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Mr. McMahon (miniseries)

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Mr. McMahon is a documentary television miniseries that explores the influential yet controversial career of the professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon. It is directed by Chris Smith, who worked on Tiger King, with executive producer Bill Simmons and Zara Duffy, recognized for her contributions to Mission Blue. The documentary series featured numerous prominent figures from the world of professional wrestling, including Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Paul Heyman, Bret Hart, Eric Bischoff, Shane McMahon, and Stephanie McMahon. It also included media personalities such as businesswoman Kay Koplovitz, professional wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer and other key individuals, providing a wide range of perspectives on McMahon's career and legacy. This is the first extensive documentary series focusing on McMahon.[1][2]

Mr. McMahon
Promotional poster
GenreDocumentary
Directed byChris Smith
Starring
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producers
  • Zara Duffy
  • Eric C. Loy
  • Matt Maxson
  • Bill Simmons
  • Abhay Sofsky
  • Zoe Trischka
Editors
  • Steven Ross
  • Abhay Sofsky
Running time60 minutes
Production companies
  • Library Films
  • Ringer Films
Original release
NetworkNetflix
ReleaseSeptember 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)

All six episodes of the series were released on September 25, 2024, on Netflix.[1]

Background

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) saw unprecedented success and significant challenges during Vince McMahon's time at the helm.[3] It features insights drawn from over 200 hours of interviews, including conversations with McMahon (before his resignation), his family, business partners, wrestling legends, and journalists who exposed the sexual misconduct allegations against McMahon. The series was directed by Chris Smith, with Bill Simmons and Zara Duffy serving as executive producers.[4]

