Report: Vince McMahon tried to purchase ‘Mr. McMahon’ Netflix docuseries

  • Ian Carey
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Vince McMahon reportedly attempted to purchase the “Mr. McMahon” docuseries from Netflix.

McMahon released a statement about the project yesterday, saying that based on an early cut he’s seen it conflates the Mr. McMahon character he portrayed on WWE programming with his true self. Ann Callis, the lawyer representing Janel Grant, responded to his comments, stating that although Grant and her team have not seen the documentary, they “hope it shines a bright light on (McMahon’s) abhorrent and criminal actions by accurately portraying the realities of his abusive and exploitative behavior.”

Matthew Belloni of Puck News discussed McMahon trying to purchase the docuseries in his “What I’m Hearing” newsletter released on Tuesday.

“After seeing early footage, (McMahon) actually tried to buy the project back from Netflix, per two sources familiar,” Belloni wrote. He also noted that Netflix declined to comment.

“Vince also had Endeavor C.E.O. Ari Emanuel, his new partner in TKO, chime in on his behalf, also voicing concern about the doc’s treatment of Vince’s alter ego, ‘Mr. McMahon,’ which ended up being the title of the doc.”

“Netflix refused to let the project go, and then this past January, the worse McMahon scandal broke, when a former employee sued alleging terrible abuse.”

Our own Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer addressed the situation on Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer noted that there were people in Netflix “trepidatious” about the 10-year media rights agreement they signed with WWE considering the allegations against McMahon.

“The deal with Netflix was signed a couple of days before the Janel Grant lawsuit was filed. It was not like this was behind the scenes this deal that everybody was drinking champagne about. There were people in Netflix who were not high on this deal but they signed it, they went with it. But there were people who were trepidatious about getting into business with WWE.”

All six episodes of “Mr. McMahon” are scheduled to premiere on Netflix early Wednesday morning.