[intriguing music playing]
I have... not two different brains. I have, like, computers in my head,
and sometimes they work against me.
I have one computer talking to you right now,
and there's another one going on with me thinking something completely different.
And then there's a third one sometimes.
If I wanted to tap into it, I could.
And so, it's difficult for me sometimes to pay attention to things.
It's bothered me through the years because all I wanted to be was normal.
I wanted to fit in.
But... I deal with it
because... that's who you are. Just deal with it, Vince.
It doesn't matter whether you want to be this way, want to be that way.
Here's where you are. You're different. Be different.
And you know the expression, "Fuck the world." So...
That's where I am now.
[interviewer] What's the other brain thinking about now?
Um... something having a lot of fun, uh...
and it's involving sex.
[music fades]
[crowd cheering]
WrestleMania.
Every year...
[crowd continues cheering]
Shut up!
[crowd exclaims]
Coming out of the Attitude Era and into the 2000s,
Vince McMahon was still a hugely important on-screen character for the company.
But without Austin, they were always in search of something for him to do.
[bell rings]
And now it is time
for the Battle of the Billionaires, Hair vs Hair match!
♪ Money, money, money, money ♪
[announcer] Here comes the money man!
Look at that man right there, Donald Trump.
[McMahon] So many celebrities come into our business and have a blast.
And Donald was one of them.
Donald had always been a fan.
So, I went to Donald, and I said,
"I have this idea."
"What if we each have a wrestler that represents us at WrestleMania?"
And if Donald Trump loses, then I shave his head.
Of course, if I lose, same thing.
The Donald Trump-Vince McMahon Battle of the Billionaires Feud,
it was the biggest pay-per-view audience
in the history of pro wrestling pay-per-view.
It was a giant, giant attraction.
[announcer 1] Hey, look at this! Donald Trump!
[announcer 2] Trump! Donald Trump taking down Vince McMahon!
[announcer 1] Oh my God!
I was entertained by Trump when he was on the show.
Come on up here.
[Meltzer] His ability to speak to wrestling fans was excellent.
To me, they look like a very smart group of people.
[crow cheering]
He was kind of perfect for the role.
[crowd chanting] Donald Trump! Donald Trump!
[crowd cheering]
Get out of here.
[Bob Costas] In truth, Donald Trump's sensibility and public persona
is much closer to that of a wrestler
than to a statesman.
Throw him the hell out of here.
I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.
[McMahon] Our fingerprints are on so many things in the world.
Politics, absolutely, my God.
Why wouldn't you want to be like WWE?
I can do whatever the hell I want.
I have the right to do whatever I want as president.
This is what we do.
We present larger-than-life characters
making outlandish statements that make people go,
"Oh my God, I can't believe he said that."
[indistinct]
[Sharon Mazer] Donald Trump is an example
of what seems to be a kind of pro-wrestlingification
of American politics and American society.
[Meltzer] If you're gonna look at the influence of Vince McMahon
and pro wrestling on culture,
man, we elected a president that... that was playing a pro wrestler on TV.
[crowd cheering]
I don't know if it's Trump being Trump or he learned from wrestling,
but I see similarities between Trump and Vince McMahon.
-[announcer 1] Oh no! -[announcer 2] Oh my God.
[announcer 1] Oh my God!
[crowd cheering]
[John Cena] Mr. McMahon, he is the best WWE personality ever.
But after the Attitude Era,
like, Mr. McMahon was...
a more selectively-used character.
[crowd cheering]
♪ No chance That's what you've got ♪
[Brian Gewirtz] During the Ruthless Aggression Era,
we were always trying to pitch Vince to have a midlife crisis
and become crazy or something like that.
But Vince wanted to go another way, which is, "What if someone kills me?"
And we're like, "Okay."
[crowd cheering]
[Gewirtz] So he cut a very cryptic, weird, un-Mr. McMahon-like promo in the ring.
-Thank you. -[announcer] Something's not right.
[Gewirtz] Then made this long walk backstage,
passing all the talent,
and then got into his limo... paused.
Vince is big on pauses for dramatic effect.
[loud explosion]
[Gewirtz] And then the limo explodes.
The edit was perfect.
And many individuals called, you know, the office, "Is Vince okay?"
[Gewirtz] Vince wanted to treat it like real life.
The website was reporting it was real,
and the announcers were somber.
And in fact, from what I've heard,
Donald Trump called up Vince's office to make sure Vince was okay.
So, that became a very controversial storyline.
But certain tragic circumstances in real life happened
that forced us to stop that storyline.
[McMahon] Good evening.
Tonight's storyline was to have been the...
alleged demise of my character, Mr. McMahon.
However... in reality,
WWE superstar Chris Benoit, his wife, Nancy, and their son, Daniel
are dead.
Chris Benoit was thought of an excellent in-ring performer.
[announcer] He's done everything in this business.
He's been a world champion. He's one of the greatest of all time.
And as far as we knew, a great guy.
[Gewirtz] When a wrestler passes away,
Raw the next night would become like a tribute to that individual.
So, we did one for Chris that night.
Tonight... will be a tribute to Chris Benoit.
[Gewirtz] And then while that show was airing,
we started to get the details
of what had actually happened and what Chris had done.
[reporter] There is new information in the death of pro wrestler Chris Benoit.
Authorities in Georgia say it was no accident.
Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered their seven-year-old son,
and then hanged himself in their home.
[Cena] When the instance with Chris Benoit happened,
the murder-suicide,
that rocked the very foundation of the WWE.
[reporter 1] The Benoit tragedy put McMahon and his WWE
back under the microscope.
Allegations of steroid and drug abuse.
[reporter 2] Speculation began that roid rage might have been
behind what happened that fateful weekend.
[Bret Hart] They were just pinning this whole thing on steroids.
All I know is steroids generally don't make you kill your whole family
and do all that kind of stuff.
There is no correlation between taking steroids
and what happened to Chris Benoit.
