Kap & J. Hood
Mr. McMahon Netflix Documentary Review Pt 2 - GKW Oct 5, 2024 | #WWF #WWE
(upbeat music) - What's up everybody and welcome in to the special good karma wrestling along with CJ Taylor. I'm Jonathan Hood as we give you part two of our breakdown of the Mr. McMahon documentary that was on Netflix. We ask you by the way, if you're just joining us live, whether it's on Facebook or YouTube or on Twitch. If you have not checked out our part one of the Vince McMahon documentary, go back into the archives, check us out on YouTube. We broke it all down for you on part one. So we're gonna give you part two starting with episode four for the and then the rest of the documentary here. Taylor's always appreciate the time, man. Thanks for coming on. - I appreciate you for having me, sir. It's a lot to get into with these last three episodes. - No question about that. And by the way, please leave your comments as we move forward here on our look into the Mr. McMahon documentary. I believe it was rated third or fourth this week on Netflix in the United States. So people are checking this out. And as we mentioned in the first episode of our breakdown of episodes one through three, this is more than just for the wrestling fan. This is for people that just wanna know about how wrestling works or how Mr. McMahon worked as far as his upbringing all the way through why wrestling is popular. And so I think that I think it's all encompassing. Everybody can be able to enjoy, watch with horror, learn about this, McMahon. - Yeah, absolutely. This was a really well put together documentary as we talked about on the first part. And I think for the average consumer, they may know of the name Vince McMahon, but like you said, they don't necessarily know about the business, about the industry. And this was just a real look into the man who portrayed the character who is like the character, but not really, it's all these things. But the bottom line of why this documentary was great for me, Vince is on the record. He is giving thoughts and opinions about the business. The Monday Night Wars, just everything. And this is just something that it's never been done before. And it's completely different from any other type of documentary unauthorized or whatever about the WWE and about Vince. - Yeah, for those that say I knew that, I knew that, I knew that, that's not the point of the, the point is is that there hasn't been magazines or multiple newspaper articles about the history of Vince from childhood to where he is right now. 'Cause he never went on the record for it. He's working, you know, time to reflect in the past. Now, you know, a couple of years ago when this was filmed, had plenty of time to talk about what's going on in WWE. 'Cause if we don't get his documentary, he never talks about how he openly cheated on his wife or never talks about his relationship with Shane or his father or his mom. So it's all there. And again, we had part one, this is part two as we review episodes four through the rest of the Mr. McMahon documentary. So we pick up with episode four and Vince McMahon loved Dr. Jerry Graham. Now, this predates me, CJ. Yeah, I know you know, you think I'm 90 years old, but I, this predates me. I know who Jerry Graham is, but just think about it. Think about Vince McMahon's mentality. As a child watching wrestling or growing up in the business, he sees Dr. Jerry Graham and he thinks that he is the shit, a guy that takes a $100 bill and sets it on fire and it lights his cigar. And just like he drove fast cars and he was all this guy. So he liked the guys that were edgy. He was a fan of the heels and Dr. Jerry Graham was one of them. And that is, I don't want to say rare, but you know, usually kids that grow up watching wrestling usually cheer for the good guys. So when I was a kid, I was cheering for Dusty Rhodes and, you know, Rickety Dragon, Steamboat and all those guys back in the day because, you know, the Rick players of the world cheated, you know? And you didn't like to root for the bad guys. It's only when you get older and you start to get more edgy that you start to, you know, root for the heels because they look and feel cool. So for Vince to like this guy, you know, as a young child, again, kind of gets more into his psyche and what he really wanted to be and who he wanted to aspire to be and who he kind of gravitated to, you know, as a person. - So we go to the Montreal screw job and this is where Vince became hated. For many, many years, Vince McMahon was just the announcer. As far as the fans were concerned, he was just the voice of WWE at the time. And so this whole Montreal screw job opened up a whole world for Vince to be able to be what he's always wanted to be. He always wanted to be a wrestler and a character and he certainly became it. He just kind of fell into it. The WWE Attitude Era started with, I think, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Michaels suffering, you know, and stuffing his shorts with gauze to make his penis look big, all this kind of stuff. That's all part of this attitude. And again, we talk about Jerry Graham, the guy that Vince idolizes a kid. Well, he looks at Shawn Michaels, a guy that wasn't a degenerate. There's doing anything he wanted to do, but Vince looked at Shawn as like a son, probably even more so than Shane because he looked at Shawn as like, boy, this guy's willing to do anything. You know, I know he's a great wrestler, but also he's plant point and he's everything that I want to be, you know, from Vince's standpoint. And so he let Shawn do whatever he wanted to do. Yeah, Shawn, and then by extension, you know, Triple H is the attitude era got going. And I think that's what kind of made the attitude era, what it is. You just had a bunch of figures, a bunch of people who were headliners that really just went against authority, whether it was Shawn Michaels, whether it was Triple H, later on at Stone Cold Steve Austin. Just kind of those guys that, you know, we're not going to do things as usual. We're going to push the envelope. We're going to push the button as far as we possibly can. And I think Vince loved that. I think Vince loved guys who came back at him. You know, I'm sure he can say some wild shit to, you know, that Shawn and Triple H and Undertaker and others, but I think he liked and respected the fact that they came back at him with any ideas and just crazy things that they wanted to do, you know, to, you know, propel that era of wrestling, which, you know, depending on who you talk to, say it's the greatest era, you know, in the history of the business. But that's what Vince wanted. He needed that. 