Insane Insights From Mr. McMahon - Episode 1: Junior
It's finally here, the long-awaited documentary on Former WWE Chairman Vincent McMahon. At one point in the world, he was on top of the wrestling world and now his legacy is rotten and it's such a fall from grace. In total, there are 6 episodes, and the plan is that I will review each episode one by one and give the 10 takeaways from each episode. This first episode is titled Junior, which makes sense, as his dad was also named Vince.
Vince Hates Talking About Himself
Right at the beginning of the documentary, the man himself, Vince McMahon speaks. It's hard to read Vince McMahon, but this is legit the first time that his nervousness is shown. He admits that he does not like to talk about himself and that's relatable. Many people find it difficult to talk about their stories, especially on the camera. Vince wishes he could give the real stories, but only wants to reveal enough that is "semi-interesting" according to him. He claims that “I don’t want anyone to know me.”. It's too late for that Mr. McMahon.
Vince Reveals His Childhood Story
Vince talks about his childhood, and surprisingly, he did not live in luxury. He grew up in a poor household in a trailer park in North Carolina. His biological mother raised him, and his stepdad was very abusive to him. His biological father is Vincent J. McMahon, and he was not in Vince's life until he was 12 years old. When seeing him for the first time he immediately loved him. A sad thing about their relationship is that Vince Jr never got to know why his dad was never involved in his life until he was 12.
8. What Vince Learned As A Ring Announcer
Before Vince got to run the company, he became a ring announcer. The documentary shows early footage of his ring announcing days in 1976. Bruce Pritchard said that Vince was terrible as a ring announcer, but it's where he learned about emotion and storytelling in pro wrestling. Vince took it as a learning experience and figured out the business quickly. Vince gives us a lesson about what a heel and babyface are.
7. Vince Sr. Planned To Sell To Gorilla Monsoon
This is the first surprising facts of the documentary. Vince McMahon Sr wanted out of the business and was looking to sell. Vince McMahon jr was not going to be the first choice to buy the company. It was Gorilla Monsoon who was originally going to buy the company. Vince McMahon used the words "heir apparent" when describing Monsoon.
Vince instead made a deal that his dad couldn't refuse. The deal was for Vince Jr to purchase the business through scheduled payments. If he missed one, then Vince Sr. keeps the money and gets the company back. Vince Sr and the stockholders belived that junior would not be able to make all the payments, well they were wrong.
There are a ton of what-if questions if Vince Sr decided to still to Monsoon instead of Vince Jr. What would the business look like today? Would WWE still be in business? Who would have been Monsoon's successor when he passed away in 1999?
6. Hulk Hogan Wasn't Vince's First Choice
When Vince McMahon was planning to input his version of professional wrestling, he was making changes. The first major change was stopping the push with Bob Backland. He thought Backland wasn't charismatic for the role and wanted a new face for the promotion. That face was eventually Hulk Hogan, but it was revealed that he wasn't Vince's first choice to be the face of his company.
The man who Vince wanted to be his face was the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. Dusty's son Cody Rhodes confirmed it and the reasoning from Dusty was that he didn't believe in Vince's vision and thought it was too large of an endeavor. Dusty definitely regretted not taking that offer because he would have made a ton of money at that spot. With Dusty saying no, Vince went to Plan B which was Hulk Hogan.
5. Hulk Hogan's Ridiculous Claim About Showdown at Shea
Hulk Hogan is one of the biggest liars in the world. This man lies so much that he has made it into an art form. This is the same man who once claimed that the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds scouted him for baseball. Yeah, and I'm the majority owner of both franchises.
Hogan talks about the match that he had with Andre The Giant in WrestleMania 3. It's one of the greatest and most important matches in WrestleMania history. He claims that Shea Stadium was also sold out thanks to him and Andre alone. That's a tremendous lie, as the event he talked about happened in 1980, WrestleMania 3 occurred in 1987. That match occurred at the Showdown at Shea PPV and both were in the midcard of that show.
There are 2 reasons why that PPV sold out. The first is the arrival of Antonio Inoki, who was one of the top wrestlers in the world. The second reason is the Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbysko feud. It was hot in 1980 and that headlined the show.
