance figure thing with Hogan, Vince, Bruce all saying 93,000 and Meltzer is like 78,000 people. As we know as wrestling fans, WWE has always made up the attendance figures because it’s “entertainment” so they are going to believe what they have been saying for decades. I don’t really care what the real number is, but it’s just funny to me how it aired in the documentary. It just shows how carny Vince, Bruce and Hogan are in terms of protecting the business.
There was a lot of time spent on the early 1990s steroid trial, which was probably informative for a lot of fans who either didn’t know that much about it or were young at the time. They did a great job of making the point that Hulk Hogan’s testimony at the steroid trial was key. Hogan said that Vince McMahon wasn’t the one who gave them steroids or told them to take steroids. Vince was not guilty in the trial and you could tell when seeing the clips from those days that he was relieved.
Regarding the Monday Night Wars involving WWE and WCW in the late 1990s, it was a lot of the same stuff that we have heard many times in other documentaries as well as books and many interviews over the years. I’m not surprised that they failed to mention former WWE writer Vince Russo as a big reason why the Attitude Era happened. As Russo has told it many times, he pitched to McMahon that they needed to be an edgier product in early 1997 and McMahon agreed, so that led to about two and a half years of Russo helping McMahon put on a better show. I don’t love Russo by any means, but he deserves some credit or a mention at least.
When covering the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series 1997, they made it seem like it was all Bret Hart’s fault for not putting Shawn Michaels over, which is what Vince McMahon wanted. However, they left out some key details. Those key details included that Bret and Shawn literally had a fight in the locker room in June 1997, which led to Shawn getting suspended. Months later, Shawn matter-of-factly told Bret he would not lose to him, which infuriated Bret. They also didn’t mention that Bret Hart had creative control in his contract for his final 30 days in WWE. These are key facts that should have been mentioned to tell the story. Instead, they didn’t mention it at all. If Shawn had been more professional with Bret then there likely would have never been an issue. My review of WWE Survivor Series 1997
Also, regarding the Montreal Screwjob, there are wrestling websites reporting the story of Triple H telling Vince to screw Bret as if this is something new. It’s not new information if you really follow this business. It’s been out there for decades. I believe Shawn Michaels mentioned it in his book and it’s been in other places.
The death of Owen Hart was a sad subject of course. Vince McMahon blamed the riggers for Owen’s death since WWE sued them about it and won. The fact that Vince and his creative team thought it was a good idea for Owen to even attempt that stunt was stupid. I also think Vince came across poorly by saying he would want the show to go on if he was the one who died during the show. That’s Vince being honest, even if it pisses some people off. I would have stopped the show out of respect for a man who died in the ring. The fans were going to understand if that happened.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter was featured throughout the documentary almost as the guy who was the contrarian to a lot of things that Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard would say. Bruce took a shot at him in the final episode, which is not a shock if you have listened to Bruce’s podcast over the years. I thought Dave did a good job for most of the documentary. For what it’s worth, I like Dave, I’ve subscribed to his newsletter for decades and we get along well although I think his aggressive Twitter/X behavior is bizarre.
Linda McMahon, Vince’s wife, was on there, but I think they could have featured her a bit more. They mentioned that Vince cheated on her many times, so why not ask her what she felt about it? Did it affect their relationship? I thought that could have been addressed a bit.
Out of all the wrestlers who appeared in the documentary, I thought most of them did well and were genuine in their comments, other than the liar Hogan. Bret Hart is the most honest wrestler who doesn’t care if he hurts anybody’s feelings with what he says. Tony Atlas was surprisingly very entertaining. Bob Costas being in it was a bit of a stretch, but I guess they felt the need to use him since Vince had a controversial interview with him. Paul Heyman was great as usual.
When they talked about the 2022 name change from World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince McMahon spoke about it saying that he knew that they were going to lose the WWF name to the World Wildlife Fund since they had it first. Vince didn’t seem too upset by it and made it clear he was ready to move on with the WWE name.
There were multiple instances where they showed incorrect footage when somebody was telling a story. For example, Trish Stratus mentioned how she turned down a story doing a “lesbian” style angle with another woman. It was supposed to be Trish and Torrie Wilson in bikinis in a competition against Billy & Chuck. Trish turned it down, so they put Stacy Keibler in the spot. Trish ended up losing her Women’s Title a short time later, perhaps because she refused to do the angle. However, in the documentary, they showed clips of Trish losing the Women’s Title to Mickie James at WrestleMania 22, which is not what Trish was talking about. That title change happened about four years after what Trish was saying. I know this is hardcore wrestling fan nerd stuff, but it’s just weird to me that they would throw any random clip of Trish on there instead of what she was talking about.