'Cause I think by proxy, he lived through that. - Now, it's so funny about Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. McMahon. I can make the, I can make the case that McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin, CJ, could be one of the greatest feuds ever. And it's not even like Vince was on the road wrestling 300 days a year. It's just the idea that on television, when you're so big for cable that you see McMahon and they would be every week there'd be something different. Not necessarily McMahon, the ring wrestling, but just always a story. Tell him the story. Steve Austin is kind of like Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner. Those guys going back and forth and back and forth. And Austin was so big and Austin, 316 and the big signs that came across there. This history was made in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of all places, right? He wins King of the Ring at the old Mecca and Austin, 316 is born. And then the next day on Raw, people bring Austin, 316 signs because it's all part of the attitude era. Austin was needed to break out as something. And just that promo you do with Michael Hayes saying, "Tell him, Jake Roberts, Austin, 316 says, 'I just whipped your ass.'" Boom, just like that. Sonically, he becomes a huge star in WWE. Yeah, and as with all anti-authority heroes, you needed a great foil. And that's who this game, and like I said, that all started because of the Montreal screw job. Him going, doing that take promo where he was like, you know, Brett's group Brett. And Mr. McMahon was born. The maniacal tyrannical, you know, billionaire who tries to control all the strings. And that was the perfect person for Stone Cold to really just set the attitude era on fire. Yeah, so you take a look at Mike Tyson appearing. And boy, think about where WCW was at the time during the attitude era. They're flying high, flying high. And they're beating Monday Night Raw for 83 straight weeks. And you watch the WCW product at the time, you say, boy, they're doing really well. The NWOs get no further. WCW is getting stomped every time you look around, but people loved Hogan Nash and Hall. Those are the three guys. You throw X-Pac in there as well, you know, six. And he was very instrumental in there as well. But when Mike Tyson came, it was something completely different, right? It's like Mike Tyson, who's still viable, still interesting in the public. And it's funny how Stephanie McMahon's asking, "What about the rape? "This is before after jail." She wasn't even sure. She was even working on the details. It didn't matter if he was in jail or not. They were putting Mike Tyson in this particular situation because it put WrestleMania on the map between Austin and Michaels. Yeah, at that point, but, you know, before Tyson, it was just, you were wondering if WWF was gonna close their doors. I mean, that's just how bad WCW was beating them in the ratings. And what Tyson was able to bring was just this air of, you know, reality. Here you had this larger-than-life sports figure, which basically trumped, you know, whoever WCW was bringing on at the time, which I think was like Dennis Rotman and Carl Malone, where, you know, I had done a couple of shows. But to have Mike Tyson, you know, like the baddest man on the planet with all of his controversy and everything that was going on in his life at the time to, you know, beating special guest referee for, you know, the main event at WrestleMania, that was just another point that started to come back for the WWE at the time. Yeah, Tyson was huge for that. And it's interesting in retrospect to hear from Shawn Michaels talking about how he wasn't necessarily proud of that match because his back was so jacked up, that match up against Austin. Do you notice that a documentary is like, yeah, it wasn't really a great match. I've never heard, again, it's what the documentary is for to be able to get those truths out there that particular perspective. I never heard Shawn say that before. Yeah, that was interesting. Him and Stone Cold both, you know, they think Stone Cold during at one point in the documentary was like he looked over it, you know, was looking over at Vansing's like, oh, don't worry about the match, you know, because the spectacle of Mike Tyson being there is what sold the match. Now, you think to that match, you know, some 25, 26 years ago, yeah, we kind of don't remember it, but we just remember it, remember it because Tyson was there. And, you know, you still have to star power of Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold there. But yeah, as far as the match goes, do we really remember it? Not really. Remember the fast recount from Tyson? I think I remember all that, I remember that. But yeah, we're talking about the Mr. McMahon documentary if you just joined in. Yeah, look at that face. Only face a mother could love and not even his own mother. So we're talking about this Mr. McMahon documentary. Make sure you leave your comments. Give us your thoughts. If you got a chance to watch the Mr. McMahon documentary. And so, this McMahon saying that the attitude era was okay for kids. I can't believe that even at this time, in 2022, 2023, 2024, they still believe that that was okay for kids. And his thing, like I'm no proved. I understand what they were going for. They were selling sex, Vince Russo, it was behind that. He wanted to have everything look like Howard Stern. And this whole circus of like quick matches and having hot women on there. And you know, fart jokes and all this other stuff. They want to do that. So to say that that was okay for kids, that was always TV 14. I don't know what he's talking about. I mean, they show the clip of Triple H, you know, trying to get a woman in the audience to like take her, pull her shirt down like that. You can't get any more risky than that. It was just for Vince to say that this was, you know, appropriate for kids or we're not selling it to kids. I mean, you were totally selling this, you know, to 12 and 13 year old boys. Because, you know, it was basically who was watching it. And then of course you had the key demographic of 18 and 34 year old males, but you were totally selling this to kids. Kids were totally watching this. And I don't for Vince to say that was kind of laughable and comical to me because how else were you going to rebound from the 83 weeks, you know, that you were getting your ass handed to you by WCW unless you just completely just went out of bounds about everything. - Yeah, this bullshit and it was over the top. And by the way, it was a winner. He should never apologize for that. Like we can look back a lot of