Original subtitles

[pensive music playing]

[Paul Heyman] The Shakespearean tragedy of this tale

is that the great success that has been enjoyed by Vincent Kennedy McMahon

was driven by the over-compensatory behavior

rebelling against the first miserable 12 years of his life.

And escaping that abuse has been his life pursuit,

in creating an atmosphere...

[crowd cheering]

...in which he is untouchable

and invulnerable to outside forces,

and in control of his own destiny.

[pensive music continues]

[David Shoemaker] What we know about Vince McMahon's childhood

we only know from Vince McMahon.

Years ago, he did a Playboy interview that talked about his upbringing,

that talked about the physical abuse

that he suffered at the hands of his stepfather,

and alluded to sexual abuse

that he implied was at the hands of his mother.

[McMahon] I'm not big at looking backwards at all.

I don't know whether I'm afraid to look back, like, "What's back there?"

My childhood was what it was.

It was difficult.

I mean, there's fighting, there's infighting, there's incest,

and you don't like it,

but I felt that as a kid, when you're getting the crap beat out of you,

once he stops, if you're still breathing, you're still living, you win.

[crowd cheering]

[McMahon] I know from a psychological standpoint,

when you're abused as a kid, the tendency is for you to abuse.

I think sometimes that's just a cop-out.

I've never subscribed to that.

You know, anything rotten like that, anything bad that happens to you,

get rid of it.

[indistinct shouting]

Will it come forward on occasion? Sure. Will it hurt on occasion? Sure.

But throw it the fuck back there, and go forward.

[music fades]

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

Sorry. I'm so sorry.

[indistinct]

[man speaking on TV indistinctly]

[Landsberg] Coming up next, you will see for the first time ever

Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon,

the only two children of Vince and Linda McMahon,

talking about what it's like to have their lives unfold before the cameras.

I'm fascinated to know, what was it like growing up as a McMahon?

You wanna start? Go for it.

[Shane McMahon] Being Vince McMahon's son, I grew up in a very interesting world.

[crowd cheering]

[Shane] I always wanted to be in the business,

and the business of the business, specifically.

I start at a very early age.

-[man over loudspeaker] One, two... -Bleh.

I remember being in the audience, I remember being backstage.

I was all over the place, just soaking it all in.

You know, I would sweep the ring. I would take the guys' jackets back.

-[crowd cheering] -One...

[Shane] And then I became a referee and ring announcer,

and you start earning your stripes.

[announcer] Shane and Mr. McMahon!

[Shane] My involvement as a performer

started as a surrogate to my dad.

[announcer] Did you see Shane holding the ropes for his daddy?

[Shane] If my dad pissed somebody off, you couldn't get to the boss right away.

You have to go through different layers.

And it caught on, and everybody was having fun,

and we just ran with it.

[announcer] A tremendous chorus of boos for the boy wonder,

the heir apparent to the throne...

[Shane] And I loved it,

getting the ability to go do something I've always wanted to do

since I was very little.

[crowd cheering]

-[announcer 1] Shane! -[announcer 2] Shane McMahon!

[crowd cheering]

[Shane] So that's how the family dynamic started to grow

and eventually became Vince's daughter.

Let me jump in for just one second, please.

I have always wanted to be a part of this company,

and I'm so proud to be today.

[Stephanie] Growing up, it was larger than life,

and I could feel that as a kid.

It was just the most exciting thing to be a part of.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] Unbelievable!

[Stephanie] WWE has always been polarizing,

and when I was growing up,

some people would love me just because of who my father was,

and some people would not give me the time of day

because of who my father was.

[announcer] Vince McMahon, flanked there

by his young daughter, Stephanie McMahon.

[interviewer] When did it first get broached about you being a character?

It was after I graduated college.

Just relax, no pressure. Everything will be good.

-You're gonna take it easy on me? -Oh, without a doubt.

[Stephanie] A decision was made in a very short period of time

to give it a try and see how it went.

-You're on! -No!

[Levesque] When Steph started to work with us, it escalated incredibly fast.

There was a storyline

where Steph was getting married to a talent named Test.

But the writers, they didn't know what the payoff was.

There was never an ending to the story.

So, I come up with an idea and present it to Vince.

You should take a look at this.

[Levesque] "What if I was at her bachelorette party, making her drink,

and I end up getting married to her,

like, at one of those drive-thru things in Vegas?"

He's like, "I love that."

[announcer] Oh my God!

I hate you!

[Stephanie] And his line is,

"And, Vince, it's not a question of if, but how many times..."

... how many times did we consummate the marriage?

[crowd clamoring]

[announcer] My God. I cannot believe that.

The first time we go back on TV after this whole angle happens,

the crowd turns on her, and they're chanting "slut."

[chanting] Slut! Slut! Slut! Slut!

And Vince, as they're going crazy for her,

he looks at me and he goes...

Meaning, like, "This is money."

[chanting] Slut! Slut! Slut!

[McMahon] I've got a big smile on my face 'cause that means

the audience is participating.

Anytime the audience is participating,

they're loving what it is you're doing.

[chanting] Slut! Slut! Slut!

[McMahon] So, Steph became this great heel.

She was willing to do anything.

She's always been, "Whatever it is you want, Dad."

She knew what I was trying to do.

If anybody knows anything about screwing, it's you!

[crowd cheering]

[Stephanie] When I was younger in my career,

I was just all on board to do whatever he wanted.

[announcer] Unhand her! Look at this!

[Stephanie] I look back on some of the stuff I did, and I'm like,

"Oh my God. I can't believe I did that."

Um... Yeah, for sure.

[interviewer] Did you think it was weird that your dad was having you do that?

Um...

Yeah, sometimes I thought it was a little bit weird,

but it was a different time in our business.

[crowd chanting] Slut! Slut! Slut! Slut!

[Levesque] Of all the crazy stuff that's happened in my life,

from starting out as a fan to where I am,

the family part of it would probably be the craziest.

-[officiant] You are legally married. -Mm!

[Levesque] So, after this storyline

where Steph gets married to me secretly against her will,

it became this whole thing, the McMahon-Helmsley Era,

and now we're running WWE.

