Last September, Netflix released the six-episode Vince McMahon docuseries chronicling his life and the history of WWE. The final episode addressed his departure following the initial hush money scandal and the subsequent lawsuit filed by Janel Grant against him, WWE, and John Laurinaitis, alleging sexual assault and sex trafficking.
WWE President Nick Khan discussed the documentary with its producer, Bill Simmons, on The Bill Simmons podcast. Here are the highlights:
On the project: “A lot. By the way, it’s a testament to you, it’s a testament to Netflix to get that done, obviously in getting it done, the latter part, which you just referenced, was quite bumpy for everybody, but it got done, and it seemed to get quite high viewership numbers on Netflix.”
On the internal reaction: “Episodes one through five, it was all fine. Episode six obviously had a lot of tawdry allegations in there. The most important thing in the company was, ‘Hey, this is not for us to spike it.’ That’s not what the deal was, and the deal that was struck with Netflix was prior to me joining WWE on a full-time basis. So it was sort of trying to help everyone who was watching it stay calm, and ‘we’ll get through this thing and get to the other side of it,’ which hopefully we are now.”
On the feedback to it: “It went everywhere from ‘Hey, it was phenomenally done’ to ‘Oh my God, this thing is not true, it’s not factual.’ There were people who loved it as an objectively told profile of a person, and people who were close to the subject who didn’t like it, which I would understand, and I would think you understand.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit The Bill Simmons podcast with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
