https://x.com/variety/status/1829197821997666585?s=42&t=5Je0sRgUL7f4IwzSBg7GKg

Will be interesting what exactly we get here, since I think the scumbag had a big hand in the production, but I have no idea how much control over the final cut

Sweeping all that dirt under the rug before Raw premieres on the station? Certainly feels like an attempt to present a nicer, better WWE with all the actual bad guys gone just in time for the Netflix debut.

 

So the talking heads are Hogan, Cena, HHH, Rock, Austin & Jimmy Hart? Yeah, even if they cover his current legal issues properly, there will be a lot of Vince-washing of wrestling history.

I'm curious as to how they are going to tackle all of this. It did cross my mind that their framing could be "Mr. McMahon might be less evil than real-life Vince".

1 hour ago, KawadaSmile said:

I'm curious as to how they are going to tackle all of this. It did cross my mind that their framing could be "Mr. McMahon might be less evil than real-life Vince".

Watching the trailer it seemed to me the docs hypothesis is that Vince worked himself into a shoot and he became the Mr McMahon character, which would explain his abusive and deviant behaviour. I hope I'm 100% wrong but that's how I read the ending to that trailer.

 

I realize this is far from the most important part here, but its funny how someone so famously anti smoking as Vince now sounds like a 2 pack a day smoker.

 

Also this doc existing is so strange for so many reasons. Why would Netflix want to air this when they just paid billions for Raw? Why would WWE want to air this when Hunter is clearly trying to distance the company from Vince?  Seems like a no-win for the company since I can't imagine it will go over well in the locker room if it ends up being a bunch of Vince apologists making excuses.

The answer is that it was high profile, cost a lot of money, and Netflix wants to recoup its production costs.

33 minutes ago, Timbo Slice said:

The answer is that it was high profile, cost a lot of money, and Netflix wants to recoup its production costs.

Surprised they didn't go the WB Discovery-David Zaslav route and shitcan this as a tax write-off.

The way they cut the trailer makes it look like they got all their footage of the puff piece stuff up front, but the entire second half is voiceover with few interview cutaways. I know there’s stuff out there about the interviews, but I’d wager all the folks who were willing to talk about him in more glowing terms are front loaded. Which more than likely means a lot of Shoemaker on the backend. Which seems lose-lose to me. 

Even if the recent allegations hadn't happened, no one was wanting to watch another "Vince is such a genius" ballwash fiesta.  Now that they did happen, you're just going to make everyone who doesn't call him a piece of shit look real bad which really isn't fair if they were filmed beforehand.

22 hours ago, sek69 said:

I realize this is far from the most important part here, but its funny how someone so famously anti smoking as Vince now sounds like a 2 pack a day smoker.

 

Also this doc existing is so strange for so many reasons. Why would Netflix want to air this when they just paid billions for Raw? Why would WWE want to air this when Hunter is clearly trying to distance the company from Vince?  Seems like a no-win for the company since I can't imagine it will go over well in the locker room if it ends up being a bunch of Vince apologists making excuses.

My going hypothesis is whatever they cover will push scandal entirely on Vince and whitewash the current WWE staff and their corporate culture. 

19 hours ago, Timbo Slice said:

The way they cut the trailer makes it look like they got all their footage of the puff piece stuff up front, but the entire second half is voiceover with few interview cutaways. I know there’s stuff out there about the interviews, but I’d wager all the folks who were willing to talk about him in more glowing terms are front loaded. Which more than likely means a lot of Shoemaker on the backend. Which seems lose-lose to me. 

Reports from today indicate exactly this. First ep. supposedly starts with a disclaimer that most interviews were done before the 2022 allegations and all that ensued until Vince was finally/completely ousted from the company. And from then it's mostly a linear recap of events. With the final episode focused on the Grant lawsuit.

So it does seem we gonna start with a lot of wrestlers take on Vince and slowly but surely get more talking heads. I did read they at least got the journalist that have covered Vince's cases before like Phil Muschnick, Khadeeja Safdar and Meltzer.

Also read that Bruce Pritchard talks about the Grant lawsuit so that's gonna be something.

Boy that sounds like something Bruce should not be making any comments on

yes Bruce talking about the lawsuit seems like a Very Bad Idea for a multitude of reasons.  I'm sure the lawyers will be taking copious notes though.

Glad that its broken up into episodes with the last one being about the lawsuit.

Will make it very easy to skip every other episode unless I hear otherwise. I lived through, read enough, and watched enough about Vince's rise to power, the steroid case, the war with WCW/Attitude Era, and the globalization of WWE over the past 20 years to think there'll be much of anything new or revelatory for me to see/hear. I don't know if there's any figure in pro-wrestling I might actually know more about already than Vince McMahon. 

But the final episode? Yeah, I'm curious.

I’m betting there is going to be footage even interesting and otherwise unseen by older fans. In light of recent findings elsewhere, it wouldn’t be too hard to believe Vince filmed everything.

The fact that Vince felt compelled to preemptively bury the series strongly indicates that it will be far from a puff piece. I guess no one told him about the Streisand Effect.

Reports are out he tried to buy the doc back from Netflix so it's really looking like he's nervous about this, which is good.

Watched the first episode despite my earlier claim that I wasn't interested in yet another wrestling documentary going through Vince taking over the company, expanding into the territories, cherry-picking talent, and creating WrestleMania. 

But, hey, like many things in life, it's not always about finding a new angle or unearthing new footage or solving a mystery. You can give me and a world class chef the same knife, the same vegetables, and the same oil and vinegar and one of us is going to make a remarkable salad and the other will make that one that is less so.

I know they got more access to footage, more interviews, etc., but really, this is content we've all heard before - at least Episode 1 is - but this is that content being presented by real top-shelf producers and editors. It's not the story, its the storytellers here that pulled me in and have me recommending it to even the most "I've seen it all before" wrestling fans. 

Yes, you've seen it all before. Episode 1 is not groundbreaking (I can't speak for any others). But you've probably had pizza from dozens of places in your life too. If you're like me, though, that doesn't mean you don't try a new place when one opens in your town. You never know, they might actually make a great pie. I thought Episode 1 was a great pie. 

So much "history of WWF". So little of who Vince is or is not.

Ep. 1 was bleh. Way too much Hogan (who is as unreliable a source as you can find) to make it compelling.

Hearing so much from Vince could be interesting in the coming episodes from on this first one he didn't say anything that really grabbed my attention (all the bits about his dad could be compelling for a lot of people though).

Best part was them explaining wrestling and why it has the potential to be so popular.

Hopefully ep.2 is better.

Finished ep. 2. Once they stop showcasing WWE mythology -even if they try to downplay it as such, it's still annoying as hell to watch/listen for the 100th time- and start trying to tell the story of what was going during all the lawsuits and allegations of the early-mid 90's it finally started to get interesting.

Still, nothing really new in any of this but at least it's less offensive than the first 80 minutes.

By all accounts this was most likely going to be another WWE puff piece until all the Vince stuff broke, so it's the back end of episodes that are probably going to be the ones to watch.

I’m watching the first episode and all I can say is that I could have lived a long, full and happy life without seeing Vince McMahon posing in a tiny banana hammock speedo. I kind of want to scrub my brain with a Brillo pad.