Mr. McMahon

I was excited to learn there would be a documentary coming out about Mr. McMahon and WWE. I have been a wrestling fan since I was a kid and still in many respects still am. I was fortunate to watch the attitude era when Stone Cold and The Rock electrified the audiences. It was enjoyable to see the history of WWE, Vince Senior and the legacy of superstars over the decades to the present day. There were some big personalities, challenges, the Monday night wars with WCC that made each episode great to watch.

Love him or hate him, I respect the businessman instincts and creativity Vince brought to the industry to make it what it is today. In regards to the recent allegations, he made his bed and now he has to sleep in it. Highly recommend this documentary, especially if you are or have been a wrestling fan.

Vince McMahon took WWE (WWF) to new heights, fending off competition, scandals, even deaths, but where do the lines blur between Vince McMahon and his on screen character, Mr McMahon.

It is genuinely like a soap opera, it's so outlandish, so over the top, so extreme, the characters feel exactly that, unlike any possible real person, and that's the appeal I guess, it's almost like a real life cartoon.

It's unreal, even for someone who gave up on wrestling probably in about 1998. McMahon is shown in the titles as a slightly crazed looking puppet master, and that's exactly what he is.

It's pinch of salt stuff, that is until the final episode, where it takes a dramatic shift, and suddenly feels very real.

Very well made, goofy interviews, as well as some very serious ones. It explores various different elements of wrestling, the people, the business, the mistakes, deaths and injuries, it even talks about its bright future.

Great entertainment.

9/10.

This documentary has to be viewed in the current climate that WWE & Netflix have a deal, & both have a shared interest in promoting Raw in 2025. So if you are a long-term wrestling fan, this disjointed documentary won't tell you anything new.

It clearly started out life as a puff peice for WWE & Vince McMahon, who gets to talk a lot about himself while not really revealing anything much about himself. However, there are some unintentionally creepy moments in his interview that Netflix exploits to the full. The talking heads on the whole say positive things about McMahon, & even those who speak out against him feel like they've been specially selected by Vince, so that he can rebuke their comments & knock them down like skittles. Whether he does this successfully is up for debate.

The documentary appears to have been shelved in 2022 when McMahon stepped down as CEO. You can almost feel the bitterness when Netflix puts up the caption that McMahon ceased all interviews at this time, leaving them high & dry. When WWE & Netflix brokered a deal for Raw, the finishing of this documentary must have been on the table as part of the deal, timed to promote the new partnership. Then the law suit happened, & what you are left with is a mess of a final episode.

The last 15 years are glossed over, & if you don't know much about WWE, you are left thinking John Cena was the last big superstar. Roman Reigns is relegated to someone who just wanders around in the background & a few match clips. The second half of the episode covers the law suit, but here Netflix hands are tied. As the investigation & law suit are not concluded, & they are now linked to WWE they really can't say much. It's just a few rehashed news clips & screen shots of text messages briefly flashed on screen which leaves the last episode, & series on a whole, feeling like a disappointment. Perhaps McMahon sensed this & has spoken out about distancing himself from the project, & there's a story that he tried to buy it back to keep it from airing. This just sounds like Vince McMahon the showman/the promoter, generating heat for the show to get people to watch it, & it worked. He's probably laughing behind the scenes, & reinforcing that he's still involved with the WWE product, without officially being involved.

"When we stop growing, we die" is what McMahon said. It is ironic because the man has not grown emotionally since his adolescence. Paul Heyman, the voice of reason among the talking heads, said it best, that McMahon is overcompensating for the deprivation that he endured in the first 12 years of his life. He was abandoned by his biological father and severely abused by his stepfather, resulting in a core belief of defectiveness. Nothing he has ever achieved, no amount of success or adoration, will ever truly be enough to heal that inner child who still feels inadequate because daddy left him.

It may be true that, without McMahon's voracious appetite to make something of himself, we would not have the behemoth that is the WWE. However, his true legacy lies in normalising domestic violence, fuelling misogyny and encouraging toxic masculinity in the storylines he conceived of to achieve ever higher ratings, including putting his own family drama on full display in his shows. What kind of person accuses his daughter of being selfish for not wanting her wedding televised on pay-per-view, and then arranges a wrestling match against him to humiliate her?

Despite his insistence that Mr. McMahon is only a character, it is nevertheless one borne out of and embodying his unconscious desires, a medium through which he can express his true self with impunity. Mr. McMahon was his Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card; "Oh, I did something wrong? That was my character, not me". He is not a role model to any man, not even his son, from whom he withheld affection and validation the same way that his own father did to him. This man lives in the fantasy that he does not perpetuate abuse in spite of his abusive childhood and clear evidence to the contrary. This documentary is one of abuse and the legacy of abuse, more than it is about wrestling, and it need not have been six hours long.

Don't expect a big beat up of Vince McMahon here. Being mostly filmed before the last damaging allegations, this is more a focus on Vince McMahons business mind - and how he swallowed the whole wrestling world under his ruthless ambition and business acumen.

It's at its most interesting giving an insight into the workings of Vince McMahons mind, he reveals more than he needs to at times (including how he has sometimes said things to get ahead and sway/program others as promotion), the other most interesting is the history of WWE. I learnt a lot although some WWE die-hards will prefer the Dark Side of the Ring.

It doesn't shy away from the allegations, and is better for it. Bret Hart, Dave Meltzer and Eric Bischoff are great interviews. Vince is too reserved at times. He's a brilliant mind, and a brilliant villian, but potentially not a good guy. Time will tell so enjoy this documentary for what it is.