Human beings are flawed.
Chris went nuts.
It happens in every form of life in everything.
So, that's the only thing I can take away from it.
-[man 1] You got it? -[man 2] Hold on.
-And got it. -[man 1] Okay.
[Nowinski] I was first a fan of Chris Benoit.
Then I got to meet him when I started wrestling.
I debuted in 2002.
[crowd cheering]
[Lilian Garcia] Making his way to the ring, Christopher Nowinski!
[announcer] The Harvard graduate. This guy's great, JR.
[Nowinski] But about a year later, I got a concussion that ended my career.
Everyone back in 2003, 2004 thought concussions were bullshit,
and that I was just weak.
And so, this idea started that,
"You know, I'm gonna dig in more to this concussion research
and try to take a stab at changing the world's culture on concussions."
When I heard about Chris Benoit, I was just certain,
based on the way he wrestled,
that he probably had CTE.
CTE is "chronic traumatic encephalopathy."
It's a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive hits to the head.
We see problems with emotion, behavior, disinhibition, aggression, and depression,
and symptoms get worse over time as your brain is essentially rotting away.
But in 2007, no one had ever heard of CTE.
I saw Vince McMahon go on The Today Show
and give his explanation for what he thought happened.
There was no way of telling this man was a monster.
He framed it as, "We didn't know what kind of monster Chris was."
And I thought that it was the disease that was the monster.
It wasn't Chris.
So, I ended up calling Chris's father,
and he, through tears, agreed to let us study his brain.
A doctor who studied tissue from Benoit's brain
says the wrestler suffered extensive brain damage from his years in the ring.
[reporter 1] They went on to say Benoit's brain was the worst they'd seen.
[reporter 2] We contacted World Wrestling Entertainment.
They sent along a statement saying the analysis
that concussions might have led to Benoit's murderous rampage
was speculative, and went on to say,
"We respect the desire of that father
to do whatever he can to find some explanation."
[McMahon] This doctor came up with this ridiculous statement of,
"Okay, here's why Chris Benoit did this."
"Caused some sort of trauma to his head."
Things were shown where Chris would dive off the rope
and hit someone with his head.
[announcer] Benoit using his own head like a weapon!
That's complete work.
When somebody grabs your wrist real lightly,
and they twist it, I go, "Aah! It hurts!"
"Oh my God, you're killing me!" That's a work.
[McMahon] It looks like there's damage, and there's not.
We know what we're doing. We don't hurt each other.
[announcer] His head bounced off that mat like a basketball!
I worked for a long time.
I got dropped on my head one time. I got concussed.
[crowd cheering]
[Austin] Other than that, I can't remember
having too many concussions in the business of pro wrestling.
And my take on that has always been,
if you were just wrestling and you got a bunch of concussions,
you're probably doing something wrong.
I'm not a CTE guy.
Just don't believe in it.
[sighs]
Yeah. I mean, I've seen the slides on Chris Benoit's brain.
Like, he had CTE. Like, there's no question about that.
CTE is a disease you can see very clearly under a microscope,
but everybody has fought us on this.
The NFL has fought us on this.
The NHL is still fighting us on this.
FIFA's fighting us. Everybody's trying to fight us.
So, I was actually surprised when I got a call from Vince McMahon
saying he wanted to help.
Chris was knocking WWE.
I think there was something worth investigating.
I called him, "What are you doing?"
I said, "Look, we'll help you out if you can come up with research that's honest,
'cause we'd like to know more about it ourselves."
[Nowinski] And that was the beginning
of a wholesale change in their approach to this.
They invited me in to come start teaching the wrestlers
about what I knew about concussions and CTE.
There were a couple of in-ring moves that we stopped doing.
[announcer] Onto Mr. McMahon!
[McMahon] We stopped hitting each other over the head with metal chairs.
I have to admit, initially I was pissed.
How are you gonna take away the chair shot?
It's a staple of our industry.
[announcer] Heads up, heads up! From behind!
[Calloway] I'm an old school guy. We use chairs to help tell our story.
Vince made a call.
Now there's no more chair shots to the head.
I get it.
The company is a publicly traded company now.
[announcer] Chef Boyardee presents...
[Calloway] When you're trying to market yourself to larger advertisers,
the safety and well-being of your athletes and your performers is a priority.
So, it was, again, what was best for business.
[interviewer] Do you think the motivation is a care for wrestlers,
or is it good for business, or somewhere in between?
You know, it's... I don't know which.
I couldn't tell you what the biggest motivation is,
but it's an acknowledgement that it's better for wrestlers
and it's good for business. Right?
And that's what's most important, is that all the interests align,
and they're doing the right thing.
What happened in the aftermath of the Chris Benoit situation,
is that there was really a lot of negative publicity.
It's not real, but the pain is.
Professional wrestlers have suffered broken necks
and spilled gallons of blood in the ring.
Many turn to performance-enhancing drugs and painkillers
as they spend 200-plus days on the road.
And many don't make it past their 40th birthdays.
[Meltzer] Wrestlers were dying young,
and it was very often a combination of drugs and steroids.
When wrestlers were dying, it didn't hurt the popularity of wrestling
because the fans saw them as deaths of television characters.
[crowd cheering]
[Meltzer] They didn't see it as, like, a husband who's 38 years old
with three kids and a wife, and is dead.
The fans knew these guys were dying, but they didn't care, or didn't seem to.
"Give us the next guy."
[Meltzer] At first, McMahon was defiant, like he's always going to be.
"All deaths have nothing to do with us. It's their choice."
Do you have a reason why these people would be dying under the age of 45?
Are you indicating it's my responsibility these people are dead? Because...
I'm asking you if it, in any way, shape, or form, falls on your shoulders?
[McMahon] I was set to have this interview with the award-winning Armen Keteyian,
and when someone comes at me,
whether it's a member of the media or otherwise,
I can't help but be defensive.
And then be offensive.
I'd accept no responsibility whatsoever for their untimely deaths.