that stuff and it's low brow, but they're trying to beat WCW on the other side. And of course, the way that WWE did business, this is the hue and cry from Eric Bischoff and WCW of saying, well, they can get away with that stuff and we couldn't get away with this stuff here on Turner TV. So that's why they won the war. Now, they won the war, WWE is because WCW was awful. And they had no other trick beside rolling out Goldberg and the NWO. That's the whole problem, right? That's why they lost the war. It wasn't because, you know, that Jackie could be damn near naked or Miss Kitty can be, you know, bring her top off. It's not about that. It's just about that WCW could not find a creative way to get back on top after being up 83 weeks on Monday Raw. - Yeah, and it's what the documentary spoke to as well. And as you were, you know, Steve Offerson was established and our Shawn Michaels established Triple H was coming up. You have to rock, you know, coming up as well. The Undertaker was a mainstay, but you also, you know, were building stars, something WCW wasn't doing. And like you said, they tried to write that NWO train as much as they possibly could. And then it just got ridiculous where you had NWO Red and Black, NWO Hollywood, and NWO This, NWO That, and the actual young stars that they did have the Chris Jericho's in the world. You know, we're just looking at this like, so we're just doing NWO every week. We're just trying to Goldberg out there to have four minute squash matches. And, you know, you think that's supposed to last for a three hour show, keep in mind. Nitro was three hours. - And it was. - 90% of that was NWO or Goldberg. You weren't going to continue to survive when you could go over to, you know, WWF and see all of these other stars. And Mick Foley is another one that really came up during that era as well. Vince did anything and everything he could to try to win this war. He doesn't regret a second of it because it was his business. It was his life, you know, that was on the line. When these wars were started. So he would have done anything and everything to try to win that war and include those to him because he listened to people. Because usually, you know, he's usually the man with the pen and writing all these things, but he took input from Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels and all these other people because they understood and had the pulse on the finger. The finger on the pulse, I should say. Be careful while you put your finger. - Well, you know, still thinking about other things. - I think Ms. Jackie and that's enough. - Yeah. - Something about Ms. Jackie. - Yeah, you draw a lot. - Okay, that's it. Make sure that you like, share, and subscribe to this show here, whether you're watching on YouTube or Facebook or Twitch. Please make sure that you like, share, and subscribe. We appreciate you guys checking it out. We just wanted to review the Mr. McMahon documentary. And again, there's a part one to this. Check that out, and this is the part two. It's available on podcast. Look for Another Hood with Jonathan on podcast. And also on YouTube, you can be able to watch what we talked about for part one. So we continue here and we talk about Owen Hart's passing away, his death. And so CJ with Owen Hart. Owen Hart clearly was frustrated with the blue blazer gimmick because he thought he was better than this. And we actually saw him better than this when he was taken on Bret Hart. The brother versus brother situation where he turned heel. Like it was really good character development. But he was doing this whole thing where he's a blue blazer. And he dies at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. And we all know that it was an accident. But I think that the key to this, first of all, just gruesome. It's horrible that Owen had to die that way because he's so beloved by so many. But then they show in retrospect. And again, this shows you where Netflix has a divide away from WWE where, I'm sure if this is WWE production, they're like, don't show Deborah and Jeff Jarrett crying before their match. Don't do that, no, that's not. But Netflix is like, no, you need to have, we need to be in the context with this. Just to watch Jeff Jarrett who's so close to Owen and Deborah McMichael just so close to Owen. That whole thing, the tag team and this, how they were, their camaraderie that they had in the locker room and to see him die. And then it's like, yeah, he's dead. Let's keep the card going. Just keep the show going. Vince couldn't even bring himself to say in retrospect, I should have stopped the show. He still thinks today it was the right thing to do to continue the show in Kansas City. - That was a rough moment. I mean, you talk to a number of people that come in during a documentary. His blood was still on the mat while the wrestlers are going out there and having matches. I would have stopped the show. And Vince tried to cover it by saying, well, it was dark. The people didn't see the accident. So they kind of didn't have an idea of what was going on. We didn't announce it to the house crowd that was there. But they knew something happened. They knew something went wrong. And to still put it on that show, when you can say Jeff Jarrett was hurting, you could clearly see other wrestlers were clearly affected by this undertaker. I think they had a quick scene of him where he just kind of looked not like himself during a documentary. You don't put that show on. I think you, and then I think the other thing that Vince said was, well, if it was me, well, me out of here and keep the show going. Now, sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the humanity of the thing. And that's just something that's always going to be a sour taste in my mouth, dealing with that whole on-heart situation because the show should not have happened. It's just should not have happened. - Well, it's certainly a philosophy that Vince heed CJ because Jerry Lawler died on TV as well. - Wow. - You called this in Montreal, right? So he's in a tag team match that involves Dolph Ziggler at the time. And Dolph Ziggler did the whole gimmick of dropping 10 elbows on someone's chest. Now Lawler has been wrestling for a long time. And he's had the situation in his career where he's wrestled and did commentary in Memphis. Like, yeah, I just warm up. I wrestle and then I go back to the commentary desk. He did that in Memphis. But here in Montreal, unfortunately, and people can go back and watch that. I'm sure on YouTube or someplace where Lawler wrestles goes back to the commentary desk and it's hard to stop beating with Michael Cole where you can hear him snoring. It