411’s Mr. McMahon Episode Four Report: ‘Attitude’

-We left off with Vince McMahon screwing Bret Hart at Survivor Series. That brought the Mr. McMahon character to life. You can find my recap of the first three episodes here, here, and here. Let’s get to it!

-Run Time: 54:38

-Vince says we all have favorites as kids and his favorite was Dr. Jerry Graham. He was drawn to the bleached blonde hair, the strut, and how Graham lit up cigars with hundred dollar bills. Graham would take Vince for rides in his sports car. Vince: “Yeah, that’s who I wanted to be.”

-Show opening!

-“In January 2024, Vince McMahon resigned from WWE after allegations involving sexual misconduct, assault, and trafficking.”

-“The majority of the following interviews, including with Vince McMahon were filmed before the allegations were public.”

-So, that’s basically preparing us for all the off the wall crap Vince is going to stay that will look pretty awful after the allegations came to light.

-We go back to Montreal where Vince screwed Bret Hart out of the WWF Title. HHH says it was surreal and Shawn says it caused internal turmoil in the business. The online fans were all over it and HHH says those fans should have known nothing about it. Dave Meltzer says there were two sides to every story, but most fans didn’t side with Vince. Trish Stratus mentions she is Canadian so after Montreal she “fucking” hated Vince. I wasn’t expecting to hear an F bomb from Trish, but here we are.

-Dave mentions Vince went on RAW and tried to explain it and came off looking bad. We hear the famous “Bret Screwed Bret,” line. Vince realized he had a ton of heat coming out of it and decided to use it and turn himself into a character. He always wanted to be a performer, but his dad would not let him. He says when it happened it felt natural. The Mr. McMahon character was born. I will note Eric Bischoff’s on-screen character predated Vince by a little over a year. Now to be fair, Vince was being a heel in Memphis in the 90s on a smaller scale to help Lawler out.

-Through 1997 WCW as still smashing WWF in the ratings and now they had Bret Hart coming over. Eric says WCW had a much better roster at the time and he wanted to dominate and win. He would not have felt bad if the WWF went out of business.

-Undertaker says that for years the WWF was stuck catering to kids and WCW was catering to the 18-34 demographic. As we know, it is all about the DEMO! Vince said you have to listen to the audience (HA HA) and he could feel there needed to be a change. We meet Bonnie Hammer, VP of Original Programming USA Network (89-98), and she notes it was absolute war between WCW and WWF. Vince wanted to be known for pushing the envelope and we see the famous video where he told the audience he knew they were tired of having their intelligence insulted. Eric scoffed at the notion and figured Vince would go back to what he knew: characters like Doink.

-The producer asks Prichard if there is a moment that birthed the Attitude Era and he mentions the night Shawn wore bicycle shorts and stuffed the short with a sock. Prichard notes Vince was not at the show that night. Michaels clarifies that it was gauze and not a sock. Glad he cleared that up! Vince called Shawn the next day, told him it was unprofessional and fined him $10,000. Shawn told Vince he understood, but told Vince to go back and watch and tell him it wasn’t entertaining. That started the conversation that they needed to go there. He weaseled his way out of the fine, and a few weeks later Vince pointed to Shawn and said that was the Attitude they needed.

-The Attitude Era was born as they got grittier and raw. HHH says it was little bits at a time that built up to the Era. Cody Rhodes brings up DX and how they were anti-authority and that clicks with the fans. HHH says most of things they were doing Vince was telling them USA is going to kick them off the air. Eventually they realized it worked and told them to do it again. We see HHH talk a woman into flashing her tits in the crowd (blurred out even on Netflix).

-Hey, there’s this Stone Cold guy. It took a bit to get there, but here we go. Steve Austin became the biggest star of the Era and either 1A or 1B in WWF history depending on how you ask. They briefly discuss his journey from WCW to being fired and ending up in ECW.

-Paul Heyman says ECW was a necessary interruption of the regular sports entertainment industry. Vince calls ECW a wild ass renegade promotion that attracted a niche audience. “It was very unusual.” I wonder if that is his same thoughts on AEW. Vince appreciated the promotion and the promoter behind it. We see footage of ECW’s top moments as Heyman mentions Vince saw ECW as a feeder system to the bigger companies. Paul knew he wasn’t going to have Steve Austin for long.

