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Netflix’s New Vince McMahon Documentary Worth the Watch Despite Not Going Deeper

The six-part series “Mr. McMahon” shows how difficult it is to fully know the real Vince McMahon.

Jimmy Traina

Vince McMahon is the subject of a new documentary series on Netflix.
Vince McMahon is the subject of a new documentary series on Netflix. / Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

1. When I finished the sixth and final episode of Netflix’s new documentary series, Mr. McMahon, my biggest takeaway was that it seems impossible to do a true documentary about Vince McMahon.

McMahon and those around him just aren’t going to give you the real story. Maybe they can’t. Maybe, as the show tries to convey, there is no difference between in character and out of character—what you see is exactly what you get with the most important person in the history of professional wrestling, and there isn’t something deeper.

But when the series was over, I wishing it went deeper when it came to the non-wrestling stuff. You don’t have to be Dr. Melfi to figure out that McMahon is probably psychologically damaged from his childhood. He didn’t meet his biological father until he was 12. Until that point, he was allegedly being physically and sexually abused by his stepfather and mother.

You can see the harm that did to McMahon when you see that he doesn’t care about anything but the wrestling business. There doesn’t seem to be a “real life” for McMahon. There only seems to be “the business.”

The people behind the documentary were dealt a huge curveball during production when McMahon was accused of sexual assault and sex trafficking in a lawsuit from a former WWE employee. The lawsuit is currently on hold while the U.S. Department of Justice conducts their own investigation.

Unfortunately, all of the interviews conducted with WWE wrestlers of past and present, were done before the lawsuit came about. It was clear that the documentary had to scramble and adjust on the fly for the final episode, which covered scandal, but didn’t add anything of value.

Should you spend the time to watch the six-part series? Yes.

If you’re a long-time and big-time wrestling fan like me, you won’t learn much. I probably knew about 97% of the stuff in the doc. But hearing McMahon share his perspective, which was oftentimes bizarre, on everything that took place from the 1980s until now is something we have never seen before. You will also love some of the never-before-seen backstage footage throughout the six episodes.

And if you’re not a wrestling fan, you will likely be stunned by McMahon’s disturbing behavior over the years.

I’ll go bullet points for the rest of my thoughts on the docuseries:

- I understand Hulk Hogan’s place in wrestling history, but I’m not sure I need to hear from him when it comes to analyzing McMahon’s behavior since he was caught on tape spewing vile, racist thoughts after sleeping with his best friend’s wife.

- Bret Hart still thinks wrestling is real and it’s just bizarre.

- Most of the wrestlers interviewed (The Rock, John Cena, Stone Cold and others) brought nothing to the table. It was clear they weren’t going to go all the way in exposing anything about McMahon. It seemed they were all in character while trying to act like they weren’t in character. The one person who did share some eye-opening stories, to no surprise, was Paul Heyman.

- The most sympathetic figure in the doc was Shane McMahon. He didn’t hide the fact that he so yearned for his father’s approval. But clearly, Vince was not capable of giving it.

- The amount of lawsuits McMahon and the WWE have settled over the years is astonishing.

- The doc, along with McMahon, kept mentioning his various affairs over the years and how often he has sex on his mind. Yet his wife, Linda, who was interviewed for the series, was never asked about Vince’s cheating and the state of their marriage.

- My guess is that the wrestlers weren’t allowed to do it, but you could feel the huge hole in the documentary after it couldn’t get any reaction at all from any of the performers about the current allegations against McMahon.

- Having said that, the documentary did an outstanding job of covering the history of the on-air product over the past 40-plus years.

2. A brand-new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped this morning and it features a conversation with ESPN’s top MLB insider, Jeff Passan.

Passan discusses the recent retirement of Adrian Wojnaroswki and what the life of an insider is like. Does he bring his phone into the shower? Does he break stories from the toilet? Where was the oddest place he’s broken news?

Passan also talks about Major League Baseball’s popularity problem, MLB’s TV issues and what three things he’d do if he was commissioner for a day.

Passan also shares the story of getting The Rock to leave his outgoing answering machine message while in college and the story of getting seriously injured by a tree limb.

Following Passan, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. In this week’s segment, I read recent Apple reviews for SI Media With Jimmy Traina, and we discuss The Bear and the Pine Barrens episode of The Sopranos, Chiefs running back Carson Steele missing his sister’s wedding because she scheduled it when he had a game, John Sterling returning to the Yankees, and much more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

3. It should be no surprise in this litigious society that we live in that there would be a lawsuit surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball.

Sure enough, 18-year-old Max Matus claims the ball rightfully belongs to him even though Chris Belanski came away with the ball.

Matus’s lawsuit claims that Belanski “wrapped his legs around Max’s arm and used his hands to wrangle the ball out of Max’s hands, stealing the ball for himself.” 

4. The A’s will play their final game ever at the Oakland Coliseum this afternoon.

It will be interesting to see what the place looks like afterward.

5. ESPN is parting ways with NBA reporter Zach Lowe. Is this a move to clear money to bring in Shams Charania? Is this a move to clear money for Stephen A. Smith, who is currently in contract negotiations? Because it's certainly not a move based on merit.

6. Thursday will mark the 20th Cowboys-Giants game called by Al Michaels over his storied career. Here’s Michaels calling a Dallas comeback in 2015 thanks to one heck of play from Tony Romo.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: The Netflix doc on Vince McMahon showed a brief clip of his 2003 interview with Armen Keteyian from HBO’s Real Sports, but the whole thing is worth rewatching.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina

JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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