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
in which he is untouchable
and invulnerable to outside forces,
and in control of his own destiny.
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.
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.
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.
Will it come forward on occasion? Sure.
Will it hurt on occasion? Sure.
But throw it the f*ck back there,
and go forward.
Sorry. I'm so sorry.
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.
Being Vince McMahon's son,
I grew up in a very interesting world.
I always
wanted to be in the business,
and the business
of the business, specifically.
I start at a very early age.
- 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.
One
And then I became
a referee and ring announcer,
and you start earning your stripes.
Shane and Mr. McMahon!
My involvement as a performer
started as a surrogate to my dad.
Did you see Shane
holding the ropes for his daddy?
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.
A tremendous
chorus of boos for the boy wonder,
the heir apparent to the throne
And I loved it,
getting the ability to go do something
I've always wanted to do
since I was very little.
- Shane!
- Shane McMahon!
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.
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.
Unbelievable!
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.
Vince McMahon, flanked there
by his young daughter, Stephanie McMahon.
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.
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!
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.
"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."
Oh my God!
I hate you!
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?
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 "sl*t."
sl*t! sl*t! sl*t! sl*t!
And Vince, as they're going crazy for her,
he looks at me and he goes
Meaning, like, "This is money."
sl*t! sl*t! sl*t!
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.
sl*t! sl*t! sl*t!
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!
When I was younger in my career,
I was just all on board
to do whatever he wanted.
Unhand her! Look at this!
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.
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.
sl*t! sl*t! sl*t! sl*t!
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.
- You are legally married.
- Mm!
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.
I was not allowed to date our talent,
but it was my dad who, ironically,
sort of pushed us together.
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."
Shane was very much against it.
Uh, vehemently so.
- Let's go.
- You make me sick.
Hey, brother Come on. Give me a hug.
You know Storylines 101.
"Don't date the boss's daughter."
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.
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."
And then Vince
books Vince versus Steph,
in, I believe, a street fight,
six days before our legitimate wedding.
He wants to humiliate his daughter!
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.
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?
Uh?! Right?
You guys
have got to be the head
of the most dysfunctional family
on the planet!
They create that
McMahon family soap opera,
and the kids ended up being
very popular performers. Super popular.
Where was Linda
during all this time?
She was definitely
a big part of all of this.
Linda McMahon!
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.
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.
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.
- Oh my God!
- Oh no!
Oh my God!
This is gonna hurt me
a lot worse than it hurts you.
Get her! What?
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."
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.
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.
I came
into the wrestling business
in a little bit of non-traditional route.
I was, um, doing fitness modeling.
Fitness model, you know her
from the cover of Muscle magazine.
Trish Stratus.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Shane said he was a little
- Oh, okay.
- You know.
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."
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!
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!
Oh, for God's sakes.
The "bark like a dog" scene
obviously is very memorable,
and it was really um
Yeah, I wish they never did that one.
I used to have a female dog
and that b*tch
did everything I told her to do.
- Now, damn it, get down! Get down!
- Aw, that's just too much.
Bark like a dog. Come on.
Tell me you're sorry.
With the "barking like a dog"
segment, they want me to be like
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!
Yes! Yea
I said take it off now!
What kinda man is This is
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!
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.
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.
Ultimately,
it played out at WrestleMania
in a match with Shane against my dad.
It was son versus father,
and in one corner
was my girlfriend, Trish.
Storyline.
And in Shane's corner was Linda, my wife.
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.
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."
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."
Slapping his own son.
Bell rings. My dad hits me
with about four shots to the face.
Like, right off the bat.
I waffled him a couple of times,
and got his attention.
And then he's like,
"Okay, no problem now."
"Oh! Ah!"
My eyes swelled up under immediately.
I was like, "Well, this may be
a little easier than I thought."
- My monitor!
- God!
Shane, stop!
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.
Vince, now just realizing
his sedated wife, Linda, is here!
During the match with Shane,
Linda slowly stood up.
Right into the McMahon family jewels!
It was a huge bop,
and we had to finish after that.
Wait a minute.
Vince is in one corner, Shane in another.
The audience loves it
when it looks like it's real.
Oh my God!
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.
Shane McMahon
has defeated his father
in a hellacious street fight
here at WrestleMania!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
When you brought her back,
there was a storyline with your character
where there was an affair.
With who?
With Sable.
- Me?
- With you.
- Storyline.
- Storyline.
God.
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.
Do you remember in 2001,
you did that Playboy interview?
Yes, right.
And you talked in that one
about different affairs.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Welcome, everybody,
once again, to WCW!
Kidman and The Franchise
take their personal vendetta to the ring
in a Viagra-on-a-pole match.
By 2000,
WWE had taken firm control
of the Monday Night Wars against WCW.
We would just kind of laugh at it.
- Oh my goodness!
- 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.
A dozen Twinkies there!
It felt like
WCW wasn't even trying.
From a w*r perspective,
the guys fought as hard as they could,
but I don't think you can win a w*r
if you don't have the right people
in the w*r 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.