was just a kind of a weird thing. I didn't know that that's a thing. So he's slumped over and then Michael Cole says, we need to bring the EMTs and they massage his heart and they revived him, but Lawler died. Did they stop Monday Night Raw? No, they had like updates. Michael Cole, breaking from the heel character, remember, he's a heel play by playing guy and had to be able to explain, Jerry's gonna be okay. But did they stop the show in Montreal? No, kept it going with Lawler dying on the air. So this is commonplace for Vince. If we keep the show going, no matter what. - Yeah, that was another unfortunate moment where again, you really gotta look into the psyche of a person that says, man, let's keep the show going. Where someone is literally dying on air, live. - Died, yeah. Died, it's hard stopped. - Yeah. - And so, I mean, that's just some. But again, I think this kind of, again, tells a story of who Vince McMahon is. That's why we're reviewing this documentary. Just from a sports standpoint, Darryl Kyle, was that him that died in this hotel room in Chicago? Well, it was St. Louis, if I'm not mistaken. Cubs St. Louis, 40,000 people. And George I've already had to take the mic and tell everybody to go home because one of the St. Louis Cardinals died. I believe that's, that was the story. Like they didn't play. I mean, it, I mean, this has happened several times where a player died before the game. They didn't play the game. They suspended the game because that's just what you do. But from Vince's standpoint, just keep the show rolling because that's what people want, wrestling. - Wow. Yeah, so. - So there's that. Shane McMahon did not approve of the wedding of Stephanie and Triple H. A little nugget, a little kernel that I did not know. It makes me wonder, is there a heat still with Shane and Triple H in any way? Or is everything cool? - Yeah, that's an excellent question. - I guess we have to find out on HBO Max on Twitter. - I don't find out that there's any heat. - Yeah, that was, that was an interesting little nugget right there. And as we kind of weave into Shane, Shane had some issues with some of the storylines. He, Stephanie, he was kind of the conservative one of the two where Stephanie had the more, you know, business mind, the more ruthless mind willing to try anything and everything, you know, to push the envelope. And Shane is like, well, let's think about this one, you know, for a second. And I think that perhaps probably led to, you know, the relationship strain probably between him and his father. - We should delve into that a little bit more since we're here talking about Vince and Shane. So Vince was hard on Shane and, you know, when it comes to Shane and Stephanie, Vince was hard on both of them when it came to the business. But I think that the folklore is, is that Vince says, well, Stephanie's more like me and Shane's more like his mom. And I think that that's, that's interesting. Shane McMahon, I think had some outside the box ideas that could have enhanced or been able to expand WWE's business. Like, I don't know, buying the UFC, run by Shane McMahon. Like, that was a nugget that I didn't know about. And irony is they end up merging with the UFC about a decade later. So yeah, Shane, Shane had some good ideas. Did I freeze again? - No, no, I've just saw the WWE and UFC. Yeah, I mean, 'cause they actually work together, TKO. Actually, you know what, you are a frozen, sir. You are a frozen. You are a frozen CJ Taylor at this point. But yeah, but we can hear you though. You're talking to us. No, but we need to have that face in that picture going though, because, but yeah, there's definitely a disconnect between Shane and Vince McMahon, that is for sure. But think about how business would have been if Shane McMahon is running UFC. But if they bought UFC. From Vince's standpoint, Vince says, hey, listen, this is about characters and sports entertainment. And I don't know why Vince would shy away from boxing or MMA. Yes, it's not scripted, but it is sports, but it's still lucrative. - Yeah, I think maybe at that time, Vince really was just kind of the man who wanted to build this empire and not have to, he wanted to stand alone. And I also think he wanted to garner the respect, if you will, of the sports world. And to kind of merge with UFC at that time, it could have been seen as just kind of hitching your wagon to a legitimate sport. And Vince wanted to, even though it's sports entertainment, he wanted that respect from the sports world to say that I built this sports entertainment empire and you're going to have to respect me, because this is what I built. I made it the number one sport in the world. I think that's what Vince was looking for. And I think that's the reason why he just kind of nicks that idea with Shane. But as Irony has it, here they are. Lockstep with UFC under TKL is just, I think that's probably where Vince's ego got in the way and his inability to really kind of listen to what Shane, you know, what Shane's ideas were. - All right, CJ Taylor, you need to unfreeze yourself because you're just a solid care. While you unfreeze your screen, we got to be able to tell people that you can catch me on good karma wrestling. And that's every Thursday, 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 Pacific, you can catch it on YouTube. Just look for good karma wrestling. The same thing is with the busted open show that I do, busted open every Sunday, 9 a.m. Eastern to noon, Eastern time on Series X and Fight Nation Channel 156. So if you want more wrestling content, we got it for you. It's available where you'll get your podcast, look for the Bust Open podcast or good karma wrestling, plenty of wrestling there as we do this special documentary. Look at that. Unfrozen, just like that, right? Then I do a promo and you're back, just like that. - Boom, boom, let's go, let's go. - I would say take that, take that, but then that's too puffy and we won't be doing that, so. - Yeah, let's sis. - Oh, whoa. - We won't be doing that. But I want to get, if there's any more takeaways that you'd have about Shane McMahon because Shane just wanted to be able to have the love from his father. But we come to find out that the same love that Vince did not give Shane, Vince didn't get from his father until the day he died. Vince Senior is like, "Told you, I love you." And they had a business relationship. And I think that Shane wanted to have that with Vince and it never happened, but even if he just watched it, Shane is very laid back and kind of cold. I think he has respect for his father for what he's done, but he's never been able to get into the business and