The McMahon-Helmsley Era.

That's where I'm with her every day.

And that's how we get to know each other, really.

[Stephanie] I was not allowed to date our talent,

but it was my dad who, ironically, sort of pushed us together.

[McMahon] Paul, who's a wonderful human being,

he and I were friends,

and I would even lead and say, "Steph, you need to find somebody,

a real man, you know, someone like Triple H."

And then my brother would say, "Not Triple H."

And my dad would go, "Oh yeah, no, of course. Not Triple H,

but a guy just like him." [laughs]

Shane was very much against it. Uh, vehemently so.

-Let's go. -[Shane] You make me sick.

Hey, brother... Come on. Give me a hug.

You know... [sighs] Storylines 101.

"Don't date the boss's daughter."

[McMahon] Shane came to me, said,

"You're letting your daughter date a wrestler?"

"Shane, um, that's who I am."

"I'm wrestling, I'm performing. I don't know what you mean by that."

And so, to me, it made sense for Stephanie

to date and marry someone like Paul.

[Levesque] As it's moving forward,

there are moments in time where it's Vince,

and he's Vince McMahon-ing this,

like, even as we're looking for locations for the wedding at one point,

he seriously suggests to us holding it on pay-per-view.

So, what if Stephanie and Paul's wedding was live on pay-per-view?

Wow. People would buy that. It'd be awesome. It'd be great.

And Steph said, "Uh... no."

And when Steph says, "Absolutely not,"

he's like, "Selfish."

Like, "I can't believe you're selfish."

[crowd cheering]

[Levesque] And then Vince books Vince versus Steph,

in, I believe, a street fight,

six days before our legitimate wedding.

[announcer] He wants to humiliate his daughter!

[Stephanie] I remember my mom actually threatening my dad

that if I had a black eye or a broken ankle for my wedding,

that she would divorce him on the spot. [chuckles]

Needless to say, I had no black eye. I had no broken ankle.

I may have gotten choked out in the match, but that's different.

Yeah, just craziness. Full-on craziness.

What the hell kind of family did I marry into?

[announcer] Uh?! Right?

[Levesque] You guys have got to be the head

of the most dysfunctional family on the planet!

[Meltzer] They create that McMahon family soap opera,

and the kids ended up being very popular performers. Super popular.

[interviewer] Where was Linda during all this time?

She was definitely a big part of all of this.

[announcer] Linda McMahon!

[Meltzer] Linda was very important in the company.

World Wrestling Entertainment is known as Vince McMahon's company.

The name that you seldom hear was that of Linda McMahon,

and she is the Chief Executive Officer of this company.

There weren't a lot of titles, okay, when I came on.

It was, Vince was the boss, Linda was the second boss.

Linda handled the business.

Vince handled the creative and the vision.

So, my mom introduced me to Linda, my wife.

I think I was 16.

Linda grew up in a very middle-class family.

Both parents worked, and nice houses.

Not rich, but real middle-class, and I was just sort of attracted to that.

[Linda] He had, kind of, you know, the bad-boy reputation from high school,

and so, you know, I was the exact opposite.

And, you know what? I liked it.

[McMahon] Linda was, like, 17 when we got married, so very young.

And I promised her I'd always love her,

and I promised her that there'd never be a dull moment.

I've definitely lived up to that promise.

[tense music playing]

[groans]

-[announcer 1] Oh my God! -[announcer 2] Oh no!

[announcer 1] Oh my God!

This is gonna hurt me a lot worse than it hurts you.

[announcer] Get her! What?

[Stephanie] My mom never wanted to be on TV. Ever.

She hated being on television.

She'd say, "Vince, please don't put me in this position. I'm not a good actress."

[Linda] Of the four of us, I'm probably

the least comfortable in front of the camera.

And I'm not nearly as good at it

as Shane and Stephanie and Vince are.

Congratulations, Triple H.

[McMahon] She wasn't a good actress, and she knew it,

but Shane's involved, Stephanie's involved, I'm involved.

"We can use you as a character."

So, without further ado,

allow me to present my wife, Linda,

accompanied by the beautiful Trish.

[Stratigeas] I came into the wrestling business

in a little bit of non-traditional route.

I was, um, doing fitness modeling.

[announcer] Fitness model, you know her from the cover of Muscle magazine.

Trish Stratus.

[Stratigeas] As a fan growing up, I was heavily into when Cyndi Lauper came,

and she was with Wendi Richter. That was like, "Oh my God!"

Seeing a female in the ring at my age was very cool.

But when I first started in 2000,

the female role was overtly sexual, I would say.

Well, Trish.

-Mr. McMahon. -Uh...

[Stratigeas] One of my very first storylines

was being paired with Vince McMahon.

Knowing I was about to work with the boss, and with Mr. McMahon,

was a huge opportunity.

-I was super excited about it. -[McMahon moans]

Yeah.

I don't think the storyline was pitched like, "What's gonna happen

is you're gonna be Vince's mistress."

I've been very bad, Vince.

I deserve a spanking.

"And then you're gonna eventually drug his wife."

You did double up Linda's dosage, did you not?

Sure did.

[giggles] It wasn't pitched like that. I'd have gone, "What am I gonna do now?"

It was something that evolved.

It was like, "Let's see where we can take this,"

and, well, it took some interesting turns.

Get this now.

I kissed, uh, Trish Stratus in front of my wife in a wheelchair.

[announcer] Oh, no... Oh, my God.

And the reason why we did that was to show what a despicable heel I was.

I mean, you can't get any more despicable.

[Stratigeas] We were very aware of what we were doing

to provide fuel for our storyline,

and Linda was super cool about it too.

She was in on it. You know, we were all in on it.

There was a scene where I lean over and I kiss Linda.

And that came from Linda. Like, she's like,

"Oh, it would irk so many people if you would lean over and kiss me on the head."

[Linda] What you must do is evoke emotion,

whether it's anger, whether it's happiness.

Even sometimes disgust, if the bad guy, you know, went a little too far.

But it's always about emotion.

Have a nice Valentine's Day, Linda.

