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WWE fans anticipated the release of a Netflix docuseries many believed would never see the light of day. Vince McMahon reportedly tried to buy back the interview footage he filmed for the Mr. McMahon production, which led to the project being shelved for a time. However, once the six-part series was finally released, fans were eager to revisit McMahon’s controversial career, although it seems even McMahon needed reminders of key moments. Needless to say, our Vince McMahon news hub is blowing up today.
Bill Simmons invited David Shoemaker onto his podcast to discuss the Netflix docuseries, Mr. McMahon. As noted, McMahon’s interviews for the documentary were conducted before the filing of the Janel Grant lawsuit.
Simmons explained that Vince McMahon had been enthusiastic about doing the documentary, motivated by his positive experience with the Andre the Giant production. McMahon was ready to tell his story, and they moved forward with the project.
“The backstory of it was, Vince wanted to do a documentary. I had done the Andre the Giant doc and he was ready to tell his story. A big thing for us is like, well, if we’re gonna tell your story, it’s got to be everything. He’s like, ‘I’m ready to talk about everything.’ The next step was finding a director and the best thing was, with Chris (Smith), he wasn’t a wrestling fan. We decided it would actually be more interesting.”
“Let’s get somebody who doesn’t know this and we immerse him into this world and just experience everything for the first time, and then we can kind of help him with the wrestling stuff. So we get all these interviews and we’re going and probably working on it for over a year, a year and a half, and then the first wave of stuff happens with Vince. For the next two years, we’re trying to figure out if we will have to audible on the fly again? What is this going to mean? What’s this going to mean? There’s a couple times when I think both of us thought this thing’s going to get shelved. This won’t happen.”
David Shoemaker added that McMahon was “eager” to participate in the documentary, but it wasn’t clear if he fully understood what that meant. In the end, Shoemaker praised director Chris Smith for handling the project in a professional manner.
“You said Vince was eager and wanted to do the documentary at first, which is 100% true, but, I mean, I don’t think Vince, it sounds so weird to say, I’m not sure Vince knew what it meant to do the documentary and I’m not sure that he knew what story he wanted to tell, or I don’t even know if he knows who he is enough to tell that story.”
“Even when he was pseudo eager on the first phase of the documentary, it was really hard to get beyond the surface with him. Chris Smith did a good job of sitting in front of him and just sort of staring him down until some things started coming out. Vince, prior to everything coming out over the past couple years, is just the most bizarre subject to try to do this kind of project for because even when he was eager, he wasn’t there on time, or, you know, on the days that he was supposed to be there. There was always a team reminding him of things in his past. There was always a team. The entire production team have done so many documentaries of this sort and of all sorts.”
“They’ve been working this world forever. This is the guy that did the Tiger King and none of them had ever experienced a working situation like we encountered in Stamford, Connecticut. We would show up to shoot and then just be all like, all day long be getting updates from Vince’s Secretary about his ETA, like six hours, eight hours before the shoot, pushing it back an hour, pushing it back another hour, pushing it back another hour, and then he would roll in at 11 PM, you know, pitch black with his little crew around him and shake everybody’s hand and say thank you for being here, and then go into hair and makeup, and just emerge in the same outfit that he was wearing for every shoot. It was just such a bizarre situation.”
Although huge revelations weren’t really expected from the Mr. McMahon docuseries, the fact that McMahon sat down to speak about things is notable. Fans did hear Vince’s hot take on The Undertaker’s WrestleMania XXX concussion. He addressed the Chris Benoit tragedy. There was also a new allegation laid down on Pat Patterson from Tony Atlas.
The interviews with McMahon were filmed before Janel Grant’s lawsuit became public, bringing to light serious allegations about his actions behind the scenes. While McMahon has experienced much in his life, the documentary reveals that even he needed reminders about key events from his decades in the wrestling industry.
What’s your take on the Mr. McMahon docuseries? Have you had a chance to watch it yet? Do you believe that it lived up to the hype? Let us know what you think in the comments section!
September 25, 2024 9:48 am