None whatsoever.
As far as... And you've got that look on your face like,
-"Jeez, Vince, how can you say that?" -Yeah...
Well, but none whatsoever? I mean, they wrestled for you.
They were part of your organization.
They worked a couple of hundred nights a year for you.
-Oh my God. No... -They lived this lifestyle.
Oh my God, you can't believe...
Can you see that look? "How can you possibly say that, Vince?"
When you look back at just about all of those performers who passed away,
you know, they used these prescription drugs as recreation.
Many just took these pills because it made them feel good, you know?
And when you mix that with steroids or something else that's an upper,
your heart doesn't know which way to go.
And it's a horrible cocktail.
And that's what happened.
"Found dead in their hotel room." That was the typical scenario.
Why isn't these things page one?
Millions of kids worship these guys, and they're dropping dead.
Where's the news?
And again, McMahon seemed to escape that.
They did get bad publicity off of it, but not that much,
because people will just go,
"We don't want to waste our time investigating this fake thing."
But as far as WWE goes, was this kind of a turning point?
In hindsight, I would say yes.
That did lead to a lot of major changes in wrestling.
You know, more vigilant monitoring of concussions,
more vigilant monitoring of drug abuse.
They agreed to pay for rehab to anyone under contract,
even after they're gone with the company.
The schedule was reduced.
Instead of going ten days on and three days off,
it was four days on and three days off. It's even better now.
The changes have been gigantic.
[Calloway] WrestleMania 30.
Up until that point, I'd never lost at WrestleMania.
I think I was 21-0.
-[crowd cheering] -[announcer 1] It's all over, brother.
-[announcer 2] Take him... -[announcer 1] Stop!
[Calloway] The streak is a huge part of the attraction of WrestleMania.
[announcer 1] The amazing undefeated streak continues!
[Calloway] So, I was gonna win. The streak was gonna stay intact.
But that day, Vince walks in my dressing room,
and he said, "Mark, I think we're gonna put Brock over tonight."
[announcer] Brock Lesnar!
[McMahon] It was a last-minute decision.
Mark wasn't prepared for it.
I think he was in some sort of psychological shock.
[bell ringing]
[Calloway] About five, ten minutes into that match, I get concussed.
The match went on 25 minutes or so,
but I can't, to this day, recall being in that match.
[grunting]
[McMahon] Looking back on it, I don't see where Mark was concussed.
Could've happened.
But I think Mark just didn't remember any of that
because it was so traumatic for him.
[crowd] One, two, three.
-[crowd cheering] -[bell ringing]
[Calloway] They took me to the hospital, and Vince left WrestleMania
to go to the hospital.
He was there with my wife, um, consoling... consoling her.
[announcer] You cannot hurt The Undertaker!
[Calloway] I never thought about getting hurt.
Even after I got hurt, I didn't think about getting hurt.
Only thing you think about is getting well
so you can get back to work.
I've had 18 different surgeries.
I walk with a limp.
I wake up some mornings and can't get out of bed,
but there's nothing that I would change.
I love it. And if I could still do it, I'd still be doing it.
[Booker T. Huffman] We as, you know, the wrestlers...
sometimes think we're indestructible.
That's just the way it is. It's just part of who we are.
But, on the other hand,
this next generation of wrestlers, I do not want to see them
in the same situation as a bunch of the guys that came before them.
[rock music playing]
[Garcia] And from Charlotte, North Carolina, Cody Rhodes!
I come into WWE in 2007.
They were spinning out of Chris Benoit's terrible tragedy,
and out of that, the wellness policy really becomes a huge part of the company.
First, we're instituting a new drug policy.
[Rhodes] Behind the scenes, I came into a very clean WWE.
And it was also very clean on-air
in terms of, "We're heading towards a TV-PG era."
[crowd cheering]
[Gewirtz] What motivated Vince to switch the rating from TV-14 to TV-PG
was the 50,000-foot perspective of advertisers.
[announcer] Go, go!
[Gewirtz] The lewd and kind of really out-there angles
that were going on in the Ruthless Aggression Era...
-[indistinct] -[crowd exclaims]
...weren't gonna cut it with sponsors.
Okay, here are the stats and things...
[Gewirtz] Vince is a businessman. He's chairman of the board.
He wants to make the company as much money as possible.
[indistinct]
Vince was trying to reach bigger, get more families, more kids.
[McMahon] We made that turn, and it has paid off,
literally and figuratively, in dividends.
[Gewirtz] The stock shot up eventually,
and sponsorship deals became much more lucrative.
But a lot of your Attitude Era, Ruthless Aggression audiences
would be like, "This is The Muppet Show."
It literally was The Muppet Show. We had The Muppets guest host one time.
All those things that led WWE to be your special, secret, guilty pleasure
now was being taken away,
and that left a bad taste in people's mouths.
[crowd booing]
[McMahon] I do what's right for every one of you
from a business perspective.
I'm long-term oriented,
and you don't even understand what I'm doing.
But in time, you will.
[Meltzer] When the decision was made to go PG, some fans complained on social media.
But times change, you know? And views change, and you adapt with it.
-So they toned down. -[bell rings]
[announcer] This is a Divas tag-team match...
[Heyman] The timing of the Women's Evolution
coincided with the PG Era shift.
The portrayal of women in the industry
was progressing and maturing.
[announcer] It is the perfect combination of beauty and power.
[Heyman] And the capabilities of the women that were coming into the industry
were certainly far more athletic than those that preceded them.
The Women's Evolution was really a movement started by our fans.
[reporter] Fans took to social media with the hashtag #GiveDivasAChance,
upset over unequal screen time for female wrestlers.
Vince was set in his ways by this point, so it was very hard for him to change.
[Trish Stratus] I think Vince was not sure,
but ultimately Vince is about giving the fans what they want.
When the fans wanted us to do more action in the ring
and liked what they were getting from us, he went with it.
