‘Mr. McMahon’ Producer Matt Maxson: We Didn’t Really Have An Ending Before Allegations, It Wasn’t The Most Compelling Story
During the 2020 third quarter financials call, WWE announced a multi-part docuseries on Vince McMahon would be coming to Netflix.
In the years that followed the announcement, McMahon’s life severely changed as he was investigated for sexual misconduct and hush money allegations, retired as WWE CEO, returned to the board of directors, made a deal with Endeavor to merge WWE and UFC, was accused of sexual assault and sex trafficking in a lawsuit by Janel Grant, and resigned as TKO Executive Chairman.
Many of the interviews, including all with McMahon, were filmed in 2021.
The six-part series was finally released on Netflix on September 25, nearly four years after it was first announced
Speaking to Kevin Iole, “Mr. McMahon” producer Matt Maxson discussed how the series changed from the original announcements.
“I got a call in June or July of 2021. I came onto a project that had been going on since 2018. It had, at that point, two acts already. Filming didn’t really begin until 2021. I was getting instilled pretty early on. We were taking something that, at the time, really didn’t have an ending. It wasn’t necessarily the most compelling story. It was a guy who built this empire up and at that point looked like he was on cruise control. We had all these different endings we were workshopping like, ‘Is AEW going to be the challenge for him?’ ‘Is this going to happen?’ We had gotten pretty far into production, all of 2021 and early 2022, and I remember we were screening cuts. We had a first draft for the first five or six episodes, and I remember sitting down to watch it. As we’re reviewing it, we’re giving each other notes on things, that was when the first Wall Street Journal article came out. We had to take a backseat from there and rethink everything from the ground up. I have never been on a project that has lasted this long that has felt like it’s taken so many acts. I think Bill Simmons said he remembers 14 cuts. I remember a lot more than that. It just felt like it went from something that felt static and stale and locked in time to where you’re nervously refreshing Twitter going, ‘Is something else going to come out that we don’t know about?'” he recalled.
The initial allegations of hush money and sexual misconduct against McMahon came out in June 2022.
Fans can find producer David Shoemaker’s comments about footage that was left out of the documentary by clicking here.
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Janel Grant, a former WWE employee, filed a lawsuit in January against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The lawsuit accuses McMahon of sexual assault and sex trafficking. On May 30, Grant agreed to pause the lawsuit for six months while the federal investigation continued against McMahon, who resigned from TKO/WWE following the lawsuit being filed.
Victim Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Hours: Available 24 hours
1-800-656-4673
