Mr. McMahon Docuseries Notes: Vince McMahon on Retiring, Real Life Self & Character Similarities, Rita Chatterton Rape Allegations, Bret Hart on Ring Boy Scandal, Stephanie McMahon on Feeling Weird Over Some Stuff She Did, Steve Austin on Not Believing in CTE

Netflix released their Mr. McMahon docuseries based on former WWE and TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon on Wednesday on their streaming service.

Some of the notable highlights from the series included:

• On the topic of a potential retirement from WWE, Vince McMahon stated “Do I ever see myself retiring? No, I don’t ever see myself ever retiring. I never understood why people stop growing. When you stop growing, you die. Some people are like, ‘I want to retire one day.’ What are you gonna do when you retire? I have no sympathy for people like that. So…go die.” McMahon’s interview about this topic was held prior to the release of the sex trafficking and abuse lawsuit allegations against him and him cancelling his involvement with the remaining production on the series.
• On the topic of Sable’s sexual harassment and unsafe workplace environment lawsuit against him and WWE in 1999, McMahon stated “I don’t remember much about Sable in terms of the lawsuit.” When asked if he remembers the allegations made by Sable, McMahon responded stating “No, I don’t. It’s kind of a blur. All I know is she came back to work, so….“
• On the topic of his legacy in wrestling and how much the “Mr. McMahon” character is based on his real-life self, McMahon stated “What’s my legacy? You know, I don’t have one. Everyone has a certain feeling about who they think Vince McMahon is. People really don’t know me at all. A lot of people have confused who my character was on television and who I am. When I look in the mirror, I know who I’m looking at. I know the reflection. Sometimes the lines of reality or fact and fiction are very blurred in our business. Sometimes what happens is performers start believing in themselves. They start believing in their own character. The individual loses all sense of who they really are personally. They become the character. I’m wondering myself now. Which is the character, and which is me? I guess maybe it’s a blend. I would suggest that one is exaggerated a little bit, but I’m not so sure which one.“
• In response to McMahon’s comments about his real life self sharing no similarities with the Mr. McMahon character, many of those interviewed in the series disagreed. Among those included Shane McMahon who stated “Mr. McMahon is an extension of Vince McMahon, but blown way out of proportion.” Shawn Michaels stated “The difference between Mr. McMahon and Vince McMahon, probably not that much. [laughs].” WWE Executive Producer Bruce Prichard stated “The character of Mr. McMahon is really just Vince. He’ll tell you different. No, Mr. McMahon is Vince. A lot of the promos and the diatribes that have been cut on other people, I’ve had actually cut on me in real life. ‘Ah, I’d never say that.’ I said, ‘Yeah, you would. You said it to me.’“
• On the topic of former WWE referee Rita Chatterton’s rape allegations against him in 1992, McMahon stated “When you’re accused of this and accused of that, and there’s this deluge of things, ‘You’re this, you’re that.’ One of the things was an alleged rape, that never happened. Once you’re accused of rape, you’re a rapist. It was consensual, and actually, had it been a rape, the statute of limitations had run out. It’s all kind of crap like that, that people are digging up and trying to find something on you.“
• On the topic of WWE and WCW taking shots at each other during the Monday Nights War between WWE and WCW in the 1990s, McMahon stated “Some would think it might be hypocritical for me to say, ‘Uh, okay, I don’t hurt someone else. I just do what’s best for me.’ Yet, when someone comes after me, I don’t think they have the right. Sure, they have the right. What I say, a lot of times, is totally different than what I think. The public doesn’t understand that sometimes. As a businessman, you have to throw things out there. It’s not really the way you feel, but it controls the thought process by doing that.“
• On the topic of if he regretted not hiring Eric Bischoff in 1990 and could have prevented the Monday Night Wars and WCW’s period of dominance from happening, McMahon stated “Do I regret not hiring Eric Bischoff? No. I don’t really regret anything in my life.“
• On the topic of his punch to McMahon following the infamous Montreal Screwjob incident and McMahon’s story about it, WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart stated “There was no like, ‘Vince is going to give me a shot.’ Like, I don’t where they get that story, because that is such a bunch of bullshit. It was Vince and me came at each other, and we actually tied up like a wrestling match. Everybody’s ready to pounce on me as soon as we grab each other. I remember going, the only way I can get a shot in, one shot, maybe, is an uppercut, and I came right up between Vince’s arms, and it was like, you know when you hit the bell [at carnivals] when the thing goes up. He was out cold, like a starfish. It was probably the best thing I ever did. He deserved every bit of that.“