Someone that got behind us was Stephanie.
Stephanie saw us doing our thing out there.
She pushed for the women to take it to another level.
[Meltzer] Stephanie had been a TV character for a long time,
but behind the scenes, she became kind of a public face of the company,
Chief Brand Officer.
That was her role.
And Paul Levesque, Triple H,
was getting more and more influence on the creative side,
helping Vince, you know, kind of like number two.
[interviewer] Where was Shane at that point?
Um, Shane was kind of out, you know, for the most part.
[Shane] So, 2016, I was gone six or seven years at that point.
You know, off camera, off everything.
I feel good.
And got a call.
It's my dad, um, and he says, "Hey, I have an idea."
And it's like, "Okay."
♪ No chance That's what you've got ♪
[Shane] There was a storyline where my dad was going to give a very big accolade
from my grandfather to my sister,
who was completely undeserving, storyline-wise.
No one in the world deserves this award as much as you.
And then all of a sudden, my music hits.
-♪ Here comes the money ♪ -[announcer] Here we go.
[crowd cheering]
♪ Here comes the money... ♪
[Shane] The place goes crazy.
And still to this day,
I'm getting goosebumps under my jacket right now thinking about it.
[crowd cheering]
[bittersweet music playing]
[Shane] It was so rewarding to have an adulation that long and that loud...
[bittersweet music continues]
...when you return to...
[voice breaks] ...something you love.
[crowd chanting] Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!
I see my dad looking at me, and he has pride. I could see it in those eyes.
I'm getting choked up looking at that.
My sister, she's starting to tear up because, again, we're all back together.
It was a huge moment.
[crowd] This is awesome!
And eventually what came out was something really cool.
You and your husband, Triple H,
have been really running this company into the ground.
[crowd cheering]
I want control of Monday Night Raw.
[crowd cheering]
And then that led to my dad making a match.
One match, one night, an opponent of my choosing.
I'll tell you where and when and who.
So, what about it, Shane-O? Huh? Everybody's happy to see Shane-O-Mac!
[crowd cheering]
You got your match. You're on.
[cheering]
Good, because I have one last opportunity...
to have a fucking beating, okay?
-A beating about your face. -[crowd exclaims]
And the place and the time is gonna be... WrestleMania.
[crowd cheering]
And your opponent... The Undertaker.
[crowd cheering]
Welcome back, Shane-O.
[announcer] Oh my goodness.
And getting to that moment now of WrestleMania 32...
-♪ Here comes the money ♪ -[announcer] Here we go.
[Shane] I haven't been in the ring in seven years,
and you can imagine walking out in not just a small room,
but a stadium with a sea of people.
It's euphoric.
But the greatest thing was about ten minutes prior to me going out,
my boys were backstage. I was like, "Want to come out with me?"
Do me the honor. I want you to come out with me tonight.
They're like, "What? Are you serious?"
[upbeat music playing]
[announcer] Look who's out here with Shane-O-Mac!
[Shane] My boys were doing my stuff, and they're doing the arm twist.
I go, "Look at these little dudes."
And then I have to snap out of this
'cause I'm about to throw down with one of the best of them ever.
-[crowd cheering] -[bong ringing]
[Shane] The Undertaker's bong hits... and the place goes bonkers.
Mm. [inhales]
The rest is history.
[announcer] Shane-O with the flying elbow!
Shane!
-[announcer 1] Shane-O-Mac, here he goes! -[announcer 2] Against the post!
[Huffman] I can only imagine being the son of Vince McMahon.
It seemed like Shane was always trying to prove something to his dad,
all the time.
Even if it meant doing some of the most death-defying, you know,
feats, uh, we've seen in this business.
[announcer] Shane McMahon has got Kurt Angle in a bad, bad way here.
[Shane] When you're performing,
you want that adulation that you did a good job.
Especially, you know, from my father.
And I think that's why I've always tried to do a bit extra in the ring.
-[announcer 1] Looks bad for Kurt Angle! -[announcer 2] God!
One time, I had a match with Kurt Angle. It was more of a hardcore match.
Kurt was famous, you know, being an Olympian, for suplexes.
He picked me up and suplexed me.
[crowd exclaims]
I was supposed to go through the glass. I hit it, "Bam."
And I went straight down on my noggin.
[announcer 1] And I think Shane's head just bounced right off the concrete floor.
[Shane] I was like, "All right, you Olympic wuss."
"I can't believe you can't throw me through that. You suck."
All of a sudden, he just went, "Whoosh!"
-[announcer] Not again. Oh my God. -[Shane] And it took three going out.
Suplex one, hit the glass, didn't do anything.
Second one, same thing.
And finally, Kurt threw me through the third one.
[announcer] My God!
I felt for Shane that night.
He took it like a champ.
Trying to prove something to his dad.
[McMahon] Shane wanted to be different. Wanted to earn his stripes in every way.
He'd take chances that no one else would.
-[announcer] It's not worth it! -[crowd clamoring]
[McMahon] He did some crazy things that no one else would do.
He knew that that was something that was his.
[announcer] Oh my God!
[Shane] I'd do some risky things.
But, you know, if it's in your blood, in my view, it's an acceptable risk.
-[announcer 1] Shane, what are you doing? -[announcer 2] Shane-O-Mac! God!
[Shane] And I've done it happily to entertain and to push myself as well.
And, of course, always looking for that pat on the back... from my dad.
[announcer 1] Shane is climbing to the top of Hell in a Cell!
-[announcer 2] Shane is scaling! -[announcer 1] Shane, stop!
-[McMahon] What does your legacy mean? -[announcer 1] How much does it mean?
Not this, please!
-Shane, don't do this! -[announcer 2] Don't go!
-[announcer 1] Shane! No! -[announcer 2] No! Oh my God! Jump... No!
-No, no! -[crowd exclaims]
[McMahon] I know he's always wanted me to respect him, and things of that nature.
I don't know there are many pats on the shoulder in terms of "way to go."
