By Michele Yeo
Who is Vince McMahon? It’s a question that may truly never be answered but one that a new docuseries spends six episodes trying.
Mr. McMahon, now streaming on Netflix, is based on more than 100 hours of interviews with the WWE impresario himself and those closest to him including family members, longtime colleagues, and some of wrestling’s biggest luminaries including Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, and Dwayne Johnson.
The interviews were conducted before McMahon stepped away from the WWE in January of this year amid a slew of disturbing allegations leveled by former employee Janel Grant including sexual misconduct and trafficking. In fact, a final interview with McMahon was scrapped after the allegations were made public. Regardless, here are 10 things we learned about Vince McMahon from the series.
Vince McMahon Had A Complicated Relationship With His Father
As a third generation wrestling promoter, you could say Vince McMahon has wrestling in his blood, but McMahon didn’t even know the man who shares his name, Vince McMahon Sr, owner of Capital Wrestling, which McMahon Jr. would later transform into World Wrestling Entertainment, until he was 12-years-old. Instead, Vince was raised by a stepfather who he calls “abusive.” When father and son did eventually reconnect, Jr. says they never discussed why Sr. wasn’t present for the first part of his son’s life, calling their dynamic more of a business relationship. However, before Sr. died he did tell his son he loved him which Jr. says “was one of the biggest moments of his life.”
Hulk Hogan “Snitched” On Jesse Ventura’s Union Efforts
After WrestleMania 2 in 1986, wrestler Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura tried to galvanize his fellow wrestlers to unionize so they’d have health insurance and more guidelines with regard to working hours. “Wrestlers, as a group, were often exploited,” explains longtime sports journalist Bob Costas in the doc, “these wrestlers were not unionized, they did not have medical protection.” Vince McMahon caught wind of the efforts and shut it down and it’s long been believed Hulk Hogan was the one who “snitched” to McMahon about Ventura’s efforts, something Hogan himself confirms in the doc. “Hulk Hogan double-crossed Jesse,” adds Bret Hart.
Vince McMahon Does Not Regret “The Montreal Screwjob”
On November 9th, 1997, Vince McMahon manipulated the outcome of the Survivor Series in Montreal in favour of Shawn Michaels over reigning champion Bret Hart. Hart, like many wrestlers before him, was defecting to the rival organization, Ted Turner’s WCW, and McMahon didn’t want Hart to take the championship belt with him, “I said you know Bret, you have property around your waist that belonged to the WWE…I can’t let you go to Turner with the WWE championship belt.” The incident famously became known as “The Montreal Screwjob” which Vince stands by all these years later, ““My thought at the time was well, this is good for television,” he says, “to this day, I don’t regret any of it.”
He Stands By His Decision to Go On With The Show After Owen Hart’s Death
Bret Hart’s brother Owen, a fellow wrestler who, in 1999 was competing under the moniker The Blue Blazer, notoriously died during a match on May 23rd in Kansas City that was broadcast on Pay-Per-View. Owen Hart was to be lowered down into the ring from the rafters when a malfunction saw him fall to his death. The television audience did not see the incident and Vince McMahon made the call to continue on with the show, a decision he stands by today. “The live audience didn’t really see what happened, had they seen it, no question, you’d have to shut the show down,” he says in the doc. “Those people came to see a show. They did not come to see somebody die and as a businessman it’s like, okay, let’s continue on, let’s continue the show.” Vince says if he was the one who died in the ring, he would have wanted the show to go on as well. “Had it been me splattered on the mat, I would want the show to go on so get me out of there, you know, and let the show go on…I’d do it with me and to this day I would.”
Vince Drew Upon His Childhood For His Mr. McMahon Character
After The Montreal Screwjob and as the WWE moved into its “Attitude Era” Vince McMahon adopted the persona of Mr. McMahon, a cartoonish over-the-top villain. “It’s at that point in time that Vince McMahon creates the Mr. McMahon character, the evil tyrant boss and eventually that would change the trajectory of the business,” offers wrestler Triple H in the doc. McMahon, who is now a billionaire, grew up relatively poor and says he drew upon his childhood for inspiration for the character. “Mr. McMahon, of course, is a character derived from Vince McMahon and is a character of someone I could relate to when I was growing up,” he says. “ Because when I was growing up I was like, dirt poor. Coming from that environment I don’t like rich people because I was around some people who thought they were better than me because they had more money so it felt like you weren’t’ anybody at all…I can play someone who intimidates because that was the way I grew up, that was the way I thought rich people were.”
He Says He’s Nothing Like His Mr. McMahon Character
Vince McMahon maintains the Mr. McMahon character is a completely fictionalized version of himself, saying when it comes to similarities between the two there are “none whatsoever.” But those who know him are less convinced. “The difference between Mr. McMahon and Vince McMahon? Probably not that much,” says Shawn Michaels. Adds Hulk Hogan, “exactly the same person, it’s not a stretch.” Bruce Pritchard, Executive Director of the WWE, adds, “The character of Mr. McMahon is really just Vince. He’ll tell you differently but no, Mr McMahon is Vince.”
Vince McMahon Doesn’t Hold A Grudge. Professionally, Anyway
Over the course of his career, Vince McMahon has been embroiled in a number of professional feuds and lawsuits but it hasn’t stopped him from working with some of those people again even after their beef. Hulk Hogan famously returned to WWE after his notorious defection to WCW. “You can’t hold grudges in business,” Vince tells the doc. “My philosophy is, despite what has happened personally, what does the audience want? All they want is to be entertained so naturally you swallow your pride and eat a nice plate of caca and bring him back and there you go.” While Vince may not personally forgive and forget, he puts the business ahead of everything. “I don’t think my personal feelings have ever got in the way of doing good business,” he says. “I’m in business and business comes first.”
He Wanted His Daughter’s Wedding To Be A Pay-Per-View Event
Vince McMahon’s daughter Stephanie struck up a romance with wrestler Paul Levesque, known professionally as Triple H. When the two decided to marry in 2003, McMahon wanted his daughter’s nuptials broadcast on Pay-Per-View which didn’t go over well with Stephanie. “Wow. People would buy that. It’d be awesome, it’d be great,” he says, “and Steph said uhm…no.” Triple H says his father-in-law was disappointed he couldn’t monetize the wedding. “When Steph says absolutely not, he said ‘selfish. I can’t believe you’re that selfish.’”
Vince Concocted A Truly Unhinged Storyline Involving His Daughter
There’s one storyline that Stephanie McMahon refused to take part in and while she wouldn’t reveal the nature of it in the documentary, her dad definitely did. And woof, it’s a doozy. “One of my storyline ideas was that Stephanie gets pregnant and I think I was the one who impregnated her, my character, Mr. McMahon, I think it was something like that and it was a no. That one didn’t make it.” Thank Heavens for small mercies.
We May Never Know The Real Vince McMahon
Even after six episodes the question of “who is Vince McMahon?” might never truly be answered. “No one really knows me and it’s been a while for me to try and figure it out myself,” says Vince. “I still haven’t quite figured out who I am,” adding, “performing is easy. Being yourself is the more difficult part.” Hulk Hogan concurs the man remains an enigma. “Do I know Vince McMahon? I don’t think anyone knows Vince McMahon.”
Mr. McMahon is now streaming on Netflix. Ahead of its release Vince McMahon spoke out against it saying, “the producers use typical editing tricks with out of context footage and dated sound bites etc. to distort the viewers’ perception and support a deceptive narrative.”
