Backstage News On Internal WWE Reaction To Netflix Vince McMahon Documentary Series

Netflix recently revealed the first trailer for the documentary miniseries "Mr. McMahon," which chronicles the life of former WWE CEO Vince McMahon. The show will be officially released on September 25, and some within the wrestling world have already described it as a six-part burial of the most controversial man in WWE history. Given the lawsuit filed by Janel Grant earlier this year, many have wondered how the show will actually turn out, presumably including current WWE employees and talent, and Fightful Select have been able to gauge the internal WWE reaction to the trailer's release.

According to Fightful, one long-time WWE talent stated that no one should care about McMahon's life outside of his current legal situation, and more than a dozen more WWE contacts claimed they want to "wash their hands" of McMahon and move on. The trailer sees a number of prominent talking heads describing McMahon as "a character," and McMahon himself claiming that nobody really knows him despite his frequent portrayal as "a bad guy." WWE sources told Fightful the line in the trailer was simply a way to get people talking about the show.

Wrestlenomics and POST Wrestling recently claimed that a disclaimer has been put at the beginning of the first episode of the series to let people know that most of the interviews took place before the Grant lawsuit was filed. WWE sources have noted that this simply a way to help take the heat away from any of the major names (some still employed by WWE) who may have had good things to say about McMahon.

Grant herself will reportedly not be in the documentary, and will most likely only be mentioned by name in the final episode, which focuses on the allegations against McMahon. Per Fightful a spokesperson for Grant said the documentary initially reached out to Grant, but she ended up not being included. "Netflix's documentary group made initial outreach to Janel's representation for an interview for this project. Despite this, no such interview came to fruition," the statement read. Fightful was unable to learn any further details as to what that specifically meant.

The documentary has reportedly been in the works for a number of years, with some talking head segments reportedly dating back to before the COVID-19 pandemic, a time where WWE were slated to have production credits on the series. However, that is no longer the case, and when asked by Fightful to deliver an official company comment on the release of the "Mr. McMahon" trailer, WWE declined.