Maybe there should've been.
My dad... he never said it to me, and that's okay.
But I've always been proud of Shane for what he's done,
what he attempts to do,
because he gives it his all.
[crowd exclaims]
-[crowd] Two. Three. -[bell ringing]
[announcer] The Undertaker wins.
[McMahon] I was very proud for Shane in that match.
[announcer] I can't help but feel sorry for Shane.
An attempt to regain his legacy.
He's been disowned by his father.
[interviewer] You remember seeing your dad after?
I got a hug that night.
Yeah. Got a hug that night. Uh...
It was a very emotional, uh... very emotional return.
[poignant music playing]
[McMahon] Shane got emotional and said,
"That's all I ever wanted, was your respect."
So, that was a very personal moment.
[inaudible]
[Shane] I got a pat on the back and a hug. Yeah.
Got that one.
-[interviewer] Is that hard to come by? -Very.
Had to earn that one.
I guess I did.
You hear people say this a lot in our business about Vince.
Like, "He was almost like a father to me."
[McMahon] We have a family.
Not the McMahon family. We have a much broader family.
And in terms of a family-type thing, I'm the patriarch.
He's had the role in my life of a father figure.
Our relationship, he was a father figure to me.
I have a fatherly, a father-son relationship, with Vince.
I mean, I'd honestly take a bullet for that man.
[indistinct chatter]
[Shoemaker] There's no doubt that Vince is the father figure of the company.
And all the stars in WWE are desperate for Vince's approval,
including his own kids.
If you look at Shane,
when he came back, he was only really being used as in-ring talent.
But it seemed like he was trying to work his way back into Vince's good graces,
into a potential role as a successor in WWE.
[indistinct chanting]
[Shane] At some point, did I envision myself
being next in line to do certain things?
Sure, from the standpoint of I just want to continue the family business.
I came back to ensure the future.
Not only for my kids, but for your daughters,
and eventually their kids and their kids' kids, et cetera.
That's why I returned to the WWE.
[Meltzer] He wanted to be the next McMahon,
and he always figured he would be.
And then it didn't happen.
Most people will say it was because Stephanie was better at it than he was.
[intriguing music playing]
[Stephanie] One thing that Shane does have over me is likability.
But business is not run by popularity, and I'm just glad that...
Stephanie? She's just like her dad.
She's very strong.
That's the boss.
Shane is nice.
And in the wrestling world, if you're a boss and you're nice,
once the people see that niceness,
they will try to take advantage of you.
With Stephanie,
you know you can't take advantage of that woman. [chuckles]
Right off the bat.
You don't know what it means to be a success, Shane.
How would you? You're nothing more than a quitter.
-[Shane] Mm. -[crowd exclaiming]
Now, get the hell out of my ring!
[Shoemaker] Through the 2010s and leading up to the 2020s,
Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H
were the three most powerful people inside WWE,
and there were a lot of huge successes during this period of time.
There was the WWE Network...
[woman] 24/7 streaming service, live content.
[Shoemaker] ...which was revolutionary in its way.
They were on the cutting edge of a lot of social media stuff.
The TV rights deals were going up and up,
which culminated in the giant deal with Peacock.
Linda McMahon joins Donald Trump's cabinet,
heading the Small Business Administration.
There was a competition started up.
In 2019, AEW Wrestling launched.
One of the big stars and vice presidents was Cody Rhodes,
who three years later came back to WWE.
Thank you so much. Thank you for coming to get me.
-Thank you very much. -[announcer] ...Hall of Fame class of 2022!
[Shoemaker] And the stock price just kept going up and up.
It certainly doesn't have the energy or the vitality
that it seemed to in the '80s,
and especially not during the Attitude Era.
But Vince, he keeps creating new stars
who become huge faces of the company.
[announcer] This man, Roman Reigns, has become a mainstream star.
Roman Reigns, everybody!
[Shoemaker] Because of the success during this period of time,
it was hard to imagine Vince ever stepping down.
But if he were ever going to leave,
it seemed clear at the time that it was Stephanie McMahon and Triple H
who were in position to succeed him in running the company.
[Shawn Michaels] As far as succession,
you don't rule out Shane or Stephanie, obviously.
But it was my understanding that Hunter was supposed to be the individual.
I don't know. That's the upper-level stuff that I couldn't even imagine.
[McMahon] There are a lot of plans in terms of succession,
but it depends on where I am in terms of the ability to contribute.
[announcer] Welcome to night two of WrestleMania. 70,000-plus once again.
So, when are you gonna...
[interviewer] Do you ever see yourself taking a step back?
-Taking a step back? -[interviewer] Or retiring?
Do I ever see myself retiring?
No, I don't see myself ever retiring.
I never understood why people stop growing.
When you stop growing, you die.
[announcer] Mr. McMahon!
[McMahon] Some people are like, "I want to retire one day."
What are you gonna do when you retire?
[announcer] Hold on!
[McMahon] I have, like, no sympathy for people like that.
[Austin laughs]
Oh shit.
So... go die.
[announcer 1] Ridiculous.
[announcer 1] Mr. McMahon has entered the ring!
[interviewer] Do you think he'll ever retire?
No. No.
Vince will never retire.
-[bell ringing] -[announcer] We heard the bell ring.
And McMahon with a clothesline!
[Cena] Do I think Vince will ever stop? No.
I don't think he'll ever stop. He loves it. It's not work to him.
[announcer 1] I can't believe McMahon and Austin are toasting at WrestleMania.
[announcer 2] They finally... Spoke too soon!
[crowd cheering]
[announcer 1] Mr. McMahon trying to get away...
but Austin stuns McMahon!
[Michaels] I cannot imagine a life
with Vince McMahon not being the main dude in the WWE
as long as he has breath in his lungs.
[women whooping]
What do I think it would take for Vince to retire? Uh...
A nuclear bomb exploding.
[tense music playing]
[news anchor 1] The wrestling world rocked by the headline hitting today.
