411’s Mr. McMahon Episode Six Report: ‘The Finish’

-We have come to the final episode, and I suspect this is the one everyone has been waiting to see. The Title itself says it all. There is going to be a lot here besides the Grant lawsuit as they haven’t even gotten to The Benoit Tragedy. Deep breath folks! Let’s get to it!

-Run Time: 1:05:45

-Vince talks about having two different brains (he calls them computers in his head), and they work against him at times. One computer is talking to the producer and another is thinking of something different. He has a third one he can tap into and it becomes difficult for him to pay attention at times. It has bothered him through the years as he just wanted to be normal and fit in, but he deals with it because “that’s who you are. Just deal with it, Vince.” He says he is at a point where he will be different and “fuck the world.” The Producer asks what the third brain is thinking about now and Vince says having a lot of fun and involving sex. Yep!

“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.”

-We start this time in 2007 with Vince McMahon at the press conference for WrestleMania 23. Without Austin they were always in search of something for Mr. McMahon to do. Their idea was to bring in future President of the United States, Donald Trump. Vince says he has always been a Donald fan, not shocking, and knew he was down to have some fun. He pitched the idea about a hair vs. hair match. Dave Meltzer says the feud and match made WrestleMania 23 the biggest PPV audience in wrestling history (since broken by Rock/Cena I). Dave says he was entertained by Trump when he was on the show as he was good at speaking to wrestling fans. “He was perfect for the role.”

-Bob Costas notes that Donald Trump’s persona and attitude is closer to that of a wrestler than a Statesman. We see various highlights of Trump on the campaign trails losing his cool and verbally attacking people. Vince says their fingerprints are on so many things in the world including politics. Heyman says “this is what we do.” They present larger than life characters making outlandish statements. Sharon Mazer says Donald Trump shows that pro-wrestling seeped into American Politics and Society. Dave says we elected a President that was playing a pro-wrestler on TV. He isn’t sure if it is Trump being Trump, but he sees the similarities between Vince and Trump.

-Cena says Mr. McMahon is the greatest WWE personality ever, but was used sparingly after the Attitude Era. Brian Gewirtz says they pitched having Mr. McMahon have a midlife crisis, but Vince had the idea of someone killing him. Remember a few episodes Vince ago said they never kill anyone. We get the infamous long walk past the boys, dramatic pause, and then Vince’s limo exploding. Vince notes the edit was perfect and they received calls to the office asking if Vince was okay. We see a shrine that was set up outside of what looks like Full Sail. Donald Trump was one of the people that called to make sure Vince was okay.

-The story was dropped because of The Benoit Double Homicide/Suicide. Deep breath here! We start with Vince in an empty arena informing the audience watching at home that Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and son, Daniel, were found dead. I was at a softball field when news broke. After my game, I used my phone to check 411 because I was the guy that let my friends on the team know if any wrestling news had broken. Nobody believed me when I passed along the news of Benoit dying. Vince says Chris was thought of as a great in ring wrestler and they all thought a great guy. Brian says they did a tribute show to Chris that night in place of RAW and as it was airing, they started to get the details of what really happened.

-Chris strangled his wife, smothered his 7 year-old son and then took his life by hanging. Cena says the tragedy rocked the foundation of the WWE. The media jumped on it being Roid Rage. Bret Hart says all he knows is steroids don’t make you kill your whole family. Vince says there is no correlation between steroids and what Chris did. He says people are flawed and Chris went nuts. It happens every form of life and that is the only thing he can take away from it.

-Chris Nowinski, neuroscientist, and former WWE Superstar, is our next talking head. He notes he started in WWE in 2002 (he was part of the first season of WWF Tough Enough) and a year later he had a concussion that ended his career. The idea then among the boys and athletes all over the world is concussions were crap and men who sat out from them were weak. Chris wanted to learn more about concussions and wanted to change the world’s culture. When he heard about Chris Benoit he was certain that he had CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head. Symptoms are depression, emotion, behavior, aggression, and symptoms get worse over time as your brain rots away. He saw Vince on TV say “there was no way of telling this man was a monster.” Nowinski believe CTE was the monster and not Benoit. He called Chris’ father and agreed to let Nowinski stud Benoit’s brain. His brain was the worst they ever studied, and WWE found the results speculative, but they respected the desire of that father to do whatever he can to find some explanation.

