Mr McMahon: Netflix docuseries on WWE founder offers nothing new, little insight on the man

Who is Vince McMahon?

Is he Vinnie Lupton? The boy who grew up dirt poor in a trailer park along with his mother and abusive stepfather? Or is he Vincent McMahon Jr, the impresario of a global business and billionaire who flies around on private jets?

Is he the most successful wrestling promoter of all time? Or a man who failed at every endeavour outside his beloved sports entertainment?

Is he a loving father, husband and grandfather? Someone who, as the WWE likes to put it, ‘put smiles on faces’ for millions of fans around the world for decades?

Or the man who ruled his empire with an iron fist and resigned after being hit  with a sexual assault and sex trafficking allegation and is reported to have several NDAs and a chequered history with women?

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Is he Vince McMahon? Or is he simply ‘Mr McMahon,’ the evil billionaire character he played on screen for decades?

This contradiction is at the heart of what Mr McMahon, the new TV docuseries on Netflix, tries to unravel. Unsuccessfully unfortunately.

For fans of professional wrestling, Netflix’s six-part docuseries is a disappointment that covers little new ground.

Barely any time is devoted to McMahon’s hardscrabble childhood – beatings from his stepfather and the alleged sexual abuse at the hands of his mother are mentioned in passing – which arguably made him the man he is today.

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The series also serves up the same self-serving and myth-making falsehoods that McMahon and the WWE have been pushing since his ascent to the top of the industry in the 1980s.

Though one key difference here is the presence of talking heads like Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer who debunk at least some of the stories – like the WrestleMania III attendance figure of 93,000 – that many hardcore fans today continue to treat as gospel.

The series also recounts a number of scandals that McMahon faced including the steroids trial, the ring boys affair and the Rita Chatterton controversy.

Unfortunately, it also leaves out key details and context surrounding the biggest moments of McMahon’s personal and professional life – which is often one and the same.

This leaves those in the know infuriated at the lack of context, while those unaware are left blithely so. Which is perhaps why one of the makers of the series later remarked that six episodes simply weren’t enough to cover McMahon’s life.

McMahon also offers little in the way of self-reflection – continuing to be in denial about his life’s work of being in the professional wrestling business – though he at least admits that what he did was for his own benefit and not the industry as a whole.

However, Vince does make a number of statements that in hindsight appear to raise eyebrows including one moment where he notes that the statute of limitations on a rape allegation has expired.

The series, produced by Bill Simmons and the man behind the Tiger King charts the same path as the in-house documentaries produced by WWE over the years.

From Hulk Hogan’s defection to WCW, to the rise of Monday Night Nitro, the Curtain Call, Scott Holl and Kevin Nash going to the competition, the Montreal Screwjob, the Attitude Era, the death of Owen Hart and the McMahon family drama – every box is dutifully checked off without ever diving deeper into the subject.

The final episode, which addresses the allegations against Vince is where the docuseries takes a sharp turn – dealing with the sexual misconduct and trafficking allegations reported by the Wall Street Journal in June 2022, McMahon’s return to the company, the sale to Endeavor and merger with the UFC .

Apart from the interviews with the Wall Street Journal reporters that broke these stories, the series really offers nothing new for anyone already following the WWE.

So, is there a difference between Vince and Mr McMahon?

The man himself insists there is none whatsoever. He also cancelled all interviews with the docuseries makers after the allegations emerged and denounced the series a day before its release.

But those work for him and know him the best say otherwise – though it must be noted that nearly all of the interviews with the WWE legends were conducted before the disturbing accusations came to light.

At the end, even Vince hedges his bets – saying that he’s a blend of the two and that he isn’t sure which is which.

Someday, perhaps the real story will be told.