The WWE founder and CEO, Vince McMahon,
is stepping down as chairman and CEO.
[news anchor 2] The Wall Street Journal reporting McMahon paid a former employee,
who he allegedly had an affair with, $3 million to keep her quiet.
[Ted Mann] It started with a tip.
And the tip was that the board of WWE had received an anonymous email
alleging that Vince McMahon had basically kept quiet, um,
an affair with an employee of the company, and then covered it up.
[news anchor 3] The Journal reports, according to an email
sent to WWE board members,
"McMahon initially hired the woman at a salary of $100,000,
but increased it to $200,000
after beginning a sexual relationship with her."
[Mann] The person who wrote the email portrayed it as a relationship
where McMahon was taking advantage of someone,
and was conducting a consensual affair,
but the power was clearly with the guy who was the CEO.
How consensual is it when... it's your boss?
There's always that boss power, especially when it's Vince.
[news anchor 3] The separation agreement prevents the former employee
from discussing her relationship with Mr. McMahon
or disparaging him in any way.
Beyond the NDAs themselves,
we encountered this kind of culture of secrecy.
Vince McMahon exerts such power,
he has such influence over people's careers,
that people are very reluctant to speak because they were afraid of retaliation.
My expectation was Vince was going to just go after those reporters.
Because if he had any kind of defense,
he'd have gone after the reporters' credibility,
and he never touched them.
That shocked me.
That is not Vince.
[anchor 3] McMahon says, in part, "I have pledged my complete cooperation
to the investigation by the Special Committee,
and I will do everything possible to support the investigation."
He is staying in front of the cameras.
He's expected to be on SmackDown later on tonight. Jake?
Of course he is.
[crowd cheering]
♪ No chance That's what you've got ♪
[Meltzer] Vince resigned as CEO,
but continued on the board of directors and continued to run Creative.
When the first story came out, they announced,
"Vince will be on the air."
-Welcome to SmackDown! -[crowd cheering]
[Meltzer] It was just basically his "F you" at the story,
and they did one of their biggest ratings of the year.
Everybody cheered like crazy.
[tense music builds]
[Mann] When we published the first article,
one of the reactions from some quarters was, "Well, what did you expect?"
Vince's public persona, the Mr. McMahon character,
was intentionally outrageous, and tied up in all of that
was this notion that he was just rapacious and sexually deviant
and couldn't control himself.
That was a huge part of the public character.
What complicates that is that this was this intentional blurring
of fictional and non-fictional.
You're hired, Stacy!
[Mann] What we have shown is that some of what was played for laughs
as part of the character
was not that funny and was, in fact, very, very serious.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Palazzolo] As we got into the reporting,
we found there had been other allegations that surfaced over the years
against McMahon.
In 2006, there was a woman who worked at a tanning salon,
and she alleged that Vince McMahon had shown her naked photos of himself
and had groped her.
McMahon denies the allegations,
and prosecutors decided not to move forward with anything
'cause they didn't think there was enough independent evidence.
What are you doing?
[Meltzer] When the tanning salon thing came,
weeks later, Vince created a storyline
where somebody's just absolutely making up all of these things.
[screams]
-Help me! -Mickie, what are you doing?
-Help me now! -What are you doing?
Stop touching me!
[Palazzolo] The reporting built on itself.
After that first story,
the more sort of we reported, the more started coming in.
Three weeks ago, Vince McMahon stepped down as WWE CEO
following allegations of sexual misconduct.
It turns out now there's a lot more to the story.
[reporter] McMahon reportedly agreeing to pay $12 million to four different women
over a 16-year period, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The deals were made to suppress allegations of sexual misconduct.
Some of those allegations were frankly more serious.
The most serious one is, we learned of a settlement for $7.5 million
that McMahon struck with a former wrestler
who alleged that he had coerced her into oral sex,
that she had refused his further advances, and he had not renewed her contract.
Vince was always the guy who you figured would survive everything,
and then, um, it was like a week or two later,
all of a sudden, it's Friday, and, and... Vince has retired.
[dramatic sting]
[Meltzer] They made the announcement on a Friday because, to the end,
they thought that it would build ratings for Friday night,
so they do it Friday afternoon.
Stephanie McMahon opens the show.
[crowd exclaims]
Earlier tonight,
my father, Vince McMahon,
retired from WWE.
[crowd clamoring]
[Meltzer] So, she finishes her short speech of,
"He devoted his life, did this and that," and then, "Let's go, thank you, Vince,"
and she's cheering everyone, "Thank you, Vince."
[chanting] Thank you, Vince! Thank you, Vince!
[crowd] Thank you, Vince! Thank you, Vince!
[Meltzer] It was exactly what I expected,
but kind of a shock and weird and surreal
only because, for 40 years, Vince had been running that company,
and all of a sudden, in one day, it's all changed.
The reaction in the locker room was uncertainty, for sure,
but real chaos
in a sense that, what does WWE look like without Vince?
What I originally thought would happen if Vince was gone,
I thought Stephanie would be the face of the company,
and I thought Paul Levesque would be running the creative end.
And that's essentially what happened.
[inaudible]
[interviewer] Do you think the business can survive without him?
[man] Go, Vince!
[Bollea] Honestly?
-Thank you. -You bet. Thank you.
Without Vince, I don't think it will.
[Mazer] Now that he's retired,
I think there was great pleasure in seeing him get what's coming to him.
But five minutes later, do we care? I don't know how much.
Hi!
[Mazer] I think we'd be more interested to see him come back.
I think we'd be much more entertained by that.
Because nobody does evil like Vince McMahon.
He still generates heat.
And heat is what sells tickets.
[interviewer] Do you see Vince coming back?
Um, because it's wrestling and everything, um...
I...
I would say yes.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dubois] Big changes at the Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment.
The majority owner, Vince McMahon, has returned to WWE as executive chairman.
Meantime, Vince McMahon's daughter, Stephanie McMahon,
has resigned as co-CEO of WWE.
