Mr. McMahon Promises "The True Vince McMahon" and Delivers Everything But

To cover the history of Vincent Kennedy McMahon is to cover the history of Western pro-wrestling almost in its entirety. As the owner of WWF/WWE for over 40 years – and being involved in it many years before that – he’d been able to steer the entire industry in whatever direction he wanted for most of that time until it all recently came crashing down thanks to hush money scandals and a lawsuit from Janel Grant accusing him of sexual harassment and sex trafficking.

The Mr. McMahon docu-series makes it clear from the beginning that’s where we’re headed but clarifies that the vast majority of the interviews you’ll see were conducted before the allegations were made public. Before that, five episodes tell the story of how Vince came to power in WWE and the many scandals he faced while at its helm.

Straight out of the gate, we learn that this series can’t possibly deliver on the original marketing promise to “reveal the true Vince McMahon ” because the man himself says right out of the gate that he isn’t going to tell the “real stories”. That’s not a one-off either – there are multiple points where he says he won’t say what he’s “really thinking” and establishes early on that, “I don’t want anyone to really know me.” So, if you came here for never-before-told scoops and truths about Vince’s life, you’re not getting that.

The whole appeal of this documentary over any other wrestling documentary is the fact that it has Vince’s perspective in it, something he’s never offered anywhere else. However, either the producers didn’t make the most of that opportunity, or Vince had no interest in giving them what they wanted.

With every controversy that’s covered, Vince gives his version of events and then flatly denies any wrongdoing, and that’s it. I don’t know if the producers were too scared to ask McMahon the tough questions or if he refused to answer them, but almost no attempt is made to get him to take accountability for anything that’s happened.

The result is a series where a topic is introduced, Vince gives his perspective, and then they cut to another interviewee (usually wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer) to give the opposing perspective. There’s no discussion, no interrogation of the facts, just stating both sides of the argument and then moving on.

At least that’s how it is when the documentary actually wants to offer an opposing viewpoint. One episode starts with Vince explaining his reasoning behind the Wendi Richter screwjob in 1985, which goes entirely unchallenged despite it being a controversial incident and Wendi Richter being one of the interviewees. He just says that Richter was refusing to drop the title and so they were forced to screw her, with no mention of the fact that Richter claims the reason it happened is because she dared to commit the terrible sin of asking for fair pay compared to the men.

That’s part of what makes it so infuriating – most of Vince’s denials aren’t even solid. When asked about Sable suing the then-WWF in 1999 he just claims he doesn’t remember it happening. A follow-up question is then asked about Sable’s 2002 return and affair storyline with Vince which he just doesn’t answer, giving a quick murmur and a chuckle while being very visibly uncomfortable. McMahon is wholly intent on not giving us anything that hasn’t been the strict company line since all of these incidents happened.

It means that there isn’t much appeal for wrestling fans. If you’ve been around this industry for more than a few years then you’ve already heard about the steroid trial, the Montreal screwjob, the death of Owen Hart, and all these other incidents hundreds of times. Not to mention the fact that a docu-series like Dark Side of the Ring does a much better and more in-depth job of covering them and asking questions about how they were handled. There’s no new ground being covered here because Vince doesn’t want to give it up.

For that reason, by far the most interesting part of the documentary is in episode five, which focuses on the rest of the McMahon family. While they’re not completely open, Vince’s wife Linda and children Shane and Stephanie were a lot more willing to tell their stories and give us that peek behind the curtain as to what it was like growing up in the industry.

Linda especially is someone who has always tended to avoid the limelight – at least compared to the rest of her family – so seeing her talk somewhat passionately about the intricacies of the wrestling business is interesting. As is the discussion surrounding who was going to succeed Vince. While many assumed it would be his son, Shane, it slowly became obvious that wasn’t going to happen, resulting in the situation we have today where son-in-law Triple H is in charge of the TV product.

These are things wrestling fans have always been aware of, but the feelings of the people behind it are something new, which is where a documentary like this has value. We get that from the likes of Shane and Stephanie, but Vince has no intention of giving it.

It’s why I’m not surprised that the series went for an overall negative take on McMahon’s life. They do give him credit where it’s due along the way for creating Hulk Hogan, getting ahead of the business and going national, and creating the Attitude era, but every word that comes out of the man’s mouth in this thing makes me hate him all the more.

One of the parts that really puts into contrast how out-of-touch he can be with the real world is a brief segment that mentions one of the most messed-up storylines Vince ever pitched. The idea was that his daughter Stephanie would announce she was pregnant, and eventually, Vince – who I must reemphasize, is her father – would be revealed as the one who impregnated her.

Thankfully that idea was immediately shot down by everyone in the room, but when reflecting on it, Vince and Stephanie have very different, disturbing reactions. Stephanie does what you’d expect. She gives a couple of uncomfortable chuckles, stutters, and eventually refuses to talk about it while slowly cringing into herself. Meanwhile, Vince gives a hearty laugh with a big smile like it’s just another day in the office.

This whole documentary is based on the premise that no one really knows Vince McMahon, and people confuse his character with the real man – a man very few people on this Earth truly know. Yet, everything he says in this series just reaffirms my view of him as a truly vile human being.