I was disappointed that Eddie Guerrero’s November 2005 death wasn’t talked about more. He was featured in a quick image about some wrestlers dying young in that era, but it wasn’t a subject they talked about. That was devastating when it happened. However, a good thing did happen because the Wellness Policy came into because part of the reason Eddie died was because he took a lot of steroids, his heart got big and he died of a heart attack. By instituting the Wellness Policy, it might have saved lives. I can remember that the testing they did helped MVP due to a heart issue that he may not have known about, then they found out, treated it and he’s gone on to live a healthy life.
The double murder suicide that was committed by Chris Benoit on his wife and young son was covered as it should have been. Vince explained that sometimes people just go nuts, but Vince didn’t seem to believe that it was brain damage from doing headbutts or taking suplexes. Former WWE guy Chris Nowinski, who has been a world leader in concussion research, was well-spoken as usual talking about how Benoit’s brain was damaged and they had proof of it.
Steve Austin got some heat for saying he doesn’t believe in CTE when they were covering the Chris Benoit double homicide and suicide story. I don’t know why Austin thinks that way and even if he does think that way, it was dumb of him to say it out loud. There have been many studies of CTE in pro athletes, including wrestlers, so it is a real thing and it is a factor. If I was Steve, I would do more research about it.
When talking about how people thought that Stephanie McMahon and Triple H would take over from Vince eventually (which has happened, at least in Triple H’s case), they didn’t even mention the NXT brand. Meltzer commented about how Triple H was like number two on the creative team, but they never mentioned that Triple H spent nearly a decade building the NXT brand into a force that was arguably WWE’s best product in the 2010s. Vince deserves credit for letting Triple H have a major say in running NXT, signing talent, and building the Performance Center that has led to so many wrestlers finding success.
The way they talked about the Women’s Evolution (or Revolution) that took place in 2015 and in the years that followed was weird. They had Trish Stratus talk about it even though she retired nine years earlier and only came back for a few matches during that period. They should have talked to Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, or Bayley to speak about how Triple H & Stephanie McMahon really pushed for it while Vince gave the women a shot because of how well they did in NXT. Once again, Vince deserves credit for trusting Triple H’s vision.
That fifth episode talking about the McMahon Family was probably the best part. It continued a bit in the sixth episode as well. I felt bad for Shane McMahon trying to get his father’s approval for his entire life and perhaps he only got it in the way he wanted at WrestleMania 32 in 2016 when he dove off Hell in a Cell through a table at ringside. Vince was tough on his son his whole life. Vince also was close with a lot of big name wrestlers, many of whom called Vince a father figure in the documentary. It was mentioned through the documentary that Stephanie McMahon was more like her father than Shane was and that’s why she had a longer run working for the company in an executive role. I liked Paul Heyman’s story about Vince and Shane McMahon during a creative meeting when Vince was hard on Shane. It showed how crazy and unpredictable that Vince was.
There was no mention of the “Pandemic Era” of WWE from March 2020 until July 2021 when the world opened back up again. Once again, I think Vince deserved credit for keeping the shows going because there wasn’t a lot of entertainment on television those days due to COVD-19, yet WWE kept going.
Is the documentary hurt by the fact that they didn’t get to talk to Vince McMahon about the hush money payments and sexual harassment lawsuit against him? Of course, it is. You can’t blame the director or the people who put the documentary together for that. Vince did those things (allegedly) and it would be nice to hear from him, but I get it from his side that he didn’t want to talk about it on camera because it’s a legal process.
Regarding the 2023 sale of WWE to Endeavor, which Vince was a big part of, I agree with Dave Meltzer saying that there wasn’t going to be another Vince McMahon and it wasn’t going to be a family business anymore. I always thought WWE was going to be sold to a bigger company just like it was. Some people may have thought it would be run by Stephanie McMahon and her husband Paul “Triple H” Levesque or maybe Shane McMahon would be involved, but it wasn’t going to be like that.