4. The Last Thing Vince Sr Told Vince Jr
Vince McMahon then talks about the final time he spoke to his father. This was when Vince was on top of the wrestling world in 1984. The last time he spoke to his son, he said that he was proud of him for beating the promoters who were not his friends. The very next day, Vincent J. McMahon passed away at the age of 69 years old. It was one of the toughest and biggest moments of his life as it was one of the few times that his dad showed him love. During this portion of the documentary, the emotion is written all over his face. The last time he looked or showed emotion was when the Andre the Giant HBO documentary came out. Not everyone saw it that way.
3. Tony Atlas Is Skeptical That Vince Liked His Dad
Not many people 100% believe that Vince McMahon liked his dad. There are a lot of cases of wrestlers saying this, but in the documentary, it is Tony Atlas. The documentary quoted him, “I don’t think he liked his father to be honest with you.”. While Vince McMahon showed emotion for his dad, Tony Atlas said this is telling. He is one of the most honest professional wrestlers in the business as he always says the same thing about his career and events in wrestling.
Even Paul Heyman was skeptical that the relationship between Vince and his dad was strong. Heyman talks about how different both men viewed the business. Vince Sr was unwilling to accept the direction of the industry, but Vince embraced it. A big example was how Vince Jr was focused on the entertainment factor, whereas Vince Sr wanted to focus on the wrestling factor.
2. The Caribbean Vacation Story
When it comes to Vince McMahon, there have been a ton of stories about how much of a Workaholic he was. This wasn't mentioned in the documentary, but Vince McMahon only slept for 2 hours most days. Even Kurt Angle once claimed on the Joe Rogan podcast that Vince works on vacation and forced his writers to come with him.
One day in the mid 80's Vince's wife Linda convinced him to go on a vacation. They decided to go to the Caribbean for 2 days and apparently, the only thing on his mind was work. While on vacation, he told Linda of his idea to hold a major wrestling show every year. That show was called WrestleMania. It was during this conversation that Linda realized that Vince didn't enjoy vacationing and was only thinking of his business. Not one second of that vacation was focused on him relaxing.
A fascinating fact not mentioned in the documentary was that WrestleMania almost was titled something else. Vince came up with the name "The Colossal Tussle" and was close to using it. There is one man who put a stop to that, and that was ring announcer Howard Finkel. Finkel came up with the name WrestleMania and the idea came to him as a play on the Beetles.
Vince's Reaction to The John Stossel Incident
The John Stossel incident is one of the earlier scandals that occurred in the company's history. This was when John Stossel got slapped by pro wrestler Dr D David Schultz for asking the "Standard Question" that he thought wrestling was fake. This episode was covered on the Dark Side of the Ring episode on Dr. D David Shultz. Stossel doesn't come off as great in that situation at all, but this was a big Scandal in the 80s.
Stossel was doing a 20/20 episode trying to expose the pro wrestling business. Hulk Hogan claims that Stossel was there to "see" Hulk Hogan's popularity in person and was asked him if wrestlers cut their heads with blades. After that question, he immediately ran to Vince and told him what Stossel was doing. It seems believable, but the problem is that it's Hogan. Take everything that man says with a gigantic fistful of salt.
Hogan claims that Vince never said that he wanted someone to put Stossell in his place. Hogan once again is full of it. Even David Shultz himself claimed many times that Vince McMahon told him to go full character in the interview with Stossel and to slap him.
Tony Atlas admitted that Vince wished it would happen in the locker room in front of everybody. When Stossel got slapped, Vince was celebrating it in front of everybody. People were praising him in the locker room and giving him pats on the back. That all changed the moment Stossel sued and settled for 425 thousand dollars.
My Thoughts On Episode 1
This episode is already better than that terrible Nine Lives of Vince McMahon episode Vice did. That was a lazily done documentary where they just showed clips of Dark Side of the Ring. This one wasn't groundbreaking as it focused on the introduction of Vince McMahon in the industry and his father.
The footage that Netflix managed to get and the music used was cool. They went all out to make this documentary look good. Out of all the information revealed, the most fascinating part is seeing Vince talk about his dad and his early life. I also like how Vince explained a bit of the business and it will help when casual fans watch the documentary or a viewer that has never watched pro wrestling in their life.
The talking heads were mostly good in this episode. The only one who doesn't come across well is Hulk Hogan. That is expected with how much of a liar and a piece of work he is. It's going to get darker and more disgraceful the deeper this episode goes into the scandals involving Vince McMahon. It will be interesting to see what gets exposed and what Vince will say to keep painting himself in a poor light. My advice to Vince, get those lawyers ready because you're going to need them.