If you asked me what my guilty pleasures are, I’d probably mention my habit of occasionally watching WWE. When watching the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania with my dad, I’ve found myself captivated by the athleticism, theatrics and atmosphere of the professional wrestling world. When the entrance music of an unanticipated wrestler filled the room, I’d shoot up in childlike wonder, eager to see the impending hijinks. However, like many wrestling fans, I’ve often found myself deeply troubled by the exploitation, abuse and violence that has clouded WWE’s history.
Netflix’s docuseries Mr. McMahon examines the person most responsible for facilitating these problematic aspects of WWE history: former CEO Vince McMahon. The series covers McMahon’s work in transforming the company from a small, regional wrestling promotion into the largest wrestling entertainment company in the world. The series also covers the numerous controversies surrounding McMahon’s leadership, including his shady business practices, the drug and steroid usage within WWE, the many premature deaths of wrestling stars and the many sexual misconduct allegations against McMahon. Though the series effectively and accurately explains some aspects of WWE history and McMahon’s past, I feel that the series fails to truly capture the extent of McMahon’s abusive behavior.
Mr. McMahon’s greatest accomplishment is its usage of interview footage as a storytelling tool. By cutting between clips of conversations with McMahon, his family members, his former employees, his competitors and various journalists who have covered McMahon’s controversies, the series effectively displays McMahon’s egomaniacal world view. In one particularly impactful scene, McMahon argues that he shares no characteristics with ‘Mr. McMahon,’ the manipulative, sexually abusive, violent character he adopts when entering the ring. Despite his denial, most other individuals featured — including some of the people closest to McMahon — did not hesitate to say that the character and McMahon were extremely similar.
Despite the effectiveness of the interviews in displaying McMahon’s psyche and unwavering refusal to accept responsibility for many incidents of harm, the interview framing device fails in two main regards. Primarily, most of the interviews (including those with McMahon) were conducted prior to the latest series of sexual abuse and trafficking allegations that forced McMahon to resign from his position in WWE. As a result, neither McMahon or many of the other featured interviewees have to answer for the latest developments in McMahon’s history of sexual abuse. This creates an unsatisfying viewing experience, with the final episode seeming to severely lack key information and perspectives on the allegations against McMahon. Though it’s fascinating to see McMahon answer questions in a position where he feels completely free from the possibility of losing his power in WWE, the small amount of coverage of the latest sexual abuse allegations makes those allegations feel less significant in the context of the other topics given more screentime throughout the series.
The series mainly features interviews with high profile wrestlers (including Hulk Hogan, The Rock, John Cena, the Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin), meaning that another exploitative side of McMahon’s exploitative business practices was largely ignored. While high profile wrestlers have enjoyed generous salaries and benefits, less popular wrestlers have worked just as hard with the constant threat of being let go in the event of a serious injury. As a result, many of these wrestlers pushed themselves to their limits, doing permanent damage to their bodies in the process. The series briefly discusses this component of the wrestling community, but fails to mention McMahon’s complete refusal to offer wrestlers healthcare coverage or guarantees for continued employment during injuries. His callous treatment of wrestlers as work horses directly facilitated the development of long-term health issues and drug addictions. If less popular wrestlers were interviewed as well, they could have spoken about this difficult position that they found themselves in.
Mr. McMahon ultimately provides a viewing experience most suitable for people who are unfamiliar or only vaguely familiar with WWE history. Because the show assumes that viewers may not know much WWE history, the episodes spend long periods of time explaining high profile events and eras that most wrestling fans will already be familiar with. As a result, the series has less time at its disposal to dive into McMahon and his controversies. This angle also causes the series to exclude key details of several events discussed. For example, when explaining the infamous “Montreal Screwjob,” the show fails to point out that wrestler Bret “The Hitman” Hart had been offered creative control over his character’s final storyline within WWE in his contract with McMahon. This meant that on top of being a personal betrayal, McMahon’s decision to force Hart to lose to his on-stage and real-life rival Shawn Michaels also represented a betrayal of previous professional promises.
By including more specific details about McMahon’s actions, the show could have created a far more compelling and complete story of McMahon’s abusive past. Despite these shortcomings, the series presents an informative look into McMahon suitable for newcomers to WWE history.
Matthew Rentezelas is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at [email protected].