to work with him shoulder to shoulder outside of wrestling together. - Yeah, him speaking about wanting to be the heir to WWE and wanting to be the next in line and next in the succession, if you will, and him knowing and realizing that, "Hey, it's not gonna be me." That has to hurt, not just from a business standpoint, but here it is, you're trying to have this business and personal relationship with your father. And you know now you're not the person. You're not the guy that's gonna succeed. That has to hurt, that has to sting. And I think that really played a lot into some of the things that he did as a performer. Like some of the risks that he was taking was just unreal, like diving 30 feet off of stages or whatever, just for a pop, just to, as he said, all I wanted to do was to get your admiration and respect from his own father. Some of the stuff he was doing, like the Kurt Angle one always keeps popping up in my mind where he literally got bounced up against the glass, but because it didn't break, he ends up hitting his head on concrete. All of that, just to get his dad to say, "You know what, I'm proud of you. I love you, however a job, just anything." That's gotta be heartbreaking. Even as he's in his 40s now, or probably in the close of the 50s, he's still trying to get that admiration from his father. So yeah, you're absolutely right. Does he respect this? Does he respect Vince, I'm sure, for the business that he has built. But does he also just look at it with just a sense of, I don't know, a sense of just disappointment, that he can't seem to really break through with Vince? That's just gotta be tough. And now the way that WWE and TKL is structured now, shamed out of that too. And just as we, you know, fast forward to 2024, CJ, it's like, you see Shane McMahon, you know, with the picture, with the Young Bucks, Shane McMahon, with the picture of Tony Khan, and just makes me think that Shane McMahon's gonna have some to do with AW, which will be a complete full circle thing. Like, he's someplace else is still in the wrestling business. He's just looking just to be able to be respected. And he didn't have to put himself through all that hell with Kurt Angle and the big show, whoever else he's wrestling for me to give him, I mean, he deserves his respect to me because yes, he did wrestle, but who knows, what's between those ears is from a business standpoint, what he could have brought to the table. WWE Underground, or was it NXT Underground, whatever it was, the Underground thing. I think that was a Shane idea to have more realism in a wrestling show. You could do probably do better than that because we're supposed to be suspending just believe not have shoot fights. I think we learned from Brawl for at all. I think we learned that shoot fights probably not a good thing, as you recall. - Yeah, it's not a good thing. - It's not a real fight to the ring, so. - Probably not the greatest idea. - Yeah, but you do have to appreciate Shane for wanting to, you know, take that risk and, like you said, think outside the box. Think of new ideas that can always, you know, keep pushing the envelope, but it was just something that, you know, it's just kind of looked at and you're just like, yeah, my ideas are better because I'm bitch. - Yeah, well, we appreciate everybody checking out our special podcast as we talk about the Vince McMahon documentary. Please leave your comments below, we'll be wrapping up things soon. So we want to get your comments in. If you got a chance to watch a documentary, we'd love to be able to answer your questions or get your thoughts about it. Don't forget, we have a part one that's already on this YouTube, YouTube.com, Under the Hood with Jonathan Hood. Go back to part one if you missed it and check out what we have in store for part one. But as we continue on here with part two, Donald Trump and Vince McMahon. - That, you know, it's funny and you being a pop culture guy, I think you can speak to this probably better than I can. What's currently happening with Donald Trump who has been happening with former President Trump has a wrestling tie to it in which Donald Trump was really into wrestling, more so than just the two WrestleMania is back to back in Atlantic City. Like he's always thought that this is great theater, great entertainment and he was into it. I can't say that he was at every garden show in New York back in the day, but he saw money in it and you think about, you watch him now with the red hat, kind of like Stone Cold Steve Austin used to have the hat and just saying things off the cuff and you know, whatever your politics aside, the character is very much like a wrestling character in which I'm gonna tell you what some of my, I'm gonna say it like it is. I'm gonna have a red cap on and it's about merchandise and it's about, you know, so it's funny when I will see Trump back in those days, wrestling with, on the ground with Vince McMahon and whole haircut, haircut match in WrestleMania all that. It's just, I think it's very interesting to watch Trump then and now. And I think he learned some things from wrestling as far as being able to develop a character and a persona. - Oh, he absolutely did. He absolutely became more or less a performer while he's up there doing, you know, stump speeches and everything. He delved into the character that, you know, he created. And when he said the red cap, you know, just going off the cuff and just saying anything and everything that comes to his mind. Yeah, he learned that I think in just his love of wrestling and just watching wrestling for all of these years and was smart enough or whatever to realize, hey, this could probably sell in the world of politics because, you know, let's, let's keep it real. Politics and professional wrestling, the script that show, not all that dissimilar. - Yes, shout out to Dalton, Illinois. - Yes. (both laughing) - It's probably a wrestling there. Every board meeting, there's a wrestling there. So, yes, there's no doubt about that. So, I just, that's, it's interesting. And then, of course, the apprentice like that, who said you fired, you're fired first? Was it Vince or was it Trump? I don't know, but I just, somebody said you're fired first to make it a catch phrase. It's just, it's funny that they brought Trump into the documentary kind of show, you know, Trump as a, I'll mention Trump as a wrestling figure. Let's see. The Crispin Law story. Oh, you just, you can't have wrestling without tragedy, man. Like, like, so, okay, let's give WWE a break in this, in this instance. So, I think all of us were saddened by the passing of Crispin Law when we first heard the story. I