-We skip over The Ringmaster gimmick and go to Austin becoming Stone Cold. Austin mentions HHH was going to win King of the Ring, but he was being punished for The Curtain Call. Two weeks before the show, Vince tells Steve he is winning the tournament. Austin covers having his lip split open in the first match against Mero and going to the hospital for stitches. When he came back, Michael Hayes told Austin that Jake cut a religious promo to hype their King of the Ring Finals Match. Austin immediately thought of Austin 3:16 and credits the John 3:16 signs you would see in the endzone seats of football games. Austin wins King of the Ring and we get “talk about your Psalms and talk about John 3:16, but Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass.” Vince was not happy as he was worried how it would play in the Bible Belt, but says it was also brilliant. Here we go with the bullshit story from Prichard that the next night Austin 3:16 signs were all over the place. The poor man couldn’t even get off the preshow at SummerSlam two months later.

-Austin brings up WCW beating their ass in the ratings and early on he understood it as Nitro was the better show. When things started to change in 1997, they were wondering if someone was paying off the people doing the ratings because they knew they had the better show now.

-We jump to 1998 as Vince has the idea to bring Mike Tyson into the promotion. Eric says he got a call that WWF was bringing in Tyson. Eric: “I got uncocky real fast.” They credit Shane with helping to get Tyson involved with the WWF. Shane mentions Tyson had gotten out of prison three years earlier. We go to archive footage of someone asking Stephanie in 2013 if there was a risk bringing in Tyson with his baggage. Stephanie: “He hadn’t been arrested for rape yet though, when we did that? He had!” Oh man!

-Costas notes that Mike may not be universally loved now, but he is in a better place than the opinion of him was back in 1998. Prichard says Tyson being on PPV was a big deal and they got him to be the special ref at WrestleMania XIV between Austin and Michaels. Meltzer puts over how big of a name and star Tyson was and everyone could see Austin was the next big star for the WWF. He knew WCW was ahead, but things were about to get competitive.

-WrestleMania XIV: Austin mentions Shawn had a real bad back and it made the match forgettable. Austin has never been a fan of that match and says it wasn’t any good. Vince told Austin not to worry about it as the real work started now. Eric says the Mr. McMahon character became a real thing after the Tyson story ended.

-The Austin/McMahon rivalry started just after Austin won the WWF Title. HHH says it was a way to blur the lines between reality and fiction. It was a billionaire against the anti-system hero and they were perfect for each other. Austin notes he is a heel in any other era but he brought the gray era to the business. Tony Atlas says in his day there was a good guy and bad guy and Vince had bad guys and worse guys. The fans didn’t want to see good guys anymore and he mentions the movies with anti-heroes and violent video games. Vince says they try to follow trends and those days were like the Wild West.

-The fans loved seeing someone beat the crap out of their boss. Austin says Vince is easy to hate, but also easy to love. Prichard says Vince is easy to hate and brings up the McMahon power walk. Mr. McMahon became the most hated character in the history of the business.

-Vince says he grew up poor and rich people thought they were better than him. That made him dislike rich people and he used that for the Mr. McMahon character. He says he was good at fighting as a kid and he would win by cheating. He didn’t care if people accused him of not fighting fair. “I thought rich people would try to intimidate you. It was easy for me to get into that character as I knew all the things I didn’t like.” Austin notes Vince can manipulate a crowd as well as anyone. Vince loved getting heat and embraced it. Austin and Vince both note that emotion sells tickets and that emotion is when you know you have the audience.

-Vince says he shares no traits with the Mr. McMahon character. Wow! Shane says Mr. McMahon is an extension of Vince, but blown way out of proportion. Hogan says they are the same person and Shawn says there is not much different. Prichard says Mr. McMahon is Vince no matter if he tries to say otherwise. The promos would cut on camera where the way he would yell at Prichard and others and Vince would tell them he would never talk to them like that.

-The producers run that story back to Vince and he laughs. He says he is passionate about the business and probably can get out of bounds a bit. Austin says the best characters are those that are themselves with the volume turned way up. Vince: “I’m not that guy,” and it bothered him that he was seen that way. He soon learned he couldn’t control how people saw him.

