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Mr. McMahon (miniseries)
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] All six episodes of the series were released on September 25, 2024, on Netflix.[1] BackgroundWorld 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] CastVince 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
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Episodes
ThemeOne 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] ReleaseThe 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
—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
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