-Vince says it was a ridiculous statement and they would show on repeat Vince doing the diving headbutt. Vince says that headbutt was a complete work. It looks like there is damage but there is not. They know what they are doing and don’t hurt each other. Steve Austin mentions he was dropped on his head one time (Owen Driver) and he got a concussion there, but can’t think of many other times he had a concussion from wrestling. His take has always been that if you were wrestling and getting a bunch of concussion “you were doing it wrong. I’m not a CTE guy. I just don’t believe in it.” Nowinski says he saw the slides on Benoit’s brain and he clearly had CTE. He notes the NFL, NHL, and FIFA are still fighting them on this. He was shocked when Vince called to help him out. Vince told him to find research that was honest because they wanted to know more themselves. That started a wholesale change in the company and they eliminated chair shots to the head. Taker says he was initially pissed as chair shots to the head were a staple of the business, but Vince made a call. Taker says he understands it now as the company is publicly traded and they need advertisers. Chris is asked if the WWE’s motives where for safety or to protect their image and Chris isn’t sure, but it at least acknowledges it is better for wrestlers and the business.

-The aftermath of the Benoit tragedy was everyone focusing on the fact that wrestlers were dying young. Dave says it didn’t stop fans from watching as to them it was like a TV character dying and not someone’s son, husband, or father. For some maybe, but as a fan, it sucked seeing so many of the men I grew up watching die. I still go back to see the video packages and 10 bell salutes because I want to remember. They flash on the screen various wrestlers that died young: Perfect 44, Eddie Guerrero 38, Bulldog 39, Test 33. Phil Mushnick is back and says they fans didn’t seem to care that these guys were dying. Again, that claim annoys me. Vince was defiant at first and had an interview with Armen Keteyian (called award winning by Vince in a sarcastic way). He was playing defense at first and could only take so much before going on the offense. Vince infamously slapped the paper’s out of Armen’s hands and mocked him for insinuating Vince should be responsible for these men dying so young. Vince blames it on them openly choosing to use prescription drugs to make them feel good and having that mixed with alcohol and steroids. He says it is a horrible cocktail. Phil asks why these deaths aren’t page one of every newspaper and again, “McMahon escaped it.” Dave says again nobody wanted to investigate this “fake thing.” Dave credits Vince for the good changes that were made as they treated concussions with more concern and care, they had more monitoring of drug abuse, and agreed to pay for rehab to anyone under contract even if they ended up leaving the company. The schedule was reduced and it is even better now. “The changes have been gigantic.”

-WrestleMania XXX: The Undertake brings up his streak and how it became a major attraction at WrestleMania. Taker says he was supposed to win until the day of the show when Vince changed his mind. Vince says Mark (Undertaker) wasn’t prepared for it and thinks he was in shock. Taker says he was concussed five minutes into the match and went another twenty five minutes. To this day he doesn’t remember being in the match. Vince says a concussion may have happened, but he thinks Mark can’t remember the match because it was so traumatic. What kind of logic is that? He thinks this man had mental trauma over having to lose a scripted wrestling match instead of the easy solution of that Taker’s brain was scrambled working a match with a genetic freak like Brock Lesnar. Famously and shockingly, Brock gets the pin to end The Streak. Taker was loaded up and taken to a hospital and Vince left Mania to be with Mark and his wife. Taker talks about having 18 different surgeries and having a limp. He wouldn’t change anything though and wishes he could still do it.

-Booker T says wrestlers sometimes think they are indestructible. He doesn’t want to see the next generation in the same situation as the guys that came before them.