Toward the end of the documentary, Bruce Prichard was on camera saying that he thought the documentary came across as a “gotcha” piece targeted at trying to tear down Vince McMahon. Bruce told a story about how his wife had cancer 24 years ago, was given only a few years to live and she’s still thriving in life. Bruce said that Vince got her the best treatment possible, so to Bruce, Vince is a special guy. That’s nice of Vince to do that. Two days after that was filmed, the Vince McMahon sexual harassment hit the news in January 2024.
They covered the Janel Grant sexual harassment and sexual trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon as well. There were comments from the Wall Street Journal reporters about it. They shared some of the graphic details as well. It was important to present this information since it was obviously a huge story earlier this year. They also shared Vince McMahon’s lawyers commenting that Vince denied the allegations. A day after the lawsuit was filed, Vince resigned from the TKO Board of Directors and he eventually sold all his stock, so he’s no longer part of the company.
I liked how in the final few minutes, they spoke about how well WWE was doing right now without Vince McMahon’s involvement in the company. This has been arguably the most successful year in WWE history from a financial standpoint and from an entertainment standpoint, the product is better without Vince McMahon being involved. I don’t think they mentioned WWE President Nick Khan, but he’s leading the charge and doing a great job along with Triple H running things as the Chief Content Officer. I’m a big fan of the current product.
The final few minutes were dedicated to people talking about Vince McMahon’s legacy. Those comments were recorded before his July 2022 retirement and the sexual lawsuit allegations from early 2024. Tony Atlas called Vince the greatest promoter ever and Meltzer called him the most important figure in pro wrestling history, which is true as well.
There were some closing comments from Vince McMahon to end the documentary. Vince said that people don’t really know him at all. Vince also said that people confuse him with his wrestling character. I think that’s an accurate statement because I doubt Vince let that many people know who the real Vince was.
Final Thoughts On “Mr. McMahon” Docuseries About Vince McMahon
My grade/rating for this entire docuseries is a 7 out of 10.
There are some wrestling fans who will complain about this documentary for not presenting enough “new” information, but I don’t think that’s a major issue. You have to try to appeal to all kinds of Netflix documentary watchers. A lot of casual fans are going to watch this kind of thing and probably think a lot of it is fascinating. If you’re a hardcore fan who is reading this, ask your casual wrestling fan friends/family what they think of this because they might like it more than you did.
I think the documentary was flawed in some ways because I read that the director of the film, Chris Smith, wasn’t a wrestling fan. That’s coming from Executive Producer Bill Simmons and David Shoemaker, who appeared throughout the documentary. I think it showed by some of the things they missed or didn’t talk about enough. If the documentary had a director who knew more about WWE over the last 40 years, would it have been a better documentary? I think so. Just my opinion. It would be like doing a sports documentary about a specific team and using a director who doesn’t like sports. I don’t think that’s the right way to do it.
In defense of the team who put the documentary together, I think Vince McMahon is a difficult subject to focus on because as Vince said himself, he didn’t want anybody to really know him. Vince is very secretive about his life and what he’s really like. He doesn’t want people to know the real him because he’s this larger-than-life character who portrayed “Mr. McMahon” for decades while not wanting to open up about what he’s really like. Also, can you really cover a 40-year career running WWE in just a six-hour documentary? It’s not easy to do.
I thought the production quality was very good. They had a lot of great clips throughout the documentary, so I did like that aspect a lot.
My opinion of Vince McMahon has changed a lot in the last two years. Before the summer of 2022, I would have said I respected him for what he built with WWE over 40 years, but I’m not sure if I would get along with somebody like him. After the Janel Grant lawsuit came out against Vince in January 2024, which we have covered a lot here on TJRWrestling, I lost a lot of respect for him. I think it’s disgusting that a grandfather in his 70s would act that way. Obviously, it would be bad for anybody to do what Janel claimed that Vince allegedly did to her. I know he’s innocent until proven guilty, but I think the fact that he even got involved in a situation like this is awful. You should know better, old man. I feel bad for his children and grandchildren because Vince tarnished the family name with his actions. This is my way of saying I lost a lot of respect for Vince. Yes, I can respect what he did for pro wrestling because I have loved WWE for nearly 40 years and it’s my job to write about this business, but I think Vince is a very flawed person who made some dumb decisions, especially in the last few years.
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Thanks for reading. Go Los Angeles Rams. You can contact me using any of the methods below.
John Canton
Email: mrjohncanton@gmail.com
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