Many on Wall Street expect McMahon to try to sell
the $6 billion company at some point.
[interviewer] What was your reaction when Vince returned?
[laughing]
Wow, that, um... Well, I mean, it was so... It was weird.
When Vince came back, I wasn't surprised.
I was surprised that people were surprised.
[Meltzer] I had definitely heard for a couple of weeks
that Vince was getting itchy and wanted to come back,
and I didn't know if he would be able to.
Because I had already known about the board voting unanimously
for him not to be back.
But he did have the controlling votes.
So, he returned. He changed members of the board.
And then days later, Stephanie resigns.
[reporter] Stephanie McMahon making a statement via Twitter.
"WWE is in such a strong position
that I have decided to return to my leave
and take it one step further with my official resignation."
[Meltzer] Vince said that he thought he never should have quit.
But he was talked into quitting.
And he said that it was by somebody close to him.
So, you know, you can draw a conclusion from that.
Vince sort of forced his way back in.
[inaudible]
[Shoemaker] And it seems to me
that Stephanie didn't want anything to do with the company
if Vince was involved.
I don't think she was forced out.
You know he's put you in a position, constantly in life, to battle him.
You know that, right?
Sure feels that way. [laughs]
Oh no... Steph. Come on.
[grunts]
-There you go. -Thank you.
I have absolutely no idea what happened with Stephanie leaving the company.
And Dave Meltzer or Shoemaker,
or whoever else wants to make up their lies and their assumptions,
they don't know.
[tense music playing]
[Meltzer] When Vince came back,
the first thing they talked about was a potential sale.
This was like, "Okay, we're taking bids."
[tense music continues]
[anchor] It is now official.
Endeavor announcing WWE and UFC will combine
to form a $21 billion global live sports and entertainment company.
[reporter] The combined WWE and UFC will be called the TKO Group.
Selling the company to a strategic company like Endeavor,
I thought was genius.
Think about it. It's a new challenge for Vince.
He's not just overseeing one company. He's overseeing another company.
I think the idea probably was to sell it in a way
where Vince would still have the major say-so.
Vince is gonna be the executive chairman, but it's gonna be a bit different for him
because WWE shareholders only get 49% of this company
versus Endeavor shareholders, who get 51%.
So, he no longer has the absolute control that he did over WWE.
This company's been in your family for 70 years.
Is it a tough day?
No, it's a great day.
You know, things have to evolve, be it family, business,
it all has to evolve for all the right reasons.
And this is the right business decision. Thus far, it's the right family decision.
There wasn't gonna be, you know, the next generation Vince McMahon.
It got too big to be a family business.
It had to be something to where experts in the big business field
were gonna be making a lot of the decisions.
It's not about the last name. It's not about a family legacy.
It's about who is best qualified.
We live by the law of the jungle.
And the lion who still rules this kingdom
wouldn't have it any other way.
[crowd cheering]
[Meltzer] The company's doing really strong right now.
The attendance is the best it's been since 2002.
More people watch the big events than have ever watched them before.
Sponsorship is way beyond anything they've ever had before.
Profits are the biggest they've ever been, revenues are the biggest they've been.
People will support an entertainment product
and not care about the moral fiber of the guy running the product.
They want entertainment.
[reporter] This week, World Wrestling Entertainment
agreeing to a $5 billion 10-year deal
to take its signature weekly wrestling show, Raw, to Netflix.
[interviewer] You saw some episodes... of this show?
Yeah.
-[interviewer] Thoughts? -Thought they sucked.
I didn't think it was balanced at all.
I thought it was a gotcha piece.
I thought it was portrayed as a gotcha piece.
And it was all about, "How can we make Vince look bad?"
"Let's make him look shitty here, let's make him look shitty there."
[inaudible]
[Prichard] I'm close to it.
You know, I live it, and it's personal to me.
[interviewer] Why I ask is, is there something about Vince that we're missing?
Yeah, the human side.
Look, Vince is a businessman.
But also, the other side of Vince is,
when my wife got cancer,
that Vince made sure that she had the best care in the world.
My wife was given a four-year life expectancy.
Best-case scenario.
That was 24 years ago.
And that was because Vince McMahon made sure
that she got the best care that was available.
It wasn't a documentary on Vince and Vince's life and Vince's story.
It was, "See what an asshole Vince McMahon is."
"Let's see how big of an asshole we can make him."
And if he were one, I would support that.
But he's not.
[Arsenault] The founder and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
is facing new accusations of sexual assault and trafficking tonight.
A disturbing new lawsuit is alleging that Vince McMahon
sexually abused and trafficked a former employee.
A source tipped me off about the lawsuit being filed,
and that happens because of the topic of the suit.
I've written about sex-trafficking suits or sexual misconduct.
I did not get the sense from people at WWE that they knew the lawsuit was coming.
In fact, I heard from sources that they were surprised.
Hello. How are you?
[reporter] In the lawsuit, Janel Grant, who worked there up until March 2022,
says McMahon forced her to have sex with him and other men
at the WWE headquarters in return for job security.
[Palazzolo] Janel Grant was the woman who we first reported on back in 2022,
and what Grant says in this lawsuit is that it was not a consensual affair.
[Safdar] The lawsuit paints a picture of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct.
She says she was sexually assaulted,
that she was lured there on the promise of career advancement,
and then eventually exploited sexually,
and then trafficked to other men by Vince McMahon.
[Shoemaker] When that lawsuit came out...
Honestly, I didn't think anything in there would shock me, and I was floored.
I mean, just absolutely stunned.
[reporter 1] Grant's claims include sexual acts involving defecation,
restraint...
[reporter 2] Grant alleges that he assaulted her
with sex toys named after male wrestlers.
One of the most striking things about this particular lawsuit
was the fact that Janel Grant had reproduced text messages
that she had received from Vince McMahon.