[interviewer] The on-screen affair with Trish.

What was the family's reaction to that one?

I don't think our family had an objection to it,

because they knew I was a character.

Trish was a character.

So, as I recall, I don't think anyone had a problem with it.

If anything is mentioned about my mom, usually, my first reaction is "no."

You know, my mom's kind of sacred to me, so, I didn't quite like that one.

[interviewer] Shane said he was a little...

-Oh, okay. [chuckles] -[interviewer] You know.

[McMahon] Well, Shane is a bit more conservative than the rest of us,

so, Shane may have had a little bit of a problem with that,

'cause he sometimes...

"Wait a minute, 'cause, uh, you're getting too close to real now."

I'm thinking, "This is a storyline. Characters entertaining the audience."

"Just go with it."

[crowd cheering]

So, 15 years later, um, I'll do interviews,

we'll talk about the good old days, and it... It never fails.

It will always be like, "So, there was this time..."

And I'm like, "Mm-hm."

"...when you got on all four and you barked like a dog."

I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!

[announcer] You're sorry?

Well, I'll tell you what, if you're that sorry,

then prove to me just how sorry you are.

Get on your hands and knees like a dog!

[announcer] Oh, for God's sakes.

The "bark like a dog" scene obviously is very memorable,

and it was really [chuckles] um...

Yeah, I wish they never did that one.

I used to have a female dog

and that bitch did everything I told her to do.

-Now, damn it, get down! Get down! -[announcer] Aw, that's just too much.

Bark like a dog. Come on. Tell me you're sorry.

[barking]

[Stratigeas] With the "barking like a dog" segment, they want me to be like...

[exhales] It was horrible,

but that's exactly the feeling we wanted you to feel. Don't you get it?

If you're really, really sorry, Trish, take your clothes off!

-[audience cheering] -[announcer] Yes! Yea...

I said take it off now!

[announcer] What kinda man is... This is...

[Sharon Mazer] That is an amazing

"have your cake and eat it too" kind of heel performance,

because at the same time that he's getting everybody to know

that we're supposed to hate him, he's giving them a titty show...

Oh, you're sorry! You're sorry!

Take your bra off and take it off now!

[Mazer] ...knowing that he's bad for doing so.

It doesn't get in the way of the pleasure of watching her be humiliated.

I thought the segment sucked when I saw it, but you know,

wrestling was very much for guys and guys who fantasized over hot women.

But also kind of hated them because they could never get them.

So, therefore, seeing hot women demeaned was kind of cool to a lot of those guys.

It's a very ugly way to say it, but that's exactly what it was.

[crowd cheering]

[Stratigeas] We knew we were presenting a sensitive scene to the fans.

We knew that it was gonna be talked about, and be interpreted and misinterpreted,

but we were aware of that.

And the thing is, when we did that scene,

we knew the comeuppance would come at WrestleMania, the grandest stage.

[crowd cheering]

[Stephanie] Ultimately, it played out at WrestleMania

in a match with Shane against my dad.

[tense music playing]

[McMahon] It was son versus father,

and in one corner was my girlfriend, Trish.

Storyline.

And in Shane's corner was Linda, my wife.

[Shane] I had to stand up for the abuse that was going on with my mom.

You know, I just couldn't take it anymore, which would be accurate.

And my sister taking the other side, you know, like, cutthroat,

very much like my dad.

I was so nervous going into that match,

because I've never raised a hand to my father.

It's always been one way. [chuckles]

When I was younger, my dad and I would wrestle.

One time, my dad grabbed like, all my rib meat.

You know, he went in there, on the skin and everything else.

I went, "Oh!" and then as I peeled back, he grabbed my hair in the back

and then pushed me back, and I was like... I was like, "You totally cheated."

I go, "You can't do that."

He says, "That's what I do in life. I cheat, and I win." [chuckles]

He goes, "Learn that lesson." He says, "Sometimes you gotta cheat."

And I was like, "All right."

So before I went out in that match, I started kind of panicking a little.

I was like, "Oh, I can't do it. I can't do it."

I asked Shane to strike me, and he's like, "I can't do it."

"Slap me. You can do that."

"No, I can't."

"I can slap you."

[announcer] Slapping his own son.

[Shane] Bell rings. My dad hits me with about four shots to the face.

Like, right off the bat.

[McMahon] I waffled him a couple of times, and got his attention.

And then he's like, "Okay, no problem now." [laughs]

And I was like: "Oh! Ah!" My eyes swelled up under immediately.

I was like, "Well, this may be a little easier than I thought." [laughs]

[grunts]

-[announcer 1] My monitor! -[announcer 2] God!

Shane, stop!

[crowd cheering]

That was my WrestleMania moment that year.

I was able to stand up to Vince McMahon and everything he stood for.

I mean, I remember working with him on that moment.

He's like, "Do not hold back."

And I did not.

[announcer] Vince, now just realizing his sedated wife, Linda, is here!

During the match with Shane, Linda slowly stood up. [laughs]

[crowd cheering]

[announcer yelling]

Right into the McMahon family jewels!

It was a huge bop, and we had to finish after that.

[announcer] Wait a minute. Vince is in one corner, Shane in another.

[McMahon] The audience loves it when it looks like it's real.

-[thud] -[announcer] Oh my God!

[McMahon] Sometimes it is real. These are real-life McMahons.

When you build up the tension, you build up these characters,

and then you have the resolution of that story, ah, it feels so good.

[announcer] Shane McMahon has defeated his father

in a hellacious street fight here at WrestleMania!

[Meltzer] For Vince, nothing was off-limits.

What's real? What's not real? It doesn't matter.

If it's gonna draw money, if it's gonna draw interest,

anything that makes his business stronger is open for him.

I want you to give your mother a message, and that is that soon,

after this divorce is final, there's gonna be a new Mrs. McMahon.

A voluptuous Mrs. McMahon that can keep up with my sexual prowess.

Uh-huh.

[Hammer] Vince was a master of blurring storylines.

He would twist something that started out with a piece of reality,

and then just take it step by step

into a place where you didn't know what to believe, what you didn't believe.

You owe me... Sable.

