Bill Simmons Details "Strange" Experience Working On Vince McMahon Documentary

Bill Simmons details his experience of working on the Vince McMahon docuseries.

WWE.com

The highly anticipated Vince McMahon documentary is finally available for the world to see. The six-episode docuseries titled, 'Mr. McMahon', premiered in its entirety early Wednesday morning.

“People would love to punch their boss in the mouth. I got a chance to literally and figuratively do that”

Mr. McMahon, a six-part documentary series chronicling the rise and fall of WWE's controversial founder, is now playing. pic.twitter.com/OSbd19bJia

— Netflix (@netflix) September 25, 2024

But the process wasn't always smooth for the people who put the documentary together, especially when it came to getting McMahon to film interviews.

On Wednesday, series executive producer Bill Simmons went on his podcast to discuss what the experience was like with The Ringer's David Shoemaker. When the topic shifted to working with the former Owner and Chairman of WWE, Simmons didn't pull any punches.

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“It was certainly the strangest documentary process I’ve ever been involved with,” Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Shoemaker, who appeared at various points in the documentary, discussed the difficulites of getting McMahon to film as he'd often be late or not even bothering to show up.

“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,” Shoemaker said. “I don’t even know if he knows who he is enough to tell that story.”

“Even when he was eager, he wasn’t there on time or on the days that he was supposed to be there.” 

“He always had people with him. There was always people, kind of, lingering in the background making sure nothing weird happened,” Simmons chimed in to say.

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Joining Simmons was the acclaimed director Chris Smith from Tiger King fame, as he directed the documentary.

“Chris Smith, the entire production team have done so many documentaries of this sort, and of all sorts. They’ve been working in this world forever,” Shoemaker said. “This is the guy that did The Tiger King, and none of them had ever experienced a working situation like we encountered in Stanford, Connecticut.”

“We would show up to shoot and then just all day long be getting updates from Vince’s secretary about his ETA. Six hours, eight hours before the shoot, pushing it back an hour, pushing it back another hour.

“Then he would roll in at 11 p.m., pitch black, with his little crew around him and shake everybody’s hand. It was just such a bizarre situation.”

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