-Dave says you can make the argument that Austin/McMahon was the greatest feud in wrestling history. It was that feud that finally turned the tide and ended Nitro’s 83 week streak. Eric says Vince took their formula and did it better. He says DX was a derivative of the nWo and Mr. McMahon was a derivative of nWo Eric Bischoff. He says McMahon did it better, but should admit Eric did it first. Back to Vince who says Eric did it first, but he didn’t play it as well, so good for him. Eric admits that Vince would do whatever he needed to do to win the fight. He admits the nWo angle wasn’t fresh anymore and WWF was giving the fans something new. Dave says Bischoff’s mistake was thinking he could coast while ahead. He says Vince got lucky as Austin was an incredible success and then The Rock came.

-The Rock is here and goes over his family history. The High Chief was his grandfather and he put Samoa on the map. He wrestled for Vince Sr. Then his father, Rocky Johnson, worked for Vince Sr and with Tony Atlas became the first African Americans to win The Tag Titles.

-The Rock came in as Rocky Maivia and Prichard admits they shoved him down the throats of the fans. “They hated him.” Vince says no matter how hard The Rock worked the fans started booing him. The fans finally started to love The Rock when he turned heel and yelled at the fans. The Rock discusses The Nation of Domination and how he told Vince he wanted time to speak and explain why he turned. The Rock says that moment was a shift for him and things started to click.

-Survivor Series 1998: The Rock wins The WWF Title for the first time and he tells Vince it’s a big deal as he is the first man of color to win the WWF Title. Vince said I know, but I don’t see color. Rock says Vince doesn’t care about color and only cares if you can draw money. Tony Atlas says it is business and not racism. “He doesn’t see black or white, he only sees green.”

-We get footage of the crazy shit they did in the Attitude Era. Prichard calls it a movement as Austin 3:16, DX, and Rock merchandise was everywhere. Meltzer notes the influence was all over pop culture. Rock hosted SNL and got to speak at The Republican National Convention. Dave says the WWE is making more money today, but the peak of their popularity was the Attitude Era.

-The program was hot and making all kinds of money, but morally what they were doing was getting attacked. HHH says it was a lot of fun and they were doing what they thought would get the biggest reactions. They were given a lot of freedom and he wonders how they got away with a lot of the stuff. We see X-Pac in blackface and Godfather with his hos.

-Phil Mushnick is back as he continued his newspaper crusade against the WWF. He says WWF pushed what they could do for all it’s worth and kept going later. Vince says it was lower than what they did in the past, but it was still family friendly. More great editing as Vince says nobody was killed and they cut to The Rock being locked in a casket and HHH beating it with a sledgehammer. Vince says nobody was raped and we cut to Vince in the ring, “come out you rapist.” There was no use of knives or guns. Can I interest you in Pillman 9 MM and Choppy Choppy your pee pee? “So, it’s still family friendly, but an adult family and not kids.” Dave says they still marketed to kids while Phil says it was young males.

-Kids were getting in trouble at school as they were being influenced by RAW. Vince said to turn the TV off if you are worried about your kids watching. Shawn says he knows now they could have treated the female characters better. We see Rock telling Chyna she looks good on her knees. Bikini contests! Dave says from a marketing standpoint it was successful because it was younger males.

-Sable is discussed and she knew what her role was. Trish says Sable showed off her athleticism and it got overlooked. She mentions you had Howard Stern, Jerry Spriner, and Girls Gone Wild. WWF was just going where everyone else went. He says bra and pantie matches wouldn’t work today, but that was a different time. They note Vince is always a product of his time and he says the highest rated segments they had were often the women. We see Sable tearing off her top with the hand painted bikini and Lawler’s reaction always kills me. More blackface, more half naked women, and hey, there’s Boss Man being hung! HHH says they went way over the line and questions who was worse, the guy who did it, or the people who enjoyed it.

-Owen Hart! Oh man! Vince says he met with Owen after Montreal and asked Owen what he wanted to do and Owen told Vince he wanted to stay. That seems hard to believe but when looking online it seems like Owen did want to stay and did negotiate with Vince. Bret says that when he went to WCW and Owen stayed, nothing was the same. Bret says he felt Owen thought he was mad at him. Bret thinks they took shots and sabotaged Owen’s career to get back at him. Vince laughs at that notion and says that is Bret’s ego talking. “We don’t care about you. You left. We are trying to make Owen a star.”