[reporter] The suit included screenshots of vulgar texts
that McMahon allegedly sent to Grant, becoming more graphic, dark, and sadistic.
"I'm the only one who owns you," one message read,
"and controls who I want to 'blank' you."
Granted, we're only seeing her side of these text messages,
the text message she wants to see, and maybe we'll see more in the future,
but it just gave such a window into this relationship
that you often don't see,
especially in relationships with this power imbalance.
[tense music playing]
[Safdar] This is one of the most brazen examples
in a company setting that I've seen
where an executive isn't really taking a lot of steps
to hide the behavior.
[news anchor] The lawsuit also accuses McMahon
of sharing sexually explicit photos of Grant with other WWE employees,
including an unnamed wrestler
who the company was trying to re-sign in 2021,
without her consent.
We found out from sources that the identity is Brock Lesnar,
which is one of WWE's biggest names.
She alleges that McMahon shared the explicit photos with him
and informed her that he likes what he sees.
After the star agreed to a new contract,
McMahon told her that sex acts with her were part of the deal.
[reporter] In a statement, Vince McMahon's spokesperson says,
"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."
WWE's parent company, TKO Group,
says it's taking these allegations seriously
and addressing the matter internally.
WWE founder Vince McMahon has resigned as executive chairman
of the wrestling company's parent organization.
McMahon has denied the allegations, but says he's now resigning,
"Out of respect for the WWE Universe."
The fact that he resigns the day after the lawsuit is filed
suggests that things have changed.
He's in a new company, he no longer has the same control,
and if someone asks him to leave, he's gotta leave.
[Shoemaker] At that point, Vince was fully pushed out
of any role in TKO or WWE.
And after the Janel Grant accusations,
you start hearing rumors and accusations from a variety of sources.
-[announcer 1] There's Ashley! -[announcer 2] Well, here she comes!
In 2016, Ashley Massaro claimed that she had been raped
during a WWE tour of Kuwait by a man posing as a military doctor.
She accused WWE
of not responding seriously to her allegations when she told them.
She says that Vince McMahon knew about it,
and that WWE functionally covered it up to protect the business.
[inaudible]
[Shoemaker] WWE put out a statement completely denying these claims,
and they basically said they were never informed this took place,
and if they had been, they would've reported it.
A decade later, in 2019,
Massaro was found dead in an apparent suicide.
After the Janel Grant allegations,
Ashley Massaro's attorney
released a previously unreleased statement from Massaro
that claimed Vince McMahon made sexual advances on her,
that Vince was well-known for this sort of thing.
Massaro said she rejected him, but from her point of view,
Vince responded by writing stories whose sole purpose was to embarrass her.
You're gonna cry now?
Please, Vince, don't do this! Not over this. Not...
[mumbling] You gonna cry? You gonna cry?!
You're suspended indefinitely!
[sobbing]
[Shoemaker] Since he was kind of removed from his job,
Vince has sold all the stock in the company and completely left.
One of the most powerful things for WWE
is that they have been able to keep going without Vince,
and they've been thriving without Vince.
Let's kick off night two of WrestleMania!
[crowd cheering]
[Levesque] We set records this week for social media,
for merchandise, for sponsorship.
Just destroyed records for gate.
This was legitimately the biggest WrestleMania of all time.
-[crowd cheering] -[bell ringing]
[announcer] Here is your winner!
And the new...
[interviewer] Last question. What do you think Vince's legacy will be?
Um, Vince's legacy... My goodness. Um...
He is...
Uh... his legacy is just, um...
I don't know. He...
Oh man, ooh, that's a tough one, huh?
[exhales] Man, what do I think Vince McMahon's legacy is gonna be?
Man... that's a good question.
Ooh, I think I might be the wrong guy to be asked that question.
[interviewer] What do you think Vince's legacy will be?
The greatest promoter of all time.
He earned that.
Even though there's things about him that I don't like or respect,
you can't take that from him.
[crowd cheering]
[Meltzer] If you want a real view of Vince McMahon and pro wrestling,
there's a lot of positive, and there's a lot of negative.
I mean, he's the most important figure in the history of wrestling.
In his prime, he was an absolute creative genius,
but he's far from a saint.
This is a man
that wants more and more and more.
I've got an insatiable appetite for life, and I want more, more, more!
[Heyman] It doesn't stop.
And that's how you build something
from a million, to a billion, to ten billion.
[announcer] Here we go.
[Shoemaker] Pro wrestling, for all these years,
painted life in this very simple way.
There's good guys, and there's bad guys.
I think the real lesson of Vince McMahon is that life is never that simple.
You have to be able to hold two things in your head at the same time.
Like, it's possible Vince McMahon created this thing that we all love,
and at the same time,
he is an incredibly problematic, potentially, like, deplorable human being.
I'm sure he would like to go down as the legend who created WWE,
but anything good that he did
is now inextricable from all the bad stuff that he did.
What's my legacy? You know, I don't have one.
Everyone has a certain feeling about who they think Vince McMahon is.
But people really don't know me at all.
A lot of people have confused who my character was on television
and who I am.
[evocative music playing]
When I look in the mirror, I know who I'm looking at.
I know, I know the reflection.
Describe Vince McMahon.
Uh... that would be really very tough to do.
Let's see. Egomaniac. Physical culturist.
Someone who needs to be challenged every day.
Sexually active. Psychologically challenged.
Sort of a paradox of paradoxes.
The only person in the world I need to thank is me,
because I did it all! I did it all by myself...
Sometimes the lines of reality or fact and fiction
are very blurred in our business.
Sometimes what happens is performers start believing in themselves.
They start believing in their own character.
The individual... loses all sense of who they really are personally.
They become the character.
My name is not Vince. My name is Mr. McMahon.
I'm wondering myself now. Which is the character, and which is me?
I guess maybe it's a blend.
And I would suggest that one is exaggerated a little bit,
uh, but I'm not so sure which one.
[evocative music builds]
[music fades]
[closing theme music playing]