And when people like you owe me...

I generally... collect.

[Meltzer] Sable is probably one of the,

as far as pure successes in marketing for a short period of time,

she's one of the more underrated characters they ever had.

I mean, she was an absolute ratings draw.

Sable'd get on the air,

half a million people would tune in during her segments.

The only one I remember who'd do better was Austin.

But she left at the peak of her popularity and sued the company.

[reporter] In this corner,

former World Wrestling Entertainment women's champion Sable.

Her opponent, Vince McMahon.

At the center of this feud is a $110 million lawsuit

that included charges of sexual harassment.

So they were asking you to do things you didn't want to do?

-Yes. -More or less. Okay.

They were making me do things I did not want to do, so...

[Landsberg] Sable sued you, the WWE, for $110 million,

alleging amongst other things, she felt degraded.

I don't think I asked her to do anything that was degrading at all.

[interviewer] To another lawsuit, who was Sable,

and how did she factor into the organization?

Yeah, I don't remember much about Sable in terms of the lawsuit.

[interviewer] You don't remember any of the allegations that came out of that?

No, I don't. It's kind of a blur.

All I know is she came back to work, so...

Stephanie McMahon, I want you to meet your new assistant, Sable.

-[crowd cheering] -[announcer] Whoa!

Does Sable's body make you forget

that Sable sued our company for millions of dollars?

That Sable jumped on the bandwagon

of any person who's trying to sue our company?

It's all about money to her.

That's all Sable cares about.

And what did Sable sue for? Sue you, sue me?

She sued us for sexual harassment!

The thing with Vince is that Vince will do anything

if he thinks it's right for business, including hiring someone who sued him.

Well, I guess there are a couple of ways to thank you.

Why don't we start with this?

[interviewer] When you brought her back, there was a storyline with your character

where there was an affair.

With who?

With Sable.

-Me? -[interviewer] With you.

-[man] Storyline. -[Paul Heyman] Storyline.

[chuckles] God.

[Mazer] Because it's in the ring,

we can be entertainingly appalled by whatever he says or does,

but we have plausible deniability,

because it's just wrestling, it's just a performance.

We take for granted that Vince McMahon, in constructing Mr. McMahon,

has pulled from his own personal story

in order to appeal to us.

[interviewer] Do you remember in 2001, you did that Playboy interview?

Yes, right.

[interviewer] And you talked in that one about different affairs.

[intriguing music playing]

[interviewer] I was curious why you would even go there in that article.

In that article, I felt like I was very straightforward.

Uh, I wasn't playing a character then. You know?

It was a very straightforward, honest reaction

to the questions that were asked.

[intriguing music continues]

[interviewer] Did you feel like some of these storylines that came up later,

that you were incorporating those elements from your life?

-Or was that totally unrelated? -[scoffs]

Uh, totally unrelated.

You know, again, me as a human being, generally speaking,

is not who that character is,

although sometimes, people think it's the same thing, jokingly,

uh, but, nonetheless, no.

Vince McMahon has had one truly monogamous relationship

in his entire life,

and that's with the business that he built.

That's his passion. That's his love. That's his master.

Vince doesn't own the business.

This business owns Vince McMahon.

And he super serves it with his heart and his passion and his life.

And if that hurts his wife's feelings, Stephanie's feelings,

Shane's feelings, his father's feelings, or his own feelings...

those people be damned.

-[blast] -[crowd cheering]

[reporter] With wrestling's popularity soaring,

the owners of World Wrestling Entertainment

put their heads together, and they've decided to sell stock in their circus.

The WWE is going public.

[McMahon] Going public meant a number of things.

It made us legitimate, but the primary reason is simply business.

The amount of money that was available to the company,

it allowed us to go into the casino business.

It allowed us to go into the restaurant business.

[reporter] Wrestling fans went wild

at the opening of a new restaurant bar in New York's Times Square.

We're right in the middle of it. That's where we belong.

To have that investment,

you can move it around, you can reinvest in yourself, naturally,

which we've always done,

and you can look at other things that might be of value.

[crowd cheering]

[announcer] Welcome, everybody, once again, to WCW!

Kidman and The Franchise take their personal vendetta to the ring...

...in a Viagra-on-a-pole match.

[Gewirtz] By 2000, WWE had taken firm control

of the Monday Night Wars against WCW.

We would just kind of laugh at it.

-[announcer 1] Oh my goodness! -[announcer 2] Mouth is full of Viagra.

It was a long, slow, painful decline.

It was a lot of different people in charge,

and it just hit rock bottom.

[announcer] A dozen Twinkies there!

[Prichard] It felt like WCW wasn't even trying.

[Huffman] From a war perspective, the guys fought as hard as they could,

but I don't think you can win a war

if you don't have the right people in the war room

making the right decisions.

Get the hell out of my office.

And just... I dare you. Get it right. I dare you.

Did Eric Bischoff do a lot of things right? Perhaps.

Did he do a lot of things wrong? Yes.

He was the boss, but he dropped the ball.

[Bischoff] It would be easy for someone to say, "Look at Eric."

"He went from being really successful, and he let that success get to his head."

I understand why someone would say that,

but it's also someone who has no idea

what was really going on behind the scenes.

[reporter] The birth of the largest media and entertainment company in the world.

The $7.5 billion merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting

has been completed.

[Bischoff] Things had gotten so bad internally at WCW

because of the AOL-Time Warner merger,

where I was sitting in a room full of 12, 14 executives I'd never met before

telling me how I was gonna produce wrestling

when none of them had ever watched the product.

[announcer] Oh my God!

[Bischoff] None of those executives wanted WCW as a part of AOL-Time Warner.

Wrestling was lowbrow entertainment,

despite the fact that it was hugely popular.

[announcer] Is this an end of an era?

[Meltzer] The narrative is that the merger comes,

and these people don't want wrestling.

It's a crutch. WCW was putting out a terrible product.

[announcer 1] Guerilla warfare in a swimming pool!

[announcer 2] Here comes Buzzkill!

[announcer 3] Number 69...

I remember being told specifically if our ratings were what they were

and we weren't losing so much money,

they were fine.