The segment about the Chris Benoit incident is a great summary of everything wrong with this documentary. The interviewees are never challenged on their perspectives, and no meaningful discussion ever happens. When discussing a man who murdered his wife and child before killing himself, all Vince had to say on the matter was, “Chris went nuts [...] that’s the only thing I can take away from it.” A truly horrible thing to say about what I believe to have been an avoidable tragedy.

Thankfully, it is immediately followed by Chris Nowinski talking about CTE (a brain disorder likely caused by repeated head injuries) and how maybe being hit in the head for a living isn’t the healthiest lifestyle, but once again, we don’t go very deep into it. Instead, Vince brushes it off as “you’re getting worked”, as if landing head-first on a mat somehow doesn’t hurt because it’s all scripted, and then both Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin outright deny that CTE even exists.

Of course, neither of them get any follow-up questions on that claim, we just move on to talking about the funny, whacky antics of WWE going PG in the late 2000s. Benoit’s brain was the equivalent of a five-year-old’s when he died, and the long-term pain and injuries the WWE schedule inflicts have caused many to overuse pain medication and die before the age of 40, but look! The Muppets! We like to have fun here.

While all of these controversies and tragedies only got a surface-level look, they all help inform the latter half of the final episode, which covers the allegations and lawsuits involving sexual assault and trafficking leveled against McMahon since mid-2022. Where before, he’d respond to everything with bullheadedness, losing his temper at Bob Costas or attacking the journalists cracking down on him, this time he kept uncharacteristically quiet, canceling his remaining interviews for this documentary, and suddenly retiring from WWE in a move no one saw coming.

To put into perspective how mind-blowing this was, before the allegations came out, all of the interviewees were asked if they thought Vince would ever retire and every single one of them said there was no chance he ever would. Even Vince himself said that he’d never do it – he goes as far as to say that he doesn’t respect anyone who does retire, saying, “I have no sympathy for people like that. Go die.”

Then we enter the messy period in early 2023 where Vince forces his way back into the company – against seemingly everyone’s wishes – fires a few people from the board and starts looking into selling the WWE. Among all of this, the thing I was most interested in learning more about was why Stephanie McMahon resigned from the company almost immediately after Vince returned.

Unfortunately, all we got on that front was Bruce Prichard claiming he knows nothing about it, a claim I don’t believe for a second given that a few minutes later he’d be telling us how close he is with Vince and how – after seeing early cuts of some episodes – this documentary is an uninformed hit-piece that doesn’t show who Vince really is. That interview happened two days before the Janel Grant lawsuit was made public, by the way.

The entire series has undeniably presented a negative spin on Vince’s life. It digs up every skeleton he has and puts it on display – even if I don’t think it adequately examines most of them. The thing is, they didn’t choose the words that came out of Vince’s mouth. They didn’t make him say those horrible things about the Chris Benoit incident, deny the existence of CTE, or give the most basic, say-nothing denials of every incident the producers put in front of him.

If Vince is the complex man that Prichard insists he is, then he doesn’t want us to see it – he outright says so multiple times – so I’m not going to give him credit for it.

When asked (before the allegations came out) what they believed McMahon’s legacy would be when it’s all said and done, almost all of them refused to answer. Guys who know the man better than almost anyone, like John Cena, Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan, simply had nothing to say to that question. Even The Undertaker, who earlier said he’d take a bullet for Vince, couldn’t find an answer.

In 2024 it’s an even harder question to answer. Having run the biggest company in the thing I love most for over 40 years, it’s fair to say that I probably wouldn’t even be a wrestling fan without Vince McMahon. He didn’t do it alone, but he saw WWE through multiple periods that many still believe are the greatest eras in its history. However, during the last decade of his time in charge of the TV product, it would frequently stoop to borderline unwatchable lows and the older he got, the more he seemed to either lose touch with, or stop caring about, what his audience wanted – and then there are all of the horrible things he’s accused of.

It’s impossible to deny that since Triple H and co took over running the show, fans are almost universally enjoying it more, and monetarily, WWE as a business is bigger than ever. Heck, earlier this year I spent almost 2,000 words gushing about how WrestleMania 40 was a fresh start for WWE , and how personally, I believe the TV product is the best it’s ever been.

I went from seriously considering giving up watching WWE altogether in 2020/21 to crying tears of joy watching it in 2024, and the one glaring difference between those two periods is a lack of Vince McMahon.

In that respect, this documentary might be the perfect encapsulation of the current discussion surrounding him. He’s a revolutionary in the pro-wrestling industry in legitimately countless ways and people aren’t wrong to praise him for creating their fondest memories of the sport’s greatest moments. However, you don’t become a billionaire who’s stayed on top for four decades without doing some appalling things, and by 2022 it was time for the industry to move on without him – something it is thankfully now doing.

As the interviewees – including the man himself – keep repeating, at the end of the day it's entertainment, and I'm enjoying WWE now more than I ever did with Vince involved. I'm glad he's gone, and nothing that came out of his mouth here gave me any reason to change my mind.