-We jump to Cody Rhodes who says he came into WWE in 2007 and they instituted the Wellness Policy. Cody says he came into a clean WWE with drugs and with what they were doing on air as they switched from TV14 to TV PG. The reason Vince changed was because of the advertising opportunities and he wanted to make the company as much money as possible. John Cena was the face of that era and Vince says that turn paid off literally and figuratively. The fans that lived on The Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression were pissed! They mention it literally became the Muppet Show. Don’t you dare knock that episode as The Muppets killed it as hosts of RAW.

-Heyman brings up the Women’s Evolution and how it coincided with the move to TV PG. I think his math is a little off there as they went PG in 2008 and the women weren’t still being given much to do until 2015-16 or so. At least on the main roster! Now he is right in saying the women were starting to be portrayed in a better light. Stephanie brings up the Give Divas a Chance movement that happened on RAW after the women were given less than a few minutes for a match. Stephanie was big behind the push for the women to get more time and HHH was become number 2 behind Vince and he pushed for it as well. The Producer asks Dave where Shane was: “Shane was kind of out for the most part.”

-Shane McMahon says he was gone for several years and in 2016 Vince called with an idea. The truth is Vince needed something for Mania as he had a rash of injuries that destroyed the card. With that said, Shane returning was one of those Holy Shit moments and that placed exploded for him. Shane says he still gets goosebumps thinking about it. He gets emotional talking about the reaction because he returned to something he loved. He got choked up in the ring as he could see the pride on Vince’s face and could see Steph was trying not to cry. It all led to Shane vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania inside Hell in a Cell. Vince actually dropped an F Bomb, that is not bleeped here, as he got so caught up in the moment.

-WrestleMania 32: Shane had not been in the ring in seven years. The greatest thing was being able to go out and have his three boys go out with him. That was fantastic and I would cry my eyes out if I had that moment with by two boys. Shane snapped back into things when he realized he was facing Taker inside Hell in a Cell. They show Vince watching the match backstage at Gorilla. Booker says it was like Shane was trying to prove something to Vince all the time and did all kinds of crazy shit in the ring.

-We go back to King of The Ring 2001 vs. Kurt Angle WHERE SHANE WAS DROPPED STRAIGHT ON HIS HEAD MULTIPLE TIMES ON CONCRETE. It is still sickening to watch, but ANGLE WAS DETERMINED TO PUT SHANE THROUGH THE GLASS! Once through it, he had to go back and THAT TOOK THREE TRIES. Booker: “I felt for Shane that night. He took it like a champ.” Vince says Shane wanted to earn his stripes and did things nobody else could do and knew it was his. We see Shane falling and jumping off the entrance stage.

-Back to WrestleMania as Shane climbs Hell in A Cell and we cut back to Steph nervously watching the screen while Vince is feeding commentary lines to Cole. I mean, we knew it was done, but it’s kind of jarring to see it happen. Shane JUMPS OFF THE CELL AND CRASHES THROUGH A TABLE. They show Steph and Vince’s reaction backstage. Vince says maybe he should have given Shane more pats on the back and shoulder and perhaps it’s because he didn’t get it from his dad. He admits to being very proud of Shane and was proud of him for that match. Shane: “I got a hug that night.” They show Vince giving Shane the hug in Gorilla and he has tears in his eyes. Shane says it was an emotional night and Vince says Shane told him all he wanted was his dad’s respect. Shane tells the producer getting moments like that were hard to come by.

-HHH brings up how some of the wrestlers will say Vince was a father figure: Taker, Trish, and Cena all say Vince was like a father to them. Taker: “Honestly, I would take a bullet for that man.” I believe him! Shoemaker says all the stars in WWE are desperate for Vince’s approval and that includes his kids. He says Shane was only back as on screen talent, but Shane was trying to get his way back to being next in line. Shane says that was the case, but only because he wanted to continue the family business. Dave says Shane always figured he would be the next McMahon, but it didn’t happen because many would say that Stephanie was better at it than him.

-Tony Atlas says Stephanie is just like her dad and Shane is nice. Atlas continues that you can’t be nice and be a boss in the wrestling world. TONY KHAN he is talking to you. He continues that with Stephanie, you know you can’t take advantage of that woman.

