Netflix's Vince McMahon Doc doesn't let him off the hook

PProfessional wrestling has always had a unique relationship with the truth. The most obvious example of this volatile bond is kayfabe, the effort by performers to portray everything that happens in the ring as 100% true, and the audience agreeing to accept this, but in reality the phenomenon goes far beyond squaring the circle out.

As author David Shoemaker puts it in the second episode of Netflix's new documentary series Mr. McMahon“Nothing anyone associated with wrestling tells you should be taken as fact.”

Since professional wrestling's early days as a carnival sideshow, performers and behind-the-scenes personnel have misled the media, fans and even themselves for purposes ranging from the harmless to the sinister. Some aren't sure where their characters end and real life begins. Promoters exaggerate their attributes and conceal their problems in order to make more money, cement their legacy, and avoid the consequences of any misdeeds. WWE founder and figurehead Vince McMahon was particularly adept at this. He even managed to recover from his first retirement as WWE CEO and chairman in 2022 after being accused of sexual misconduct before former employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit alleging McMahon sexually assaulted her , human trafficking, physical abuse and “extreme cruelty and humiliation” led to his resignation again at the end of January 2024.

It's not easy to cover every aspect of this business honestly and thoroughly when you have to constantly deal with all of the topics mentioned above. Things get even trickier when your issue concerns a company that is as dedicated to controlling its image and crafting its history as WWE has been over the course of its 45 years (or more than 70 years if you count that). Brand in front of the WWF counts). Origin). Some sports journalists, including people featured in Mr. McMahonhave made valiant and valuable efforts to provide serious reporting on this topic. The Vice TV series The dark side of the ring has made some decent progress outside of WWE's reach in the five seasons released since 2019. The show's talking heads, a mix of wrestlers, promoters and pundits, can't resist a certain amount of self-mythologizing, but it has brought scrutiny to serious incidents involving the WWE, including Chris Benoit's horrific family annihilation and the infamous Plan Ride From Hell.

Productions that were granted access to the company didn't get far. Even acclaimed films like Beyond the matAnd Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadowsboth published at the end of the 1990s, offer only fleeting insights behind the scenes of the company. Most of the current “factual” content surrounding WWE is produced by the WWE itself, which has led to many rose-tinted star profiles and pivotal moments.

When WWE announced in 2020 that it had sold a multi-part documentary series about embattled WWE co-founder and figurehead Vince McMahon The alarm clockBill Simmons is executive producer and Fire And Tiger KingWith Chris Smith directing and producing, there was little reason to believe they would have any better luck penetrating the palace walls. Simmons and Smith are respected journalists and filmmakers, respectively, with proven track records. But in the early days of this particular project, there was nothing to suggest they were a match for the WWE machine. It didn't help that Simmons previously worked with WWE Studios, HBO's 2018 documentary Andre the GiantAlthough well done, it wasn't particularly badass. Nor was the fact that WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan raved about an early installment of the series in a third-quarter 2021 earnings call, calling it “out of this world, awesome.” Few experts in the field or fans with knowledge of how the WWE works – myself included – expected Simmons and Smith to take on the WWE's island universe.

Measured by Mr. McMahonThe interviews with his main subject and his most vocal yes-men like Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea and WWE general manager Bruce Pritchard – most of which were filmed before the recent sexual misconduct allegations against McMahon – no one in his inner circle thought they could it too. This could be the series' greatest asset. Years of softball questions for whitewashed productions appear to have ill-prepared McMahon for the most rudimentary journalism. He brags and chatters blithely, falsifies easily disprovable details like attendance figures, makes false arguments (he doesn't believe that Mark Calaway, aka the Undertaker, suffered a concussion during his Wrestlemania 30 match against Brock Lesnar, and suspects that). the star's extensive physical symptoms were actually a traumatic reaction to having to lose) and smugly explains that he works the team as he speaks to them, as if everyone involved has compassion for him and no one considers fact-checking or follow-up would. All Simmons and Smith need to do to make this footage more than a hollow and bloated tribute to McMahon are the basics of their work. And that's what they do.