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.
The birth of the largest media
The $7.5 billion merger
of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting
has been completed.
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.
Oh my God!
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.
Is this an end of an era?
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.
Guerilla warfare
in a swimming pool!
Here comes Buzzkill!
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?
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.
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.
Vince bought the company
for $2.5 million,
which he probably recouped
a million times over.
It was frickin' buying Manhattan for $24.
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.
We did a live simulcast,
WCW's last Nitro in Panama City,
and WWE was in Cleveland.
And that was the big reveal.
The winner
of the Monday Night Wars,
ladies and gentlemen,
Vincent K. 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.
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!
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.
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.
Fans with football fever
about to have their craving satisfied.
There's a new game in town
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.
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.
From a sold-out stadium
in Las Vegas,
week one of the XFL.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the XFL!
XFL is bold!
Whoa!
The first week of XFL ratings
were awesome, huge.
And from my standpoint, it was a success.
Curiosity-seekers made
the first night of the XFL a success
with a TV rating more than double
what advertisers were told to expect.
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.
Larry, on the Hitmen offense,
from their 45
They got a piece of it!
Not even swatted away, lost it!
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.
I love America!
It's the land of milk and honeys!
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 f*ck. Okay?
I don't give a f*ck.
But this had none of that.
Any question about the fan
demographic the XFL's trying to appeal to?
Name the team Memphis Frustrated Males
Who Still Live With Mom.
NBC thought they
really had a handle on the press,
and the press
would treat us kindly.
All the NBC executives
responsible for creating the XFL
will be thrown to their deaths.
That's right.
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.
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.
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.
sh*t.
That was the sh*t.
During that time,
it was not good.
One after another
after another after another.
World Wrestling Entertainment
cannot use "WWF" anymore.
It got body-slammed today
by the World Wildlife Fund.
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."
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 f*cking love it."
Icon versus Icon.
- How are you?
- Good, brother.
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.
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?
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.
This is so special, J.R.!
This is so unique!
This truly is a dream match!
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.
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.
I'm supposed to be the bad guy.
He's the good guy.
But The Rock started punching me,
and they started booing him
out of the building.
The script had to be changed.
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.
But the real winner was Hulk Hogan.
Do you think Vince
ever trusted you after going to WCW?
I think I probably got
a higher level of trust now
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.
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!
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.
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.
Thank you, thank you. Love you.
Five weeks
I don't think my personal feelings
have ever got in the way
of doing good business.
There's one thing I've learned
from the Montreal Screwjob.
There's nothing sweeter
than a good double-cross.
I'm in business.
And business comes first.
From a general
public standpoint,
the hottest period they ever had
was '98 to 2002,
when they were taking over from WCW
and then k*lling 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.
At that time, I'm riding
the lightning bolt, I'm on fire,
but I was frustrated
with the creative process.
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.
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.
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 f*cking guy."
Who among you wants to become a superstar?
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.
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.
This is John Cena.
We've heard a little bit about him
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.
Whoa!
So that kind of spawned
the next few years or so,
and it became, after the fact,
known as the Ruthless Aggression Era.
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.
You suck, John Cena!
Like, I almost got fired
for being that bad.
Frustration by John 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, "f*ck 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 ♪
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.
He went out there
ba*ls to the wall and did it so well.
All of a sudden, he was a huge star,
and the audience loved him.
for the new WWE Champion,
John 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.
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.
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.
What's that?
Blessed be the name
of Vincent Kennedy McMahon!
The highway to hell!
No!
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?
Stratus. Will it be enough?
Yes, it is! We got a new champion!
Maybe.
Maybe I got punished. I'm not sure.
The new women's champion
You said there were
a few times that you said no.
Do you remember
some of the things you said no to?
Yes.
Um
Yeah. There were a couple, but
Yeah, I'm not going to tell the one.
So, one of my storyline ideas
was that Stephanie gets pregnant,
and I think
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.
Steph has
Mr. McMahon the character,
Vince McMahon the boss of WWE,
and her father.
It's hard to separate.
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.
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.
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.
One, two
Always a higher standard.
You know, I represent him,
and it's very important
to represent him correctly.
Mariss, come down here.
- Attagirl.
- One, two
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.
Father and son!
Wait a minute.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Let's get it on, baby.
We've been
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.
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.
Would it have been
a good investment?
Hindsight's always 20/20. I think it
would've been an excellent investment.
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."
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.
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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
Over decades,
McMahon turned the WWE
into a billion-dollar
entertainment juggernaut.
But recent events indicate
that leadership could be changing.
New bombshell allegations
of sexual abuse.
- I mean, this is damning.
- Insane!
Are they gonna
jettison Vince? I don't know.
The future of this company
hangs in the balance.
This most recent scandal
is going to shock everyone.
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01x05 - Family Business
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Documentary television miniseries that explores the influential yet controversial career of the professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon.
Documentary television miniseries that explores the influential yet controversial career of the professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon.