The tagline for Mr. McMahon—the new documentary series from Netflix, Tiger King producer Chris Smith and 30 for 30 creator Bill Simmons—reads “Mastermind. Madman.” It’s only fitting for a biography of a man whose long and horrifying history of alleged sexual abuse and trafficking has become public over the past nine months. The notion of a true crime-style documentary about McMahon—a series whose production began before his public downfall and includes interviews with him, other hard-to-reach WWE stars and executives, and unfettered access to the company’s video library—is very appealing given how protective McMahon and his company have always been of their own image and carefully curated history. However, save for a cumulative, damning hour and a half of this six-part series, Mr. McMahon doesn’t feel much different from the sort of self-congratulating retrospective that WWE regularly pumps out to its fanbase.
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The reasons for this are self-evident. When production began on Mr. McMahon, WWE was signed on as a co-producer, implying that—as usual—the company would have a degree of influence over how it and its then-Chairman would be portrayed. WWE has since had........