'Bizarre Situation' Around Filming Of 'Mr. McMahon' Docuseries Revealed

The interviews with Vince McMahon for the Mr. McMahon docuseries on Netflix certainly weren't straightforward, with The Ringer's David Shoemaker detailing the "bizarre situation" around actually carrying out interviews with McMahon on the Bill Simmons Podcast. 

Shoemaker noted that Chris Smith - the filmmaker behind Tiger King - somehow ended up with a stranger working experience doing Mr. McMahon than he did when he was surrounded by Joe Exotic. 

"Chris Smith, the entire production team have done so many documentaries of this sort, and of all sorts. They've been working in this world forever. This is the guy that did The Tiger King, and none of them had ever experienced a working situation like we encountered in Stanford, Connecticut," Shoemaker stated.

"We would show up to shoot and then just all day long be getting updates from Vince's secretary about his ETA. Six hours, eight hours before the shoot, pushing it back an hour, pushing it back another hour. Then he would roll in at 11 pm pitch black, with his little crew around him and shake everybody's hand. It was just such a bizarre situation."

Bill Simmons also noted that he isn't sure Vince McMahon knew what story he wanted to tell in the docuseries, while Shoemaker claimed the former WWE CEO often had to be reminded of things from his past. 

"I don't think Vince - it sounds so weird to say - I'm not sure Vince knew what it meant to do the documentary and I'm not sure that he knew what story he wanted to tell. I don't even know if he knows who he is enough to tell that story. Even when he was eager, he wasn't there on time or on the days that he was supposed to be there. He always had people with him. There was always people, kind of, lingering in the background making sure nothing weird happened," Simmons said.

Shoemaker added: "Yeah, and reminding him of things in his past. There was always a team."

Shoemaker and Simmons believe they had enough footage to do a 10-part series, although four hours of interviews had to be cut because McMahon "sounded like a frog one day." One of the stories that didn't make the final product would have featured McMahon and Evel Knievel. 

"We had four hours of Vince's interview on the cutting room floor because he sounded like a frog one day. He didn't have a voice. There was so much good material but I think the story that Chris and his team were able to tell was pretty amazing," Shoemaker stated.

Mr. McMahon is now available to stream on Netflix. McMahon's comments from the series include him saying that CTE didn't affect Chris Benoit and that he has three brains.