Cast

 
Vince McMahon
 
Steve Austin
 
Eric Bischoff
 
Bret Hart
 
Paul "Triple H" Levesque
 
Hulk Hogan
 
Linda McMahon
 
Stephanie McMahon
 
Shane McMahon
 
Trish Stratus
 
Dave Meltzer
 
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
 
The Undertaker

with

Episodes

No.TitleOriginal release date
1"Junior"September 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)
Vince McMahon talks about his early life from meeting his father, Vincent J. McMahon, for the first time to getting involved in his father's professional wrestling promotion, the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Shortly after purchasing the promotion from his father, he renamed it the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and started promoting it outside its territorial boundaries of the northeastern states and poaching talent from other promotions. Hulk Hogan, who was fired by McMahon Sr. for starring in Rocky III, was brought back into the promotion to fulfill McMahon Jr.'s dream of bringing the WWF mainstream.
2"Heat"September 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)
The success of WrestleMania I, as well as Saturday Night's Main Event premiering on network television, forced the WWF talent to work non-stop. Prior to WrestleMania 2, Jesse Ventura attempted to organize a union, which was immediately quashed after Hogan informed McMahon of Ventura's plans. In 1987, WrestleMania III drew a record-breaking attendance at the Pontiac Silverdome and solidified Hogan as a household name around the world. By the start of the 1990s, the WWF's popularity was on a decline while McMahon and the promotion came under heavy fire over a drug scandal and a sex scandal. Shortly after retiring from the WWF to focus on acting, Hogan was given a lucrative deal by Eric Bischoff to work for World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
3"Screwjob"September 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)
During the United States v. McMahon trial, McMahon was acquitted after Hogan's testimony stated he never made any wrestlers do steroids. Amidst decreasing ticket sales and low ratings, the WWF introduced a new generation of wrestlers led by Bret Hart. Meanwhile, WCW continued to entice former WWF talent with higher-paying contracts before directly competing with WWF in what would become the Monday Night War. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash's last day with the WWF ended with the "curtain call", in which they broke kayfabe and embraced in-ring rivals Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley, resulting in McMahon suspending Helmsley. Months later, Hall and Nash entered WCW and shocked the world by forming the nWo with Hogan, leading to WCW Monday Nitro beating WWF Monday Night Raw in the ratings for 83 straight weeks. McMahon allowed Hart to leave for WCW, but fearing that he would take the WWF Championship with him, he orchestrated the "Montreal Screwjob" at the 1997 Survivor Series.
4"Attitude"September 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)
In the aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob, McMahon took all the hate generated from the fans to create his on-screen heel persona, ushering in the Attitude Era. Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and D-Generation X became the WWF's top draws as the Attitude Era turned the tide of the Monday Night War. At the Over the Edge pay-per-view event on May 23, 1999, Owen Hart was descending from the rafters into the ring when his harness line malfunctioned, causing him to fall to his death while McMahon was criticized for letting the event continue.
5"Family Business"September 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)
By 2000, WWF had gone public on the New York Stock Exchange while WCW floundered in the ratings war. In March 2001, WWF bought out WCW from AOL Time Warner for US$2.5 million, ending the Monday Night War. Meanwhile, McMahon collaborated with NBC to bring the XFL to compete with the NFL, but the football league was cancelled after only one season. A year later, McMahon lost a lawsuit by the World Wildlife Fund over the use of the WWF acronym, forcing him to change the promotion's name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In the absence of competition, WWE saw a decline in ratings and creativity, with The Rock leaving for an acting career and Austin walking out of the promotion. McMahon initiated the Ruthless Aggression Era, which saw the rise of John Cena. Amidst numerous business disagreements with his father, Shane McMahon left the WWE in 2009 to pursue his own ventures.
6"The Finish"September 25, 2024 (2024-09-25)
Following his loss to Donald Trump (via the Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga match) at WrestleMania 23 in 2007, McMahon portrayed his death on an episode of WWE Raw. A week later, the storyline was scrapped due to the Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide, which once again put the WWE on notice for alleged steroid abuse. Former WWE talent and neuroscientist Christopher Nowinski examined Benoit's brain and concluded he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurological disease linked to concussions sustained in the ring. Nowinski's findings led to WWE initiating their wellness policy and banning most physical attacks to the head, such as chair shots. In order to draw in more sponsors, WWE toned down its level of violence. As McMahon's daughter Stephanie and son-in-law Triple H were getting more involved on the production side, Shane returned to the WWE in 2016. WWE continued to flourish with the launch of the WWE Network, the multi-billion dollar deal with Peacock, and a rapid rise of its stocks. In June 2022, McMahon stepped down as Chairman and CEO amidst allegations of sexual misconduct and trafficking, but remained on the board of directors. He returned to the WWE as Chairman in January 2023, with Stephanie resigning as co-CEO. McMahon sold WWE to Endeavor, merging his promotion with UFC to form TKO Group Holdings. In 2024, amidst further allegations of sexual misconduct, McMahon once again resigned and sold US$411.95 million of TKO stock. He also canceled his final interview for this series.

Theme

One of the central themes of the series is a discussion about how close Vince McMahon the person is to "Mr. McMahon", the character he portrayed on-screen in the WWE. While Vince McMahon is adamant the two are distinctly different, the vast majority of those interviewed for the series commented they felt they were one-and-the-same, or at least that the character exaggerated personality traits already present in the person.[5] Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter has suggested this was a major source of frustration for McMahon upon his viewing of an advanced screening of the series, and is what led McMahon to denounce the series one day before its release.[5]

Release

The series was released on September 25, 2024, at 3:01 A.M (ET),[6] on streaming platform Netflix.[7] The trailer was released on September 5, 2024.[8]

Reception

Vince also had Endeavor C.E.O. Ari Emanuel, his new partner in TKO, chime in on his behalf, also voicing concern about the doc’s treatment of Vince’s alter ego, ‘Mr. McMahon,’ which ended up being the title of the doc.

Netflix refused to let the project go, and then this past January, the worse McMahon scandal broke, when a former employee sued alleging terrible abuse.

—Matthew Belloni of Puck wrote on his newsletter 'What I'm Hearing'.[9]

On September 24, Vince McMahon issued a statement on X, describing the documentary as "deceptive" and claiming it was intentionally misleading viewers by creating confusion around key events.[10] Reportedly, McMahon has also expressed interest in purchasing the rights to Mr. McMahon to prevent its distribution, aiming to ensure the documentary is not widely seen.[11]

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, John Anderson noted that Phil Mushnick of the New York Post described McMahon as a "dirt bag," and encourages viewers to evaluate the portrayal of his scandals. Anderson suggests that Smith offers a relatively honest portrayal of McMahon, with insights from figures like Hulk Hogan and John Cena on his enigmatic personality and the parallels between wrestling and contemporary politics.[12]

Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, who participated in the series, generally praised it upon release, feeling that it contained no major inaccuracies or embellishments aside from the recounting of Hulk Hogan vs. André the Giant at WrestleMania III.[5] Meltzer did, however, feel that in episode 3, more emphasis should have been given to the fact that Bret Hart had creative control of his character in WWF, and that this was an important aspect in understanding why the Montreal Screwjob was so controversial.[5] One exclusion Meltzer observed was that in episode 2, it is not shown that Linda McMahon received a tip-off that George Zahorian, who was supplying the WWF locker room with steroids, was under investigation, and subsequently that person was not hired to be a staff doctor. This helped Vince McMahon avoid conviction in the steroid trial.[5]

Writing for BBC, Manish Pandey and Riyah Collins observed that while the six-part documentary provides a "fairly honest portrait" of Vince McMahon's career, it struggles to offer new insights, due to his withdrawal from filming following serious allegations. They highlighted that this absence affects the documentary's depth, leading to questions about whether it fully "pulls back the curtain" to McMahon.[13]

Alex Reid from The Guardian rated the documentary three out of five stars, noting that it quickly covers Vince McMahon's upbringing. The first episode reveals that a final interview with McMahon was cancelled following the emergence of allegations. However, the producers utilized extensive footage of McMahon, his family, and former employees, along with numerous past scandals. The series, Mr. McMahon, highlights his on-screen persona as a villainous billionaire boss who often humiliated his staff. It also touches on his friendship with Donald Trump and how pro wrestling influenced Trump's political style. One example is Trump's concern when McMahon was "blown up" in a limousine as part of a 2007 TV storyline, prompting him to call WWE to confirm McMahon's safety.[14]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Mr. McMahon has an approval rating of 67% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10.[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b Hudspeth, Christopher (August 30, 2024). "Mr. McMahon Doc Series Is an Unflinching Portrait of WWE Founder's Legacy". Netflix. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  2. ^ Ankers-Range, Adele (August 30, 2024). "Netflix Announces Vince McMahon Docuseries About WWE Founder's Legacy". IGN. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  3. ^ Van Horn, Shawn (August 30, 2024). "'Mr. McMahn' Documentary Guide: Release Date, How To Watch & More". The Sportster. Archived from the original on September 18, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  4. ^ Otterson, Joe (August 4, 2024). "Vince McMahon Docuseries Sets Netflix Premiere Date". Variety. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e Garrett Gonzales, Dave Meltzer (September 25, 2024). "Wrestling Observer Radio: Mr. McMahon docuseries review (episodes 1-4)". Wrestling Observer Newsletter (Podcast). Archived from the original on September 25, 2024. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  6. ^ Mendoza, Jordan (September 24, 2024). "Netflix's 'Mr. McMahon': What to know and how to watch series about Vince McMahon". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  7. ^ Figuerga, Dariel (August 29, 2024). "Netflix's Sure-To-Be Controversial Vince McMahon Documentary Finally Has A Release Date". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
  8. ^ Zucker, Joseph (September 6, 2024). "Video: Vince McMahon WWE Documentary 'Mr. McMahon' Trailer Released by Netflix". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on September 6, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  9. ^ Rueter, Sean (September 24, 2024). "Report: Vince McMahon tried to buy 'Mr. McMahon' docuseries back from Netflix". SBNation Cageside Seats. Archived from the original on September 25, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  10. ^ Otterson, Joe (September 23, 2024). "Vince McMahon Slams Netflix Doc 'Mr. McMahon' as Deceptive': 'A Lot Has Been Misrepresented' to Leave Viewers 'Intentionally Confused'". Variety. Archived from the original on September 24, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  11. ^ Graham, Chris (September 24, 2024). "Report: Vince McMahon tried to buy back the rights to 'Mr. McMahon' Netflix series". Augusta Free Press. Archived from the original on September 26, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  12. ^ Anderson, John (September 24, 2024). "'Mr. McMahon' Review: Wrestling With Scandal". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on September 25, 2024. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
  13. ^ Pandey, Manish; Collins, Riyah (September 26, 2024). "Does Netflix's new documentary unmask the real Vince McMahon?". BBC. BBC Newsbeat. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  14. ^ Reid, Alex (October 4, 2024). "Mr McMahon review - this wrestling tale has more political intrigue than the House of Commons". The Guardian.
  15. ^ "Mr. McMahon: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  16. ^ "Mr. McMahon: Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved September 25, 2024.
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