Former WWE chairman Vince McMahon is back in the headlines as the subject of a new Netflix documentary.
The ex-professional wrestling tycoon bought the company from his father in the 1980s and saw the industry hit new heights by creating Wrestlemania; a level of popularity that WWE surpassed during the Attitude Era of the late ‘90s. Having initially been on TV as a commentator, he rose to wider fame through his Mr. McMahon personna, portraying himself as the company’s villainous owner.
Mr. McMahon is the title of the Netflix documentary, which is set to be released on Wednesday, September 25. It details his role in the company’s unimaginable success and deals with allegations of sexual misconduct that eventually led McMahon to resign from the company in January 2024. The 79-year-old is the subject of a federal probe and maintains his innocence.
The former WWE kingpin initially retired from the company in 2022 but returned the following year and helped oversee their $9.3billion sale to Endeavour in April 2023, while also being named executive chairman of TKO, following Endeavour's merger with UFC owners Zuffa last September. Here is a look at McMahon’s net worth, love life and reaction to the Netflix documentary.
READ MORE: Arsenal and Man City's toxic rivalry offers perfect antidote to sanitised Premier League
READ MORE: What Man Utd's 100,000-seater 'New Trafford' stadium could look like as latest plans emerge
Net worth and business empireMcMahon’s net worth is estimated to be a whopping £1.87bn ($2.5bn), according to Forbes. Upon returning to the WWE in 2023, McMahon was claimed to be receiving a £900k ($1.2m) base salary. He has since stepped down as executive chairman but was reported to be selling £307million ($412m) worth of TKO shares in March and retains a nine per cent stake in the £15.5billion ($20.8bn) company.
The WWE achieved unprecedented success during McMahon’s tenure, making him a billionaire as early as 2001 through the creation of stars such as Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. McMahon built WWE into a behemoth that bought their closest competition - most notably WCW and ECW - and mixed his boardroom success with in-ring appearances, becoming a one-time WWE champion and Royal Rumble winner. He was also founder of Titan Sports.
Outside of the WWE, McMahon briefly launched the World Bodybuilding Federation during the 1990s. In 2000, he launched the XFL to rival the NFL, a concept that was resurrected in 2018 before the company filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
The son of wrestling promoter Vince McMahon Snr, he purchased the WWWF from his dad in 1982. By then, the younger McMahon had been married to his wife Linda Edwards for 16 years.
The couple met as teenagers and married in 1966, with Edwards later fouding Titan Sports alongside her husband. She made occasional appearances in the WWE before leaving the company to pursue a political career in 2009. She served as Administrator of the Small Business Administration under Donald Trump’s presidency from 2017 to 2019. The couple are believed to have separated in 2022.
McMahon and Edwards have two children, Shane and Stephanie, and both have been heavily involved in the professional wrestling business. Shane’s last WWE appearance came at Wrestlemania 39 in 2023. Stephanie resigned as co-CEO after her father returned in January 2023, but is married to Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, who is the WWE’s chief content officer and head of creative.
McMahon was the subject of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by former WWE referee Rita Chatterton in 2022. The former WWE chairman insisted his innocence but McMahon's attorney stated that he had chosen to settle the matter out of court to “avoid the cost of litigation”.
The WWE board investigated a $3million hush-money payment made by McMahon over an alleged affair with a former employee in April 2022. It uncovered NDAs related to misconduct allegations from women made against McMahon and the WWE’s former head of talent relations John Laurinaitis. As of October 2022, the investigation had revealed a total of $19.6million in unrecorded payments to settle sexual misconduct claims between 2006 and 2022.
Former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against McMahon in January 2024, accusing him of 'sexual abuse' and 'sex trafficking'. Grant alleged that McMahon had agreed to pay her $3million as part of an NDA but stopped after one $1million payment after the public emergence of other misconduct allegations in 2022. The former WWE chairman is under federal investigation.
McMahon insists on his innocence, with a spokesperson addressing Grant’s claims earlier this year: "This lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and a vindictive distortion of the truth. He will vigorously defend himself."
Reaction to Netflix documentaryMcMahon issued a statement on social media on Monday (September 23) after seeing an early cut of the Netflix documentary. The former WWE owner insisted he did not regret agreeing to do the documentary but outlined his issues with production decisions.
“I don’t regret participating in this Netflix documentary,” McMahon said. “The producers had an opportunity to tell an objective story about my life and the incredible business I built, which were equally filled with excitement, drama, fun and a fair amount of controversy and life lessons.
“Unfortunately, based on an early partial cut I’ve seen, this doc falls short and takes the predictable path of conflating the ‘Mr. McMahon’ character with my true self, Vince. The title and promos alone make that evident.
“A lot has been misrepresented or left out entirely in an effort to leave viewers intentionally confused. The producers use typical editing tricks with out of context footage and dated soundbites etc. to distort the viewers’ perception andd support a deceptive narrative.
“In an attempt to further their misleading account, the producers use a lawsuit based on an affair I ended as evidence that I am, in fact, ‘Mr. McMahon’. I hope the viewer will keep an open mind and remember that there are two sides to every story.”
Mirror Sport have reached out to Netflix for comment off the back of Vince McMahon's statement.