When it became a big money-losing company,

yes, they wanted to sell it for obvious reasons.

And so that opened the door to Vince.

You listen to me, all right?

[Shane] The company got a call from Turner to say,

"Hey, we're thinking about selling this. Are you interested?"

The answer is yes.

And in about three days,

the whole landscape of the business changed.

[McMahon] I often think about Ted Turner.

And he said, "Yeah, when it comes to the competition,

I'm going to squish him like a bug."

That didn't happen.

[Meltzer] Vince bought the company for $2.5 million,

which he probably recouped a million times over.

It was frickin' buying Manhattan for $24.

[Gewirtz] I was lucky to be on the charter plane

the night he purchased WCW.

We had a celebration on that flight.

I remember the plane ride was pure insanity.

But the next day?

Business as usual.

It was done very quietly from a corporate level.

But the way we communicated the purchase of WCW to the entire fan base

was live on air.

Imagine that.

Here I am on WCW television.

How can that happen?

Well, there's only one way.

You see, it was just a matter of time

before I, Vince McMahon, bought my competition.

That's right. I own WCW.

In the negotiation, one of the things I wanted

was two live shows on different networks to crossover.

[Prichard] We did a live simulcast,

WCW's last Nitro in Panama City,

and WWE was in Cleveland.

And that was the big reveal.

[announcer] The winner of the Monday Night Wars,

ladies and gentlemen,

Vincent K. McMahon!

[McMahon] The audience was shocked, you know?

And we were able to pull this off without it breaking beforehand.

Obviously, you all know

I have acquired WCW.

[crowd exclaims]

I was tempted to watch it, but I couldn't get myself to do it.

It would be like...

finally admitting that I was really beat,

and I couldn't get myself to do it.

You have to grab your competition by the throat,

and you've got to squeeze the life out of your competition.

Just like I did to WCW!

[pensive music playing]

[McMahon] It's not like I get this great joy by winning.

This is really arrogant to say... I expect to win.

So there's not this huge euphoria of, "Yeah. I won. Way to go."

That doesn't happen.

It's gratifying, but I'm onto the next thing.

[Gewirtz] That was a tremendous high because they took him to the brink,

and he emerged victorious out of it.

But, on the one hand, it was a little bittersweet,

because Vince thrives under pressure and thrives under healthy competition.

I think that brings out the best in him.

Something is missing when you don't have that anymore.

So, you know, it's a new challenge now, like starting a football league.

[reporter 1] Fans with football fever about to have their craving satisfied.

There's a new game in town...

[reporter 2] WWE mastermind Vince McMahon.

He's taking his marketing genius from the ring to the gridiron.

Today, we are confident in announcing our new brand, the XFL.

I announced out of nowhere that there's going to be a new football league.

Not being prepared, not in the football business,

not knowing much about football,

but there's an opportunity to play football when the NFL is not.

McMahon says it will be the most exciting game in town.

A brand-new football league, and one with a decidedly different attitude.

[announcer] A league where players must train harder

and push themselves to the extreme.

That was his idea.

Take the sport and put more of a WWE flare and spin on it.

Cameras and microphones on players and coaches, in the locker room.

I wanted football that people could really relate to.

You know, make characters out of everybody.

We can follow that from a TV standpoint,

tell those stories so that you'd be more interested in the characters.

I think it's gonna be successful for a lot of reasons.

We understand America. We understand what America wants to watch.

In my view, this can't fail.

[announcer] From a sold-out stadium in Las Vegas,

week one of the XFL.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the XFL!

[cheering]

[announcer 1] XFL is bold!

[announcer 2] Whoa!

[yelling]

[whistle blowing]

[McMahon] The first week of XFL ratings were awesome, huge.

And from my standpoint, it was a success.

[reporter] Curiosity-seekers made the first night of the XFL a success

with a TV rating more than double what advertisers were told to expect.

[Gewirtz] I think the answer to, "Are people willing to experiment

with a McMahon-led football league?" was a resounding yes.

Everybody wanted to see it.

It was just that when they did see it, the quality of play was bad.

[announcer] Larry, on the Hitmen offense, from their 45...

They got a piece of it!

Not even swatted away, lost it!

[Costas] The XFL had opened with a splash because there was heavy promotion.

The football was not of high quality, but that didn't bother me.

It was the whole WWE sensibility that surrounded it.

I thought it was just head-bangingly stupid.

And crude.

[announcer] I love America! It's the land of milk and honeys!

[Costas] People think I'm a little buttoned-up about these things,

but everything has its place.

If there's some wit surrounding it,

if there's some element of art or cleverness

or high craft surrounding it,

then I don't give a fuck. Okay?

I don't give a fuck.

But this had none of that.

[anchor] Any question about the fan demographic the XFL's trying to appeal to?

Name the team Memphis Frustrated Males Who Still Live With Mom.

[McMahon] NBC thought they really had a handle on the press,

and the press would treat us kindly. [chuckles]

All the NBC executives responsible for creating the XFL

will be thrown to their deaths. That's right.

[intriguing music playing]

[Costas] The XFL was a disaster.

By the time Vince sat down with me,

it had already recorded the lowest ratings

in the history of American prime time television.

XFL ratings are down 75% from week one.

I said to Vince in the green room beforehand,

"There are gonna be some tough questions here."

"I think they'll be fair, but tough." He said, "Fine."

I thought I was gonna go on and talk about the XFL and be friendly.

I was told that's what it was gonna be. Costas started baiting me.

The pregame show, especially week one.

We don't have those.

One of the most mindless things I've seen.

Bob did his job. He did it well.

He got me.

-Wanna let me finish for a second, pal? -I'm asking you the question.

Then shut your mouth and let me answer the question.

I'll be happy to answer.

And I find myself getting closer and closer.

I could feel my hands just visualizing

what would it be if I had my hands wrapped around his little neck.

You don't know what you're talking about.

The Mr. McMahon character is, in some sense,

an exaggeration of traits that Vince has.

So, maybe in that moment, some of it melded.

-Would you let me finish? -Absolutely.

What I'm going to say there, pal. With a big smile, okay?