-Vince, Stephanie, and HHH were the three most powerful people in the WWE. They were in charge for the launch of The WWE Network, saw TV rights deals explode which lead to the huge deal with Peacock. Their social media platforms exploded and then we had Linda McMahon joining Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

-HOLY CRAP! They have AEW footage as they mention competition started up in 2019. One of the founders and biggest stars was Cody Rhodes and three years later he left to come back to the WWE. That’s all we get of the AEW story? I guess that was more than I expected. The stock price kept soaring and Shoemaker says it didn’t have the vitality of Hogan’s Era in the 80s and certainly not of The Attitude Era, but Vince kept creating news stars that became huge faces of the company.

-Because of the success of Roman Reigns, it seemed like if Vince ever stepped down it would be HHH and Stephanie next in line. Shawn Michaels says that is above his pay grade, but he heard HHH was next in line. Vince says there is a succession plan, but tells the producer he never seems himself retiring. “When you stop growing you die. What are you going to do when you retire? So, go die.” Hulk Hogan doesn’t think Vince will ever retire and Cena says the same. They say all this over Vince taking the worst recorded Stunner in history at WrestleMania 38. Booker says it would take a nuclear bomb exploding for Vince to retire. Well, here comes Fat Man!

-June 2022: Vince McMahon steps down as CEO amid allegations he paid $3 million in hush money to a former employee he had an affair with. Ted Mann, Wall Street Journal Reporter, says it started with a tip that the board received an anonymous e-mail about Vince covering up an affair. Vince paid her $100,000 and increased to $200,000 when they started having sex. Dave wonders how consensual it could be when one person is your boss and also the boss is Vince McMahon. People are reluctant to speak because of Vince’s power. Dave was shocked that Vince didn’t go after the reporters as that was not how he generally responded.

-Vince did decide to come out on SmackDown as Dave tells us he was no longer CEO, but was still on The Board and Head of Creative. They even announced Vince would be on the air and it got a huge rating. Everyone cheered for Vince in the crowd and this was his FU to the story.

-Now we have an empty chair as “After the allegations became public, Vince McMahon canceled his final interviews for the series.” That’s not shocking and there is no way his lawyers were going to let him be interviewed.

-The reporter says when the story was reported some reacted with “what did you expect?” The character Mr. McMahon was a sex addict who made out and flirted with all the divas and what complicated matters was the blurring of the lines between Vince and Mr. McMahon. This is like Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea all over again. What the report showed was some of the aspects that were played for laughs with the character were not funny. They found more allegations against Vince including the incident at a tanning salon in 2006 where Vince showed a worker naked photos. Prosecutors didn’t think there was anything there to pursue charges and they noted Vince denied the allegations. Weeks later Vince created a storyline where Mickie James was making up stories about being sexually assaulted by someone. Disgusting!

-The more they reported, the more people came out to talk. Vince was accused of paying $12 million to four different women and there was one settlement for $7.5 million with a former wrestler over oral sex and when she wouldn’t do more, he didn’t renew her contract. Dave notes Vince was always the guy you figured would survive everything, but two weeks later he retired on Friday afternoon and it was to juice the ratings for SmackDown. Steph is made CEO and starts a “Thank You Vince” chant. Dave says it was what he expected, but it was surreal to see that Vince was no longer running the company.

-Cody says that it was chaos backstage as nobody knew what WWE would look like without Vince. Dave’s initial thoughts were that Stephanie would be the face of the company and Paul (HHH) would run creative end. That’s essentially what happened. They ask Hogan if the business can survive without Vince and he doesn’t think it will. Well, he was wrong about that one.

-Dave is asked if he thinks Vince will ever be back. “Because it’s wrestling, I would say yes.”

-Jan. 2023: Vince McMahon has returned as Executive Chairman and Stephanie stepped down as Co-CEO. I remember when this news broke, I was sick to my stomach. It pissed me off to no end which is weird to say, but it just brought back a sense of dread and hopelessness. It was like Vince was trying to ruin what we all were enjoying when HHH was put in charge of creative.

-Jan 2024: They bring Dave back to ask his reaction about Vince’s return. He laughs and says it was weird. Cody says he wasn’t surprised and was surprised that people were surprised. Dave had heard that Vince was getting itchy, but didn’t know if he could return because the board voted unanimously for him not to return. That included Steph and HHH voting against Vince returning. Vince had the controlling votes though and changed members of the board to those that would do what he wanted. Dave says that Vince felt he never should have quit and was told by someone close that he should and he thinks it was Stephanie. Vince forced his way back in and Shoemaker thinks Stephanie stepped down by her own choice because she wanted nothing to do with the company if Vince was back. We get footage of Heyman whispering in Steph’s ear: “You know he’s put you in a position constantly in life, to battle him. You know that, right?” She laughs, “it sure feels that way.”

-Prichard says he has no clue what happened with Stephanie and takes shots at Dave and Shoemaker for making up lies. “They don’t know.”

-Vince was back to sell the company and a deal is made to sell to Endeavor, who also owned The UFC. They combined the two to form a 21 Billion Dollar company called TKO. Prichard felt the sale was a genius move and it was a new challenge to Vince. Dave says the idea was to sell it in a way where Vince still had major stay show. Vince no longer had majority control though as the shareholders had 51%. EVIL MUSTACHE Vince says on TV it was the right decision for the business. Heyman says it is not about the last name or family legacy, but who is best qualified.

-Dave says the company is doing the best since 2002 and profits and revenue are bigger than ever. People will support a product and not care about the evil person running it, if they are being entertained. RAW is moved to Netflix in a deal for 10years that is worth more than $5 billion.

-Jan 23, 2024: The Day of The Netflix/WWE Deal Announcement: The producer asks Prichard if he saw some of the episodes of this show, and Bruce says he thought they sucked. He didn’t think they were balanced. Of course he didn’t! He felt it was a gotcha piece and how they could make Vince look bad. I mean, the man did it himself when he said if he had raped the statute of limitations had passed anyway. Prichard says Vince is a businessman and the other side is that Vine made sure Bruce’s wife had the best case when she was diagnosed with cancer. She was given 4 years to life, but because Vince got her the best care that was twenty-four years ago and she is still here. He says it wasn’t a story on Vince’s life, but a way to see how big of an asshole they could make Vince.

-Two Days Later: The Janel Gran lawsuit comes out and there is no coming back from this one. Khadeeja Safdar, Wall Street Journal Reporter, says she was tipped off about the lawsuit coming and it happens because she had been writing about sex trafficking suits. She believes WWE was shocked by the suit and didn’t see it coming.

-Grant alleges in the suit that Vince forced her to have sex with him and other men at WWE HQ for job security. Grant was the first woman they reported on back in 2022. The suit says she was exploited by Vince and trafficked to other men. Shoemaker didn’t think anything in the suit could shock him, but he was floored. Go listen to the Cornette podcast where they react to the suit in real time as the news and story broke. The suit accuses Vince of shitting on her, restraining her, and the forceful use of sex toys named after male wrestlers. Grant reproduced screen shots of vulgar and graphic text messages that Vince allegedly sent her. One reporter points out these were one sided texts and what Grant wanted people to see, but it gave a window into this relationship that you don’t see. Kdaheeja says the crazy part is Vince wasn’t hiding all this which is unusual and it brings Brock into the story as Vince shared pictures of Grant with him and offered her up to Brock for sex.

-Vince denies all the allegations, but resigns from TKO the next day out of respect for the WWE Universe. It showed things had changed as Vince was no longer in control.

-After Grant came forward, others started to share their stories and we go back to 2016 when Ashley Massaro claimed she was raped on a WWE Tour of Kuwait by a man posing as a military doctor in 2006. She accused WWE of not responding and that WWE covered it up to protect the business. WWE claimed they were never informed. What she claims happened is frightening and sickening and it’s hard to read her account. Sadly, Massaro was found dead in an apparent suicide. Massaro’s attorney released a statement after Grant’s lawsuit that Vince wanted to have sex with Massaro and she rejected his advances. He then put her in stories that were aimed to embarrass her, and we see Vince mocking her about crying and throwing coffee at her, on one of the shows.

-Vince was removed from his job, sold all his stock for billions and has basically vanished. What’s amazing is the WWE has thrived without him and we see Stephanie show up at WrestleMania XL. We see Cody vs. Roman highlights and HHH saying they destroyed all gates and this was legitimately the biggest WrestleMania of all time.

-Taker is asked what Vince’s legacy will be. He has a hard time coming up with an answer. The same for Trish, Booker T, and Cena says he is the wrong guy to ask that question. Tony Atlas has no problem answering and says “The greatest promoter of all time. He earned that even if there are things about him I don’t like or respect, but you can’t take that from him.” Meltzer says there is a lot of positive and a lot of negative and Vince is the most important figure in the history of pro-wrestling. In his prime he was a creative genius and he was far from a Saint.

-Shoemaker says wrestling was billed as simple: Good vs. Bad, but the real lesson from Vince is life is never that simple. Vince is the man that helped create this thing we love, but he is also a problematic and possibly deplorable human being.

-Back to Vince (from 2021) and he says he has no legacy. People confuse who he is with his character. He knows who he is when he looks in the mirror. He says the lines of fact and fiction are blurred in the business and talks about the individual getting lost in the character and he wonders which is character and what is him. He thinks it is a blend and isn’t sure which one is exaggerated.

“Vince McMahon is currently under Federal criminal investigation related to the allegations of sexual misconduct and trafficking.”

“Brock Lesnar has no publicly commented on his involvement in the allegations.”

“Janel Grant’s lawsuit is paused while the Federal investigation is conducted.”

-Oh boy there is a lot to unpack here and the crazy thing is this could have been even longer so they could deeper on the topics brought up here. I will say watching this I felt tense the entire time and I felt like I could never take a deep breath. I don’t agree with Prichard that this was a hit piece on Vince because Vince dug his own hole with some of the things he said. I understand people having loyalty to Vince for what he did to help them personally and professionally. They also included Dave noting Vince was behind things like the Wellness Policy, banning chair shots to the head, reducing the schedule, and offering rehab to current and former employees anytime they needed it. Now as mentioned this could have be done to appease sponsors, but the point was it was done and has helped people. They had to address the Grant lawsuit and I think they did a solid job in adding it and getting the people from The Wall Street Journal involved. What may have happened to Ashley is terrifying and heart breaking, and I wonder if it was too much for them to do into detail here. You can find her story and read, but be prepared to be floored and sickened. The fact they touched on Vince doing to his son, what his dad did to him was a good point to make. The politics involved in who was next in line were interesting and how it all involved to Steph and Paul in power to Vince forcing his way back and then getting blackballed from his own company is something out of a television drama. There was just so much in this last episode and they easily could have turned this episode into another hour or two. This was the first episode that seemed to be long and not because I was bored, but because of how much was being discussed and thrown at me. The main issues people have had with this series online is nothing new was shared, but this series wasn’t aimed at hardcore wrestling fans like those that would be reading my review on 411mania. They were trying to get the girlfriend or wife of the wrestling fan that was going to watch. They had multiple masters to serve and I think they did a solid job. As Vince stated from the top he was only going to share so much and frankly we got more than I thought. Even the small parts Vince did release were enough to get insight into his mind and how his childhood affected him and how his wanting the love of his father affected him. Meltzer is correct in saying Vince is the most important figure in pro-wrestling history and he may hold that claim for a long time. This is a series I enjoyed as much as you can when scandals like this are involved. Enjoyed seems like the wrong word, but you understand what I mean. It is something I will watch again and this time to take it in instead of typing and reviewing while I watch. I admit to documentaries like this being my jam and for those disappointed I get it. Thank you to everyone that followed along and spent some time reading these six articles. Thanks to Jeremy for letting take this gig and run with it. As always, thanks for reading!