Mr. McMahon premiered on Netflix last Wednesday and it's all pro wrestling fans have been talking about since. While not quite as no-holds-barred as we expected, it paints a dark picture of Vince and it's clear the lines have become blurred between his true self and on-screen persona.
Many pro wrestling personalities have chimed in and, on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt Hardy started by comparing Vince's creative mind in 1998 to what he saw in 2019 when he left the company.
"I felt like he was very much on the pulse [in 1998]," he started. "He had a much better feeling of the audience and what was current in pop culture and society and whatnot. I just feel like you fast forward 20 years to 2019, he just doesn’t have that same connection that he did in the late 90s and early 2000s. That’s what it seemed like from speaking with him."
"There were times where he still had ideas that ended up being and sounding kind of crazy, but they would still work sometimes. I know there were times where I talked to him with me and Bray, and he kept saying, 'You guys can be something so special.' He never went into the specifics of what it was, but then like, at the end of the day, we both thought we shouldn’t be wrestling on TV."
Hardy added, "[He] ended up putting us out there, two very gimmicky characters who need vignettes and remote location shootings and stuff to stay unique, I feel, and we were just being put in four minute matches where we’re just beating up somebody pretty quick and hitting our finish and winning, and I don’t think that’s doing anything for anyone."
"I just feel like later on, towards the end of the 2010s, he just wasn’t as connected to what was current in culture and society."
It would be hard to find many fans who disagree with that statement and, moving on to the controversy surrounding the former WWE Chairman today, Hardy admitted that he finds it "awful."
"Anytime someone does something terrible like that, especially if it is a criminal sexual act, it’s awful. I’ll say that right up front. Just the fact that Vince was the one that was responsible for giving us an opportunity, and someone I worked with much a lot over the years, and was one of the people who was responsible for giving me this great life, and really giving me the opportunity to kind of get it ahead in life, financially and whatnot."
"So I mean that part I will be appreciative of, but also I think in society, if you do bad and terrible things, you also need to be held accountable for them," he continued, admitting that, "It makes me feel very conflicted about Vince. It’s one of those things where you wish you didn’t have to feel in such a negative way towards someone, but there’s a part of you that’s going to feel that negative way because these accusations are so strong."
There are rumblings online that McMahon might be working with former WWE producer Kevin Dunn on some sort of response to the Netflix documentary. However, something tells us that will only make things worse for the billionaire!