-This is amusing me. -It's amusing you. You're amusing me.

I was angry at myself too, because I was set up,

and I should have seen it coming, and I didn't, like an idiot.

-It's not WWE enough for that crowd. -Right.

And it's not good enough football for the sports-minded crowd.

I'm an entrepreneur. I'm what makes this company.

I'm what makes my company, and this country, go round and round.

I take risk.

The first season of the XFL, it turns out, will be the last.

The league never took off with the audience,

or certainly with the critics.

[Costas] The XFL failed because it wasn't a good product.

You know, in its best years,

the WWE, on its own terms, was a very good product.

This was not a good product.

[Gewirtz] I think the XFL folding after for one year stung.

I mean, you know, Vince went all out on it.

The XFL logo that people were seeing,

it was Vince holding the XFL ball and looking in the camera.

Shit.

That was the shit.

[Prichard] During that time, it was not good.

One after another after another after another.

[reporter] World Wrestling Entertainment cannot use "WWF" anymore.

It got body-slammed today by the World Wildlife Fund.

[McMahon] When this lawsuit was filed,

we tried to fight it, as we do most lawsuits.

And it looked like, "Wait. We're not gonna win this thing."

They had, in fact, used the initials WWF long before we did.

So it changed from WWF to WWE because we were entertainment.

It wasn't necessarily a good thing that we had to change our name.

I didn't want to change, but you can't do anything about it.

Once something is closed, you have to move on.

Whenever there's a failure,

and there've been a lot of failures in my life,

if you allow it to fester, like, "I wish that would have worked."

"If I'd have done this, that would've worked," it'll drive you nuts.

Let it freaking go, and think about something positive,

and work at something positive, not anything that's negative.

Vince, you know, one of his, again, many axioms is, uh, "Don't sell."

So it's not like he was moping around.

If you went to work the next day

after XFL was finally officially not coming back,

you'd never know it.

His focus was, "Okay. What do you got for Raw? Let's do it."

[Johnson] I remember a conversation with Vince in one of the arenas.

He pulled me aside and goes,

"I have this idea about bringing Hulk Hogan back,

and I'd love for you guys to headline WrestleMania. What do you think?"

And I immediately said, "I fucking love it."

Icon versus Icon.

-[man] How are you? -Good, brother.

[Bollea] When I went back

after we spent nine or ten years being a big thorn in Vince's side with WCW,

and trying to put him out of business, basically,

we did not talk about the past.

[McMahon] He's caused me, Hogan has, a great deal of frustration,

and there were times that I wished I could choke him.

But you can't hold grudges in business.

My philosophy is despite what has happened personally,

what does the audience want?

[crowd cheering]

[McMahon] All they want is to be entertained.

So, naturally, you swallow your pride and eat a nice plate of caca

and bring him back, and there you go.

[announcer] This is so special, J.R.!

This is so unique! This truly is a dream match!

[Johnson] But thinking back on that WrestleMania,

I have goosebumps now, covering my body,

because that crowd was on fire. And we felt it.

There was this iconic moment, if you watch that,

where they start absorbing the crowd reaction

and simultaneously start looking to their left and right.

That wasn't rehearsed or talked about.

Those were just two legends knowing to do that

in the heat of the moment, and that became the most memorable thing.

[McMahon] It was two eras colliding.

And neither individual knew the way the audience was gonna react.

I didn't.

They were just ready for whichever way it went.

[grunting]

[Bollea] I'm supposed to be the bad guy. He's the good guy.

[Johnson grunts]

[Bollea] But The Rock started punching me,

and they started booing him out of the building.

[crowd booing]

The script had to be changed.

[Johnson] The moment we stepped in the ring, the crowd let us know.

"We love you, Rock, but tonight, Hogan is the reason why you're here."

I had to shift on the fly and nuance my way through this match.

We didn't change the finish.

I still went over that night.

-[bell ringing] -But the real winner was Hulk Hogan.

[crowd cheering]

[interviewer] Do you think Vince ever trusted you after going to WCW?

I think I probably got a higher level of trust now... [chuckles]

...than I ever have.

I think there's a certain level of comfort

to know that I can't rip the shirt off and put 100,000 people in the building.

[chuckles]

[Gewirtz] Every decision he makes

is with an eye towards what's good for business.

Bringing people back that he's fired,

bringing back people who've testified against him in court,

people who've gone on interviews and blasted him,

and still bringing them back if he thinks it helps the company.

Allow me to introduce you to the new general manager of Raw,

Eric Bischoff!

-[crowd cheering] -[announcer] I cannot believe this!

People go, "I'm afraid to burn my bridge with Vince,"

and I go, "You know, if you do,

you have a better shot of going back than if you don't." That's how Vince operates.

[interviewer] Do you think it's a control thing?

It's a challenge. I think it's a challenge.

If you knock him,

he's going to want to prove at the end that you'll come back to him.

[Bollea] Thank you, thank you. Love you.

[man] Five weeks...

I don't think my personal feelings

have ever got in the way of doing good business.

[rock music playing]

There's one thing I've learned from the Montreal Screwjob.

There's nothing sweeter than a good double-cross.

[McMahon] I'm in business.

And business comes first.

[crowd cheering]

[Meltzer] From a general public standpoint,

the hottest period they ever had was '98 to 2002,

when they were taking over from WCW and then killing WCW.

And then after that, after WCW went down, the whole business went down.

During the periods with no competition, wrestling's a lot less interesting,

and as far as the creative end, they fell from their peak.

[Austin] At that time, I'm riding the lightning bolt, I'm on fire,

but I was frustrated with the creative process.

[McMahon] There were times when Steve was presented an idea,

and he would go,

"I'd never say this."

"I don't like it."

"I don't like the creative."

Steve, lay it all on the line. Give us the bottom line.

Bottom line is everything sucks.

I'm not happy with the direction Stone Cold is going.

Ain't happy with the direction of the company.

Things were not good at that point for Vince and I.

But I also had a lot of injuries, and I decided I've had about enough.

Probably be in the best of my interest to ride off into the sunset.

He was a huge star, and he's gone.

