Five Mind-Blowing Things From ‘Mr. McMahon’ WWE Fans Should Know

The “Mr. McMahon” docuseries was released on Netflix this week, and it opened the general public’s eyes to the former WWE chairman.

One key note about the Netflix miniseries was that the majority of the interviews were filmed before former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon, the company and former head of talent relations John Laurinaitis. Grant accused McMahon of sex trafficking and sought to have the court declare her NDA, which she signed in January 2022, unenforceable, due to McMahon discontinuing payments agreed to, under the Speak Out Act, and because of overly broad language.

McMahon had other sexual assault allegations reported by the Wall Street Journal during the creation of the Netflix docuseries that led to the 79-year-old resigning in July 2022 before he returned to WWE in March 2023. McMahon settled with his accusers like former WWE referee Rita Chatterton during that time and resigned from all WWE and TKO positions this year.

There were multiple other controversies around McMahon before Grant’s lawsuit, but the graphic details painted a different picture of the docuseries that charted McMahon and WWE’s rise. Let’s take a look at five things that stood out from “Mr. McMahon.”

Skimming over controversies
To director Chris Smith’s credit, this docuseries does touch on the major issues. The WSJ’s reporting is hit on in the first of six episodes. The second episode highlighted McMahon’s history of exploiting his workers as independent talent and Hulk Hogan’s role in hindering a wrestlers union. There are also conversations around the steroid trial, Jimmy Snuka’s alleged murder accusation, the “Ring Boy” scandal, Chatterton’s accusation of sexual assault and Owen Hart’s death.

The problem is the docuseries doesn’t spend nearly enough time that these topics deserve. Instead, they are merely roadblocks in between the ups and downs of WWE through the 1980s and ’90s. To be generous, maybe the docuseries took the view of McMahon, who might have thought that that’s what those scandals were.

But these are topics that deserved more time, especially Owen Hart’s death which didn’t feature any commentary from his widow Dr. Martha Hart, who detailed WWE’s alleged negligence in her late husband’s death for nearly two and a half decades.

New Pat Patterson allegation
Patterson was a legendary wrestler, renowned WWE producer and one of McMahon’s right-hand men. Chris Jericho and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson credited Patterson for helping them reach stardom during the “Attitude Era.” Patterson also is one of the men who was accused during the “Ring Boys” scandal. In 1994, former ring boy Tom Cole accused Patterson, Terry Garvin and Mel Phillips of sexual harassment and alleged McMahon and WWE played a role in covering up the crimes. Garvin and Patterson resigned, but the latter later returned to the company.

Most knowledgeable WWE fans knew about that. What was new was that Tony Atlas alleged Patterson of sexually harassing him. When the filmmakers asked the 70-year-old if he told anyone, the former WWE wrestler pointed out that Patterson was the booker and that McMahon wouldn’t do anything about it even if he did tell him. Journalist Pat Laprade called out Atlas for the allegation and highlighted how there are mixed details around Patterson’s alleged involvement in the “Ring Boys” scandal.

Do as I say, not as I do
This isn’t much of a surprise as it was interesting to see. McMahon doesn’t hide his unsympathetic nature in the docuseries, and it’s highlighted how business-first he is. Yet, when he spoke about Ted Turner and the “Monday Night Wars,” he seemed to have an issue with Turner paying more money to talent to jump to WCW. He didn’t seem to understand the irony of him doing the exact same thing when he poached the territories of its top talent. McMahon claimed he wasn’t trying to hurt his competition but Turner was.

“What I say is different than what I think,” McMahon said in the docuseries.

It certainly gave insight into the man’s psyche.

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Father-son dynamic
Episode five focused on Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon and how Vince McMahon isn’t a big fan of nepotism — how noble. Paul Heyman told a notable story. The former ECW promoter alleged there was an idea that Shane McMahon was so behind that his father was not. Vince McMahon was eating at the time and handed his son a knife. According to Heyman, Vince McMahon told his son to stab him right in the heart so he could execute the plan that he really wanted but also knew he wasn’t man enough. Shane McMahon relented and didn’t fall through on the creative idea he eagerly wanted to do. Did this happen? Well, Heyman is a renowned liar, but it did make for an interesting story.

CT-What?
Chris Benoit’s murder-suicide exposed the damage wrestlers take, especially to the head. There was severe CTE found in Benoit’s brain, but Steve Austin apparently doesn’t believe in CTE. He might be confusing a long-term condition that often doesn’t show visible symptoms to how he’s able to function well in everyday life.

Final takeaways
If you didn’t know a lot about Vince McMahon or WWE’s controversies, this is a good launching point. To the the docuseries’ credit, there is excellent editing to fact check stooges like Hogan and Bruce Pritchard from expounding upon WWE propaganda. Pritchard really showed how much of a lapdog he is for McMahon when he accused the filmmakers of making a “gotcha” piece highlighting the good things McMahon has done for him and others. Two days later during the making of the docuseries, news of the Grant lawsuit broke.

Other series like “Dark Side of the Ring” dive deeper into some of these stories better than “Mr. McMahon” does.

The Grant lawsuit gets its time in the final episode, but there’s only surface-level stuff. That’s likely due to it being put on pause while McMahon is under federal investigation. But it did create questions of what Netflix miniseries was supposed to be if not for the WSJ’s reporting and the lawsuit.

This docuseries also exposed how loyal people like Hogan, The Rock, Austin and John Cena are to McMahon despite his allegations, and if more details from the Grant lawsuit are revealed in court, it could make them look even worse.