Bill Simmons Explains Why Mr. McMahon Series Wasn't Made For Die-Hard Wrestling Fans

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"Mr. McMahon" has officially been released on Netflix, and one of the more common reactions to the docuseries has been the observation that it doesn't contain very much new information for wrestling fans. It's a charge that was recently answered by "Mr. McMahon" producer Bill Simmons, who commented on the matter during an episode of "The Bill Simmons Podcast."

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"We're making it for everybody," Simmons said. "We made a decision [that] the A story is about Vince, the B story is about the 50-year history of wrestling. And there's a lot of beats to it, and there's no way to just separate those, because the 50-year story — or rather, the last 50 years of wrestling — is Vince's story."

Simmons admitted that diehard wrestling fans will likely not be impressed by the docuseries because they already know all the details of wrestling history, which he saw as an obstacle while creating "Mr. McMahon."

"Yeah, a lot of this stuff's already out there," he said. "What's not out there is like, who was this guy, how did people relate to him, how do people feel about him now? You could feel that in the interviews, like the way people talk about him, like they're reverential about him but they also seem like they're a little afraid of him? And just trying to capture this big, invincible dude who also had a lot of skeletons and demons and did some bad stuff, let's be honest."

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David Shoemaker, another producer for the docuseries, was Simmons' guest on the podcast. Shoemaker explained that it's difficult to make a documentary about McMahon that isn't also about WWE, and it's also difficult for documentarians to separate themselves from the story of wrestling history McMahon has spent decades curating. In the end, however, the appeal is McMahon himself.

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"It always comes back to Vince, and it always comes back to just his version of events, him staring into the camera and trying to explain himself for the first time in his life," Shoemaker said. "The amount of access, just in terms of hours of him sitting still and asking questions, is entirely unprecedented, and a lot of that stuff's in there ... I'm sure there's diehard wrestling fans that would just pay anything just to see the raw footage of Vince just sitting there, because it's the volume that's the real amazing thing."

Shoemaker and Simmons recalled that they had four hours of unused footage of McMahon on the cutting room floor — partially because of one particular day on which his voice sounded terrible. According to them, "Mr. McMahon" could easily have been 10 episodes rather than six.

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"There is so much good material," Shoemaker said, "but I think the story Chris and his team were able to tell is pretty amazing."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Bill Simmons Podcast" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.