[Gewirtz] It's a very malleable product, the WWE.

Stars leave all the time.

Someone like The Rock, because he took off in the movies.

The Rock, him and Austin

were probably 1 and 1A as far as being the top names in the company.

Both of them were gone by 2004,

and so now it's time to make new stars.

So, there was an infamous promo where Vince was addressing the Raw roster...

More than any one quality that makes me the successful man that I am,

I would have to say that one quality is...

And he said, "Ruthless aggression."

...ruthless aggression.

[crowd cheering]

He gave a speech to the entire cast of performers,

he'd be like, "Guys, we are searching."

"This is the time. I need someone with ruthless aggression."

Who has enough ruthless aggression to make the necessary sacrifices?

I'm looking for someone who's gonna, like, "Okay. I'm the fucking guy."

Who among you wants to become a superstar?

[Cena] At that time, I was new and up-and-coming talent,

so I wasn't there for the on-camera speech,

but three days after that,

I was at a television taping where The Undertaker couldn't make it.

Come on, guys. There's gotta be somebody back there that wants to seize the moment.

[Cena] They needed somebody.

And one person in the production meeting was like, "How about John Cena?"

And that's how I got my first televised match.

[announcer] This is John Cena. We've heard a little bit about him...

[Cena] It was against Kurt Angle, a marquee performer in the WWE.

What is the one quality that you possess

that makes you think

that you can walk out here and come into the ring

and face the very best in the business?

John Cena basically says, "Why am I gonna beat you?"

"Because of ruthless aggression."

Ruthless aggression.

[announcer] Whoa!

[Gewirtz] So that kind of spawned the next few years or so,

and it became, after the fact, known as the Ruthless Aggression Era.

[intense music playing]

[Cena] This was an era that was coming off of pushing the envelope

and transitioning to an era of more realism.

They were showcasing guys' ability.

Guys like Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle.

They were using people's real names.

Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Chris Benoit, Bautista.

It was a phase of realism.

So I had to be John Cena, and I really didn't know who I was.

And I didn't have personality.

I just kept being this guy.

It was uninteresting.

[boy] You suck, John Cena!

Like, I almost got fired for being that bad.

[announcer] Frustration by John Cena.

[Cena] But when you kinda knew you were on your way out,

I really wanted to have a little more fun.

Some of the guys just happened to be rapping on the back of the tour bus,

and I got up in my seat, made my way to the back,

and for five minutes, I shredded everybody.

I didn't realize that Stephanie McMahon was on the bus.

She said, "Would you like to do that on TV?"

I said, "Fuck yes, I would."

♪ Besides open mic One thing that gets me boiled ♪

♪ Is an old-school 30-man battle royal ♪

♪ I'mma witness I'mma make my impression ♪

♪ Show Vinnie Mac That I got ruthless aggression... ♪

[McMahon] John had the ability to rap.

Bingo.

Instead of being someone that you might want to cut from the roster,

it was like, "Hang on. This is different. This is very different."

John Cena, the Doctor of Thuganomics.

[McMahon] He went out there balls to the wall and did it so well.

All of a sudden, he was a huge star, and the audience loved him.

[announcer] ...for the new WWE Champion, John Cena!

[crowd chanting] Cena! Cena! Cena!

[Cena] When you become popular,

and the audience understands you and reacts to you,

that's when you begin to garner Vince's attention.

[McMahon] You kinda remind me of myself.

You come out here, you say what's on your mind.

You don't give a damn about anybody else, do you?

That's when our relationship really began to... to pick up.

Vince taught me a ton about the business and how to perform.

As the rap persona, I took so many things that I saw and didn't like

and crafted them into this character.

It's the same thing Vince did with Mr. McMahon.

[crowd cheering]

[McMahon] In terms of getting heat with my character, Mr. McMahon,

one of my problems and one of my assets in life

is when I think about doing something, I go try it.

-[announcer] What's that? [indistinct]

[crowd cheering]

Blessed be the name of Vincent Kennedy McMahon!

[thunder rolls]

The highway to hell!

[kid] No!

[interviewer] Was there a point during that time

where you got a script or something and were just like, "This is too far"?

Yeah.

I screwed your brains out.

Vince would make me do it anyways.

There was a bit of a concern amongst performers

that if you didn't do what you were asked, that you would get punished,

and, yeah, it did happen to some on occasion, sometimes.

There was one time where I was the champion at the time,

and then suddenly I was in a scene where I was gonna be making out with a female,

which I didn't think my character wanted to do.

Was it a coincidence that I lost the championship the next week?

[announcer] ...Stratus. Will it be enough? Yes, it is! We got a new champion!

Maybe. [chuckles]

Maybe I got punished. I'm not sure.

[announcer] The new women's champion...

[interviewer] You said there were a few times that you said no.

Do you remember some of the things you said no to?

Yes.

Um...

[chuckles]

Yeah. There were a couple, but...

Yeah, I'm... not going to tell the one.

[laughs]

So, one of my storyline ideas was that Stephanie gets pregnant,

and I think... [chuckles] ...I was the one who impregnated her.

My character.

I think it was something like that,

and it was like, "No." That one didn't make it.

[Levesque] Steph has Mr. McMahon the character,

Vince McMahon the boss of WWE,

and her father.

It's hard to separate.

-[screaming, grunts] -[crowd cheering]

[Stephanie] I call him "Vince" in business, and I call him "Dad" at home.

My father is different than my boss.

My boss can be tougher than my dad.

He expects results. He demands results, especially from his family.

[Gewirtz] Vince, he didn't wanna do total nepotism.

It wouldn't reflect good on Vince or on Shane and Stephanie,

so he had them in the trenches working various jobs

before they came on in prominent positions.

And he was tough on them.

When Shane and Stephanie were pitching ideas,

he'd flat-out reject them.

He'd flat-out say they sucked.

He wants to hold them to a higher standard.

[interviewer] Would you say your dad was tough on you growing up?

My dad was definitely tough on me growing up. Still is to this day.

I was harder on my kids in the business than anybody else.

I guess it's because I wanted them to be better than everybody else.