It's impossible to guess the tone of the series before the sexual abuse allegations against McMahon, mentioned in several episodes and relentlessly discussed in the finale, halted production and shifted focus in 2022. But the version that exists is a far cry from the puff pieces that fans of the league have come to know. (In another departure from the formula, WWE Studios is no longer associated with the production.) Throughout the six-part series, the Mr. McMahon The crew gives their title subject the opportunity to tell his side of his story, from his impoverished childhood through four decades of ups and downs in the history of the WWF-turned-WWE. Then they follow up again and again with a mix of interviews with industry leaders and experts, archival news and footage from McMahon's own program to provide context for what he's saying – and often completely refute it.

The scope of the show's coverage is quite extensive. It touches on a number of serious issues that McMahon and his company prefer to gloss over or avoid, including labor abuse and union busting, the steroid trial, the ring boy scandal, referee Rita Chatterton's rape allegations against McMahon, and the suspicious death of Jimmy. Superfly” Snuka’s girlfriend, Benoit’s double murder-suicide, Ashley Massaro’s rape during a WWE performance at a military base and the company’s efforts to cover it up, and the current civil lawsuit against McMahon for sex trafficking and the resulting federal criminal investigation.

The interview partnership that put together the series is largely up to the task of discussing these and many other topics. Former wrestlers Anthony White, aka Tony Atlas, and Bret Hart provide clear insight (by wrestling standards) into the era in which they worked for the WWF. The Wrestling ObserverDave Meltzer does a great job of breaking down the history of WWE in a way that is comprehensive enough for people who are into wrestling, but still accessible to the uninitiated. Authors Sharon Mazer and David Shoemaker provide important cultural criticism. Veteran New York post Columnist Phil Mushnick speaks candidly about his decades of reporting on McMahon's professional and personal misdeeds, while reporters Khadeeja Safdar, Ted Mann and Joe Palazzolo provide insight into their recent investigations into his crimes.

Mr. McMahon is not perfect. While I realize that time constraints would make it nearly impossible to properly examine every WWE-related scandal over the course of six episodes, some of them receive little more than a passing mention here. (Netflix described the series in marketing materials as the result of more than 200 hours of interviews with McMahon alone.) It's telling that Snuka was recognized at all, but it's a shame there wasn't the time, resources or interest to do so To investigate the long-standing rumors that the then-WWF may have played a role in covering up its involvement in the death of Nancy Argentino.

Some periods of WWE history are more thoroughly explored than others. Reporting after the Attitude Era in particular would have benefited from more cultural criticism and expert opinions. It's strange that the series seems content with modern stars like Cody Rhodes insisting that the current version of the company is supportive and free of the problems that plagued the rest of its history, without the resistance that almost every other claim is experienced. (Although it's convenient for Netflix, which will begin streaming WWE Raw in 2025, that their show appears to be completely separate from anything unsavory that series covers.)

Despite minor flaws and limitations in its scope, the series remains a solid interrogation of McMahon's life and work. I've followed the sport of wrestling for too long and seen too many improbable McMahon comebacks to say with certainty that he won't bounce back, but I believe this will leave a lasting impression on his ability , his own abilities to control narrative. All the usual tricks he used throughout his career to aggrandize himself and evade responsibility are laid bare here. He mythologizes and exaggerates the details of Wrestlemania III and the producers immediately report the actual viewership and background information on the stars. He shrugs off proven cases of damage as isolated incidents, while the series has already convincingly demonstrated that they were consistent with his behavioral patterns and the corporate culture he promoted. And he always tries to draw a clear line between himself and his alter ego and to attribute all the accusations and criticism he receives to the latter. (In fact, he still does. In a statement posted on September 23rd

Mr. Vince McMahon might have believed that he could talk and confabulate his way out of whatever the people involved in this production accused him of when he agreed to take part. But in the end, it's clear that the only person he has successfully worked with is himself.