-May 23, 1999: Prichard: “That was Owen,” and he starts to break down. They were live and threw to a pretaped interview of Owen as The Blue Blazer. He was set to make his entrance from the rafters of the building. Vince notes they had done the entrance previously. Prichard could hear someone yelling that Owen was in the ring and he was wondering what the hell he was doing. Bret was on a flight and could feel something overcome him and he knew something bad had happened. JR has the difficult task of trying to explain to the viewers at home that Owen fell and what is happening is not part of the show. Vince thanks god that for the audience not being able to really see it as it was during a time when the ring lights were very low so the video package on the screen could show up better. When the lights came up they saw Owen in the ring and medical personnel working on him. We get a chilling still photo of Owen in the ring with someone doing chest compression on him. Vince wondered if Owen could be alive. “Surely he could be.” Prichard says Lawler was in the ring and came back and said he thinks Owen is dead. Bruce could not believe it. A police officer pulled Vince to the side and let him know that Owen was dead. JR has to make the announcement to the fans at home.

-Vince says the decision to continue the show as his. If the crowd had seen what happened there was no question the show would have stopped. Bruce says they didn’t announce it to the life house because they didn’t think it was the ring thing to do. Vince: “The people came to see a show and they didn’t come to see someone die.” As a businessman he mad the decision to continue the show. Poor Jeff Jarrett had to cut a promo while nearly in tears. Dave says they never should have continued the show. No kidding!

-Vince says there were a lot of negative comments about how he handled things. We see archive footage of Bret on a talk show saying he knows Owen’s body was wheeled by wrestlers, who were pushed to go to the ring to continue the show. Vince says that naturally Bret is going to feel like a brother should and he had every right to say everything negative about the company. We hear Bret’s famous line where he questions what Vince would have done if Shane had splattered on the mat. Vince says to forget Shane and if he had splattered on the mat, he would want out of there so the show could continue. I am not surprised Vince has that attitude. He says to this day he would do that if it happened to him.

-We see video from Owen’s funeral. Bret says it was really hard to take at that time as the thought crossed his mind that they murdered Owen to get back at him. Owen’s wife files a lawsuit and Vince says they settled, but found out what they knew all along, “it wasn’t our fault.” He says the apparatus they were using was defective and they knew it was defective. They sued the manufacturer. Bret said the police investigated for a long time and called him to let him know they had found nothing criminal and it was just a horrible accident. Bret accepted that and in his heart he forgave Vince. His issues with Vince were on a professional level and not a personal one.

-Nothing was learned as they continued to push the envelope and we of course get Foley’s falls in Hell in a Cell (which happened about a year earlier). They knew they couldn’t keep raising the bar as at some point enough is enough. We close with highlights of things to come and the last image is Benoit crying while being presented with the World Title and then the crime scene. Yeah!

“In 2000, Martha Hart settled her lawsuit against WWE.”

“In 2003, WWE settled it’s lawsuit against the manufacturer of the harness used in Owen’s stunt.”

-Credits!

-This was going along like the previous episode where it was mainly focusing on what Vince was doing in the ring to help compete against WCW and then moral issues of The Attitude Era. They touched on all the major points that needed to be mentioned as far as The Monday Night War and Vince turning the tide. Things then took a turn with the talk of the way the women were treated and of course the gut punch when they got to Owen. I still continue to applaud the producer sitting across from Vince as he is asking Vince about the claims made against him and pushing back when Vince doesn’t give an answer that seems to make sense. The editing has been fun too at times as they take what Vince says and either have someone giving an opposite opinion or show what was happening in his company to contradict him. What is crazy is there is so much stuff that has happened under Vince’s watch you nearly forget what is coming and then oh, it’s Owen’s death and next is The Benoit Murder/Suicide. As posters here have mentioned, if you are an online wrestling fan that has been through all of this, you aren’t learning much new. With that said it is still captivating to watch. I admit again though I am a sucker for any kind of documentary on things I love. I do agree with the idea that the producers aren’t editing things to smear Vince in any way. The man is throwing out soundbites that sound awful and he is doing this to himself, but that’s Vince. Thanks for reading and things are just going to continue to get dark in these last two episodes.