Vince McMahon’s aversion to the Netflix series on his life went beyond his statement issued on Monday, according to a report from Puck.
Matthew Belloni reports that the ex-chairman of WWE attempted to purchase the rights to the Mr. McMahon series from Netflix after seeing early footage of his portrayal.
Belloni’s report added that McMahon also had Ari Emanuel intervene on his behalf to “voice concern” but Netflix was adamant on releasing the series as is.
On Monday, McMahon stated that he had seen a partial cut of the final documentary and believes it “takes the predictable path of conflating the ‘Mr. McMahon’ character with my true self, Vince.” He stated that a lot was misrepresented and accused the producers of using “editing tricks with out-of-context footage and dated soundbites to distort the viewers’ perception and support a deceptive narrative.”
McMahon participated in the series with multiple sit-down interviews before his resignation.
The series will drop on Wednesday from producers Chris Smith and Bill Simmons with WWE not holding any production credit and quietly removing WWE Studios from the project.
WWE has never promoted the series despite embarking on a $5 billion deal with the streaming giant.
Nick Khan announced the project during the 2020 third-quarter earnings call with analysts and stated that Smith, Simmons, and WWE Studios would be involved.
The doc series went through various iterations due to the scandals of McMahon, which led to a resignation in July 2002, his return to the company months later, the filing of the Janel Grant lawsuit this past January, and McMahon’s final resignation within two days of the lawsuit being filed.
Brandon Thurston reported on what viewers can expect in the six-episode series through a source with early access to the series.