don't know where you were, I don't know where I was, but the point is, those like Benoit's dead. Like, what happened? And his, wait, and his, and Nancy's dead? And like, his son's dead? Like, what happened in that house? Oh my God. So, from the WWE standpoint, and I remember the timeline like it was yesterday, they did a special three hour show to celebrate the life of Crispin Law because there was no details about the murders that happened in there. And it was like, you know, and McMahon had to come out of character. Remember, he was supposed to be dead, blown up in a limo. He came out of character. And I showed that was shocking to some people. Like, I thought Vince was dead in that limo. No, he's in Corpus Christi, empty, and here's the thing. No crowd, no crowd. It wasn't like the next night after Owen died when they had a crowd. You know, they said, no show. They might've learned from what they've done in the past. No crowd, Vince they're standing in the ring with a mic talking about Crispin Law. And so at the, on the service, like we were all, we're like, oh my God, Crispin Law and Nancy, and what happened? And then the next night, they come to find out that Crispin Law killed his wife, killed himself, killed his son. And then McMahon had to come out the next night and say there will be no more retrospective about Crispin Law. And it's kind of like WWE jumped the gun without getting the story, but they had to put a show out on Monday. And so I'd give them a break, CJ. I'd give them a break because they didn't have the details, but I remember the next night, Vince was like, we will, I don't know if you said we're gonna wipe the history or the memories of Crispin Law, but he did make the statement is like, because of what we know about what happened, we will no longer bring his name up. - Yeah, that was, that was a surreal moment in time. It was, I kind of remember, you know, where I was when I heard that that Monday, you know, about the death of Crispin Law and I was just like, wow, okay. You know, he was a fantastic wrestler and probably one of my favorite wrestlers that were kind of under, you know, undersized, but he was just such a terrific performer in the ring. So you're kind of like everybody else on that Monday night. Like, yeah, let's, you know, kind of give this man his flowers, if you will, until, you know, the details of everything came out. And, you know, Vince pretty much had no choice, but to completely scrub him from, you know, any record books or just the history of WWE, because just the graphic horrific, you know, details of how he murdered his wife and son and then himself. The fact that I think that was like a three day ordeal where the murder suicide happened. You know, just to kind of go through that. And, you know, again, Vince just had no choice. He had to just like scrub his history clean at that point. And then, then we get to the CTE stuff. And it just kind of all, you know, did away with all the kind of the goodwill with the, if you will, that we gave WWE for kind of, you know, trying to handle that situation correctly. And, you know, all right, Vince decides, you know, initially not to listen to the signs. Because, no, no, no, Chris Ben Watt just went crazy. You know, it couldn't have been the dozens of concussions he probably suffered over the course of his career, you know, that led to the CTE. No, no, he just went crazy. I mean, this is, I think if I had the timeline correctly, hadn't they talked to Chris Dovinsky? Mm-hmm. There's a specialist about chair shots in CTE. This is all right. So they already talked to him about it. So they brought him in, Chris Dovinsky, to talk about CTE and talk about brain injuries and stuff like that. But still, Vince does not believe that it was CTE. Because if he says that, then what about all the rest of his wrestlers? There's plenty of them that I'm sure that have had plenty of concussions that have had CTE. So it's just, I don't know. I give them a break on that one end, but you talk about the CTE, the same CTE that Stone Cold Steve Austin doesn't believe in. We learn that in a documentary. He does not believe in chronic brain injuries or that. Because he was dropped on his head by Owen Hart once. So he had one concussion, apparently in WWE, just one. Never mind about all the chair shots he took on a regular basis on one night raw. That could have also had concussions where he saw spots and saw darkness and that stuff. Now, he doesn't believe in CTE, which is crazy to say in 2024. Yeah, that was one of the wilder statements in that documentary. Another wild statement was Undertaker initially getting pissed that Vince was going to ban chair shots. This is part of industry. It's a time-honored tradition of chair shots. Like, what's this going to do it? What are we doing? Really, you'll be mad at Vince over chair shots, even though that gets safer for everybody. Now, listen, from Undertaker's standpoint, he's thinking, "Hey, man, I see the chair coming. I'm going to put the hand up. I can protect myself." That's not for everybody. Everybody can't protect themselves. Not only that, you have some lunatic that's going to be like, "Yeah, give me the head shot. Give me the head shot with the chair." I've known wrestling for a long time. You don't get any more bonuses for taking chair shots, CJ. No, no, you don't. You absolutely don't. There is nothing that's in your paycheck that says, "Hey, man, you took a pretty stiff chair shot. Here's $250. Here's a little bit more cheese on your whopper." Nobody does that in wrestling. That's not true. So, I just weird on land of shit. But this is the mind of a wrestler, though. This is the mind of wrestlers. I don't think it's all... Like, I don't know if you get those wrestlers today in 2024 saying that stuff, but I'm going to need to be from an old school, like Steve Austin, Undertaker. Well, he wants glass, brother. Real glass, scapegoat. Undertaker loses that WrestleMania. Don't know if they delved into that enough of why that was the case. And I would have liked to hear Brock's thoughts on that as well. - Yeah, I would have too. The other interesting thing that I got from that was, was Vince, once again, just saying, "I don't know if he had a concussion." And it was just, you know, shock of being told that he wasn't going over. Like, you can see that man's eyes literally glazed over from the first time I think Brock hit him with a F5. His eyes were glazed over for the rest of that match. And that was almost, what, a 30-minute match? - Yeah. - I don't know how Undertaker was able to finish the match, first of all. 