Bill Simmons: ‘Mr. McMahon’ Was The Strangest Documentary Process I’ve Ever Been Involved With

“Mr. McMahon” producers say that working on the documentary was a unique experience.

“Mr. McMahon” producers say that working on the documentary was a unique experience.

The Netflix docuseries chronicling Vince McMahon’s life has been delayed multiple times since it was first announced in 2020. The six-episode series premiered on September 25. 

Speaking on The Bill Simmons Podcast, executive producer Bill Simmons and consulting producer David Shoemaker discussed the “Mr. McMahon” docuseries. Shoemaker noted that the project was daunting, and he recalled his experience dealing with McMahon.

David Shoemaker: It was really hard, even when he was pseudo eager on the first phase of the documentary, it was really hard to get beyond the surface with him. Vince is, even prior to everything coming out over the past couple years, is just the most bizarre subject to try to do this kind of project for because even when he was eager, he wasn’t there on time, or on the days that he was supposed to be there…

Bill Simmons: He always had people with him, there was always people kind of lingering in the background, making sure nothing weird happened.

DS: Yeah, and reminding him of things in his past. There was always a team, and everybody, Chris Smith, the entire production team, have done so many documentaries of this sort, and of all sorts. This is the guy that did ‘Tiger King’, and none of them had ever experienced a working situation like we encountered in Stamford, Connecticut. We would show up to shoot, and then just be all day long getting updates from Vince’s secretary about his ETA, pushing, like six hours, eight hours before the shoot, pushing it back an hour, pushing it back another hour, pushing it back another hour, and then he would roll in at 11 p.m, pitch black, with his little crew around him and shake everybody’s hand and say thank you for being here and then going to hair and makeup and then just emerge in the same outfit that he was wearing for every shoot. It was just such a bizarre situation. 

They went on to discuss how much ground McMahon’s story covers, and they struggled with how a lot of that has been covered before. Shoemaker also highlighted how McMahon’s life was intertwined with WWE. Shoemaker called it a “very, very unique experience.”

Simmons later said that the series could have been ten episodes. He also noted that it was the strangest documentary process that he had ever been involved in.

“It was certainly the strangest documentary process I’ve ever been involved with. I will say, though, I’ve worked with a lot of people and I’ve done a lot of these. I just could not believe how good Chris and his team were. I’ve never worked with a team quite like that,” Simmons said.

Director Chris Smith previously discussed working on the docuseries. Click here to see what he had to say.

“Pandemonium” directors previously said that McMahon nixed a biopic about his life. 

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