• On the topic of the infamous Ring Boys scandal in WWE in 1992, Hart stated “Mel Phillips was a total pedophile that preyed on young boys and if these young boys weren’t complying with their request for sexual favors, they weren’t hired … I do think there was a lot of turning a blind eye to some of the things that were going on, but I don’t think anybody could ever prove anything. It was like, ‘How do you prove it?’“
• During the same topic, McMahon stated “Phil Mushnick was trying to build this whole case of how rotten the company was. He didn’t care how he did it. He didn’t care whether he hurt the people involved on one side of the the other. He just wanted to write this salacious piece about WWE.“
• Phil Mushnick gave his thoughts stating “It was a pedophile ring! Three of these guys were all in on it. These were real kids being sexually abused on McMahon’s watch.“
• On the topic of his belief that McMahon purposely humiliated his brother Owen Hart as payback for him leaving WWE for WCW, Hart stated “When I went to WCW and Owen stayed, nothing was the same anymore. He thought I was mad at him. If anything, I had great sympathy for Owen and felt badly that he was in the predicament that he was in. Owen had nothing to do with either me or Vince, but you know, he was gonna pay for it. They kind of humiliated his character as often as they could for quite a while to get at me.“
• During the same topic, McMahon responded stating “The hypothesis that we would do something against Owen because Bret left only speaks to Bret’s ego [laughs]. Really, Bret? You know, why would we do that? We don’t care about you, you left. We’re trying to make Owen a star.“
• On the topic of his belief that the early episodes of the Mr. McMahon docuseries was a “gotcha piece,” WWE Executive Director Bruce Prichard stated “Thought they sucked. I didn’t think it was balanced at all. I thought it was a gotcha piece. I thought it was portrayed as a gotcha piece. It was all about, ‘How can we make Vince look back? Let’s make him look shitty here, let’s make him look shitty there.’ I’m close to it. I live it. It’s personal to me.” Prichard also gave his thoughts about his issues with the early episodes not capturing the “human side” of McMahon. Prichard stated “The human side. Look, Vince is a businessman. But also, the other side of Vince is, when my wife got cancer, Vince made sure she had the best care in the world. My wife was given a four-year life expectancy. Best-case scenario. That was 24 years ago. That was because Vince McMahon made sure she got the best care available. It wasn’t a documentary on Vince and Vince’s life and Vince’s story. It was, ‘See what an asshole Vince McMahon is. Let’s see how big of an asshole we can make him.’ If he were one, I would support that, but he’s not.“
• On the topic of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide incident in 2007 and the effects of CTE, WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cole Steve Austin stated “I worked for a long time. I got dropped on my head on time. I got concussed. Other than that, I can’t remember having too many concussions in the business of pro wrestling. My take on that has always been, if you were just wrestling, and you got a bunch of concussions, you’re probably doing something wrong. I’m not a CTE guy. Just don’t believe in it.“
• On the topic of Benoit’s death, McMahon stated “There is no correlation between taking steroids and what happened to Chris Benoit. Human beings are flawed. Chris went nuts. It happens in every form of life in everything. That’s the only thing I can take away from it. This doctor came up with this ridiculous statement of, ‘Okay, here’s why Chris Benoit did this. Caused some sort of trauma to his head.’ Things were shown where Chris would dive off the rope and hit someone with his head. That’s complete work. It looks like there’s damage, and there’s not. We know what we’re doing. We don’t hurt each other. There were a couple of in ring moves that we stopped doing. We stopped hitting each other over the head with metal chairs.“
• On the topic of her heel turn in 1999 and interactions with babyface stars in WWE, former WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon stated “When I was younger in my career, I was all on board to do whatever he wanted. I look back on some of the stuff I did and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I did that.’ Yeah, for sure.” McMahon also gave her thoughts about if she felt weird over her father Vince asking her to do certain questionable things on live WWE television shows. McMahon stated “Yeah, sometimes, I thought it was a little bit weird, but it was a different time in our business.” McMahon also gave her thoughts about if she had ever rejected any storyline pitches for her to do. McMahon stated “Yes. There were a couple. I’m not going to tell the one.“
• On the topic of the longtime rumor of him having the idea of a storyline involving him being the father of his daughter’s child, Vince McMahon stated “One of my storyline ideas was that Stephanie gets pregnant. I think…I was the one who impregnated her. My character. I think it was something like that. It was like, ‘No.’ That one didn’t make it.“

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, & 15