'Cause that first F5 was pretty brutal. And he didn't know where he was for the rest of that match. And, for Vince again, it would be like, it was just post-traumatic stress, or, you know, he was just distraught. No, that man. (laughing) - A concussion. (laughing) - Just gross negligence and ignorance. And just live it in your own world. You see, wrestlers and sports figures are supposed to be these superheroes. Now that they go through an injury, they'll be able to come back because they're one percenters. They can do things that nobody else can do. And in Vince's world, he does not in reality. Ultimately, that's where we're talking with Vince again. A guy that's not in reality. You don't understand that you might be close to these wrestlers, but they live and they breathe, and they put one leg at a time in their pants and everything else, and they're just like everybody else. They're not, they're superhuman in the ring, but not superhuman in life. And so, for Vince not to see that, again, it's gross negligence because he just thinks that these guys can just do whatever. And that's kind of been the industry for so long. I think in an early part of the documentary, I think it was Ethan Tony Atlas of Bret Hart talking about, hey, we wrestled 300 days a year. We didn't have off nights, and if you were hurt, you still had to wrestle because you were just fearful of saying, hey, I'm hurt. I got a legit injury that you just weren't gonna get paid. So that was just kind of the mentality in the mindset of the wrestlers who wrestled back in the '60s, '70s and '80s and leading into the '90s. But fortunately, times have gotten better, and the health of the wrestlers is seemingly a bit more important now that you do give these wrestlers some time off when they have legitimate injuries and just need to take a break to kind of heal their bodies. Vince McMahon agreed to pay $12 million in hush money to four different women according to the Wall Street Journal. $7.5 million packed with a former wrestler. There is a wrestler, CJ, there's a wrestler that accused Vince of wanting oral sex and didn't get oral sex from and did not renew the contract of this wrestler. Do you have the name of the wrestler? I don't, I have this in my notes, but it says I wrote it down like he, there was someone that he wanted oral sex performed on him and didn't renew her contract. Is that Ashley? - Yeah, could be. They didn't say her. I mean, they talked about her, but they kind of wanted you to put two and two together and to say this is who that person was, they didn't name the person, but then they went straight to her situation and why she got in the business and then ultimately committed suicide. It could have been her. Vince was, you know, for lack of a better term, a predator. But let's just call that what it is. He was a predator and used his power and influence to get what he wanted whenever that was, whether it was, you know, storylines that he wanted or pushing himself physically and emotionally on some of the female wrestlers and talent that was in WWE. And that's, that's just the man. - Just a monster. That's the only thing you can really call him at this point, just a monster. - Tell people that are watching about your blog, the CTJ report, where can they find it? - Oh, they can find it. The CTJ report.net, the full review, my full review of the McMahon documentary just went up, I think, like yesterday. So you can catch it there. As always, I'll have my Sunday reviews of Bear's Games, good, bad or indifferent. First four weeks, I've been that great, though. But yeah, you can catch anything, pop culture, movie reviews, all that good stuff right there on the blog. - All right, let's take a look at some of your comments. And again, we appreciate you guys watching our part two of the documentary of Mr. McMahon on Netflix. And let's see what we have here. Well, first of all, thank you. Mind of Murdoch for checking in on the great content. So there's always two sides of the story, and we're gonna get into this. So this is from Walt Rods that says, "The Vistwick Man was mischaracterized "throughout the whole documentary. "You get this, sympathetic figure." - Yeah. - Okay, so have someone that's saying that, he's a sympathetic figure, okay? So go ahead, what do you think? - So I'm actually kind of glad the comment like this came up. So this, for me, for to pivot straight to Bruce Prichy. I thought was the biggest, and I thought Hogan was a kiss-ass. Bruce Prichyred has topped him. So Bruce Prichyred, I think it was either episode four when they were talking about the attitude era and the blending of the "Mix to McMahon" character and Vince himself. Bruce Prichyred goes on record saying, "Hey, some of these things that you're saying "and these promos, you've said to me, "personally, some real outlandish shit." Then, fast forward to episode six, when I think he was the only one that may have said anything, post the accusations becoming public and saying, "Well, you didn't go into human side." And he was there and he paid for my wife's healthcare bills and all this. Okay, that's great, he paid for your wife's healthcare bills and made sure she had the best healthcare possible. That doesn't excuse the fact that you sexually abused numerous women during his time as the head of the WWE. You know, you have to be able to take how you may feel about him personally and what he's done for you personally and start looking at the bigger picture. Bigger picture was for all the stuff that he's done to make the WWE great. It's also like a terrible fucking person. Yes, yes, so, I mean, listen, everyone has a right to their opinion, but you don't have a right to the facts. The fact is, it's right in the documentary. He's telling you openly that he has cheated on his wife many, many times openly, being able to have, allegedly as sex with people in the office where he works. That's not a sympathetic figure. Someone who's agreed to pay $12 million in hush money for four different women is not a sympathetic figure. It's just not. Again, you have the right to be able to voice your opinion and watch our show, but the idea that someone has been through, has done so many things that's wrong on the surface and through the court system. No, not a sympathetic figure, unless you're an asshole. I mean, again, that's one side. I mean, if you are, that's fine. But I know just talking to wrestlers, talking to people that's been WWE that was in the 80s, 90s in the 2000s, CJ. There's plenty of people that say, you know, Vince was great to me. Vince took care of my family. Vince made me a millionaire. I worked 300 days in the road, all this stuff. And you know what? I never have anything bad to say about Vince. But