Their last name is McMahon, so step the hell up.

[photographer] One, two...

[Shane] Always a higher standard. You know, I represent him,

and it's very important to represent him correctly.

Mariss, come down here.

-Attagirl. -[photographer] One, two...

[Stephanie] He was certainly easier on me than Shane, for sure,

but I didn't challenge him the same way my brother did.

I think there's a unique relationship with fathers and sons.

[announcer 1] Father and son!

[announcer 2] Wait a minute.

[Levesque] People send you articles and books or whatever on family business.

I've never seen one that was like, "Dad was great."

"Got along great with my dad,

then he gave me the business, and it went great."

"We got along great till he passed..."

Doesn't happen. It's tough.

Shane, what are you doing?

You gotta look no further than Shane.

[Shane] You never cared about me!

I couldn't do anything right for you!

Nothing is ever right!

My business deals, no matter how much money I made you,

was never good enough for you!

What the McMahon family has about it is a lot of people don't know

the internal dynamics of what goes on in real life.

Like, "Is it that cutthroat behind the scenes?"

The only thing I ever wanted from you...

The only thing I ever wanted is for you to be proud of me!

Of me!

But I finally figured it out. That's never ever gonna happen,

because it's never been about me.

It's always been about you! You, Dad!

[Shane] But you don't peel back that curtain all the way,

because why would you ever straighten that out? Let people talk.

This is about family business.

This is about us, Dad. This is about you and me.

Oh, no, no, no. This is not family business anymore.

This is my business.

I would suggest that you get the hell out of here,

whether you're my son or not.

Right now.

[Hammer] I never really quite understood

where Shane fit into everything over the years.

Sometimes he was being embraced. Sometimes he was completely invisible.

I never understood what was going on,

but I always felt he was a bit of the black sheep of the family,

and I never knew what the actual story was

behind what happened with his relationship with his dad.

[Meltzer] Shane absolutely wanted to be the next McMahon,

and he always figured he would be.

At one point, he wanted his dad to buy him a company that he could run

and prove that he was the next generation McMahon promoter

before he takes over WWE.

[announcer] Let's get it on, baby. We've been...

[Shane] At the time, the UFC, they got in some financial problems

and came to us and said, "Would you like to purchase the UFC?"

I go, "This is cool." I said, "Dad, let's go for this one."

I felt we could really grow that brand,

because it's tailor-made for what we do.

We have a production team, live events team, merchandising team.

We have all of it just ready to go.

So, to me, it was plug-and-play.

[McMahon] When it was presented in terms of buying UFC,

I didn't like that business model,

because our business model is you create characters,

much like Disney or someone else,

and we can use them forever,

as opposed to a boxer/UFC.

Once you're beat, hurt or something, your career is over.

This is the real deal. There's no acting involved.

There's no way these guys could act this good.

We're in show business. That's a sport.

So anyway, he thought about it and passed and...

He passed on the opportunity, and that was that.

[interviewer] Would it have been a good investment?

Hindsight's always 20/20. I think it would've been an excellent investment.

[McMahon] Ten years later or something, UFC was sold for a lot of money,

and Shane, I think, wants to take credit for the idea of buying UFC.

Shane really thought that's the way to go.

So, if that's the way you think, "Shane, take your money and put it in." [chuckles]

Which didn't work... It wouldn't work, but...

'Cause it would take a huge investment, and Shane only had a little,

so that's not a good investment.

[Heyman] Most definitive moment I've ever seen between Vince and Shane

was a creative argument that happened one night.

Shane had an idea that he really believed in,

and Vince totally disagreed with it.

And with most things that happen with Vince,

once they start to escalate, they escalate really fast.

And Vince finally turned to Shane, and he said, "Not while I'm alive."

And Vince, who was eating something,

took his knife and handed it to Shane,

and he says, "Right there. Come on. Right there."

"If you want this so bad, stick the dagger right here,

because that's what you're gonna have to do

to make that decision."

"And if you don't stick the dagger right here,

then I'll know you're not man enough to do it,

and I have to take that into consideration as well."

"Or you can buy me out...

the way I bought out my father."

"And if I don't get out of your way,

be prepared to get rid of me

the way I would have had to get rid of my father

when he wasn't doing things my way at all."

[tense music playing]

[Shane] It was a really hard decision for me to leave the only thing that I love

and the only business I ever wanted to work in my life,

but my dad, especially then, was strong at the helm,

and I was like, "If this is the time for me to go try certain things,

then that's the time."

[McMahon] The reason why Shane left...

Shane wanted to take the chair, so to speak,

and thought it was time for me to leave.

Shane had a lot of value, but it wasn't his company.

It was mine.

It's so difficult for family business. Damn, it's difficult.

It was almost like we were opposed on everything,

and we grew apart.

[Shane] Just weren't seeing eye-to-eye on certain things.

But he's the boss.

When he says to paint something blue, we're painting it blue.

And I was just like, "I can either stay in here and watch us implode,

or it's time to step back."

He's my dad, you know? I'm not gonna jeopardize that.

So I decided to step away.

So I thanked him and gave him a hug, and that was it.

[McMahon] Everyone has to understand their place.

And when a family member thinks, "Wait a minute. I've got this..."

Get to stepping! This is my show! I'm running things here!

...they don't quite have the vision...

I have the power!

...as someone who's grown and created a business.

They have a different vision, and it may work.

But you know what? We're gonna go with my vision. [chuckles]

[announcer] Nothing that Shane McMahon planned has gone right for him tonight!

I would advise anyone, don't bring your family into the business.

It's brutal.

Somewhere along the line, it's going to explode.

[firecrackers exploding]

[reporter 1] Over decades, McMahon turned the WWE

into a billion-dollar entertainment juggernaut.

But recent events indicate that leadership could be changing.

[reporter 2] New bombshell allegations of sexual abuse.

-[reporter 3] I mean, this is damning. -[reporter 4] Insane!

[reporter 5] Are they gonna jettison Vince? I don't know.

[reporter 6] The future of this company hangs in the balance.

[reporter 7] This most recent scandal is going to shock everyone.

[music fades]

[closing theme music playing]