also, you have to take a look at the other side of it. And this is a guy here that created his own, you think he created his own wrestling company. He created his own world. And there's a lot of people in entertainment that we could say that create their own world. They don't like the world they're in. So they create their own world, Michael Jackson. You create your own reality. And so, and just saying that there's people that just like, I don't like the world I'm in, I'll create my own world. I'll create my own world in which the people could use the verbiage that I use. You can't say it's belt. That's the belt that holds up your pants. You gotta say title. You gotta say then from there and notwithstanding and use, that's when you have so much control that you make people say what you say. By the time of commentary and writing, as far as the promos are concerned, all that's through Vince. And that could become very dangerous because ultimately, as the boss of a wrestling show, a wrestling show, you're telling your employees that they must walk and talk like you. They must act like you. And I think this becomes very dangerous. By no means he's a sympathetic figure. He's a millionaire, former billionaire, but a millionaire. But he wanted things his way. And out for all the good, I think that the bottom line is, is that the Mr. McMahon character is the actually Vince McMahon. - Yeah, absolutely. And that is something that, whether he wants to admit or not, is the truth. One more little tidbit about this and about the documentary. There was a quick little segment where they talked to, I think, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, John Cena. I think there may be a couple of other people. What was Vince's legacy? Did you notice that no one could answer that, right? No one could answer that until you get to Tony Atlas, who, you know, just, he was just a man. He basically said he was the, he's the greatest promoter of all time. But Undertaker, Cena, Trish Stratus, all these other people could not bring themselves to try to define what Vince's legacy is because I'm sure they've seen some weird shit from him. You know, some really heinous shit from him. And because they feel like their careers and their livelihoods are, you know, kind of due to him making them stars, they can't really say what they want to say. - I think it's all well said. It's all there part of part two of that documentary, if you have not seen it, make sure that you check it out. Part one and part two, we'd break it down here. A few news and notes. The World Wildlife Fund in this, so no longer WWE up, it turns into WWE because of the World Wildlife Fund. That's one of the wars that Vince could not win. You want to keep those letters, but the World Wildlife Fund was like, nah, we got something else for you. - Yeah, that was one, that was actually a fight. He kind of gave up quickly. You know, he wanted to, you know, pursue it. And then he was just all better of it. And he was like, yeah, I don't really need to sink this much money and this much time into it. Nah, let's just go with WWE. - John Cena almost cut from WWE, but he could rap, Al, he could rap. So now we gotta keep him up because he could rap. Okay, all right, that's bars. - He gave me the Gace Ebony McMahon bars. (laughing) - Can you rap? - Yes, I can. (mimics babbling) - And that's the doctor and economics was born. - I like seeing as a heel. - Yeah, it was good stuff. - Him, I guess the Undertaker's a heel was good stuff. And he never turned back again. But he was kept on, just so you know, he was just like one of these OVW factory guys, you know, just looks good, but can't work. But he can rap and that's good enough. Ruth was aggression, okay. Bob Koss is swearing on TV. Damn. - Probably my favorite part of the entire documentary. (laughing) Like he said that with his old chest. Oh, no. - What did he say? He said bullshit. What did he say? - Nah, I think he dropped that bomb. He just came out and said fuck. - I think he did. I think he did. Bob, my God, all these years, man. These old people do, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. These old broadcasters don't care. - No. - When I first heard Jim Ross on his podcast swear up in like either, or Tony Giovanni swear. I'm like, God, leave. It's like the first time you hear Bob Sagitt swear after all those years of family on the TV show. And indeed, in doing blue comedy, it's like, what? - Crazy. - Absolutely. That was hilarious though, hilarious. - Anything else we're missing as we wrap it up? I don't think so. Eric Bischoff saying that he took his eyes off the ball in creative, no shit. He took your eyes off the ball in creative. I mean, no wonder. And that's why WWE dominated WCW after 83 weeks. He took his, I off the ball. You think that you bring a Harley Davidson from the ceiling and you lay on and put a crown on your head. You think you're the king of wrestling? You think that's gonna last crazy? - Yeah, he bought into his own hype. He bought into the character that he was portraying on the show and just thinking that he could coast, you know, his way into putting WWF out of business and not really understanding the type of, just the type of maniac that Vince, you know, is and was gonna go to any and all links, you know, you just thought, I'm gonna keep it on crew's control now, 'cause, you know, I got this. - And it's incredible. But again, there's part one and part two of this podcast as we review, Mr. McMahon shows us on Netflix. And don't forget, there's a lot more wrestling content from me, Jonathan Hood on "Good Karma Wrestling." Just look forward on YouTube. We hit that subscribe button. You want more wrestling content. We got plenty there and also on "Busted Open" with me every Sunday on SiriusXM Fight Nation. So for CJ, I am Jay Hood. Sir, thanks so much for being on the show. I really appreciate you spending time as breaking down this documentary. - Thank you as always for having me, sir. It's always fun to sit back and talk a little wrestling. - Don't forget to mention something on the blog, by the way. Just curse we mentioned, if you could, about our podcast in your blog, please. - Absolutely. That goes without saying. But cash me. - You know how much I have to pay, just to get my name mentioned on his blog. You know, I expensive real estate, everybody. I just want everybody, you know, it's very difficult to get in your blog, so that's a valuable real estate. (laughing) It certainly is. Thanks, everybody, for watching. We really appreciate it. And continue to like, share, and subscribe to Under the Hood with Jonathan Hood. (whooshing) (whooshing) [BLANK_AUDIO]