"Massive" Netflix docuseries on Vince McMahon still in the works

[Chris]

Podcaster and The Ringer founder Bill Simmons confirmed that the previously planned docuseries on WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon is still moving forward at Netflix.

During a Friday segment with Ariel Helwani, Simmons, who is an executive producer on the project, was talking about McMahon and said, "I'm working on this massive docuseries right now about him, which is, obviously, that keeps evolving..."

Simmons, an executive producer on the Andre The Giant documentary for HBO, didn't talk further about the series which is being co-produced with WWE.

The release date and number of episodes is unknown.

First announced in October 2020 on an investors call, the series, once planned for four parts, has taken some twists and turns since that initial reveal. In December 2021, the series that WWE CEO Nick Khan once said was one of the most expensive in Netflix history was revealed to be debuting in 2022.

Then, in the fallout from last summer's sexual misconduct scandal involving nearly $20 million in unreported expenses that included hush money being paid to women McMahon allegedly had relations with, the project was shelved last July.

Roughly a month later, our Dave Meltzer reported that the project was revived with director and executive producer Chris Smith remaining on board. It was unknown at that point if Simmons was still involved but Friday's podcast comments confirmed he was.

'Massive' Netflix docuseries on WWE's Vince McMahon still in the works

Executive producer Bill Simmons confirmed the news Friday.

www.f4wonline.com

 

[Deezy]

Almost like I said they were just waiting for shit to pass and still do this.

Like I said Vince was coming back when "he retired".

 

[Chris]

The Ringer founder Bill Simmons remains very bullish on the upcoming Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix of which both men are executive producers.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime event several days ago, Simmons was asked about the project where he revealed that McMahon will get to look at clips but will not be able to give notes before the final cut.

Simmons also tipped his hand that the project that was once set to be a docuseries may be a one-off documentary instead.

“It was a lot of time and it was one where Netflix still has final cut of it. It was a little more old-school in the 30 for 30 model. I think it has a chance to be really special," he said.

30 for 30 is the popular ESPN film series Simmons co-created while with the network.

Even with that accomplishment, among others like the well-received HBO documentary on Andre The Giant he was directly involved in, Simmons feels the McMahon project that has been worked on for three years could be the best one of them all.

“It has a chance to be really great. I really think it has the chance to be the best one I’ve been involved with,” Simmons said. “I’ll be interested to see what people think about that one."

Netflix has not announced a release date for the documentary.

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/wwe/vince-mcmahon-has-no-say-in-final-cut-of-upcoming-netflix-documentary

 

[Chris]

Bill Simmons says his upcoming docuseries on Vince McMahon has a chance to be "pretty spectacular."

Simmons spoke to Jimmy Traina on the SI Media podcast about the project recently. He said the docuseries will most likely be released on Netflix early next year.

"Oh yeah, it's f---ing awesome," Simmons said of the project. "I think it's going to be the first part of next year. Chris Smith is directing it."

Simmons also mentioned that his team had access to Vince McMahon during the filming of the series. However, he also told Bloomberg earlier this week that while McMahon will get to look at clips of the film ahead of time, he will have no say regarding the final cut.

"I don't want to say too much but I will say that I think it has a chance to be pretty spectacular," Simmons continued.

He also noted the series will be released in parts and there was simply too much to cover for a two-hour documentary.

"This one is about Vince McMahon, his life, and wrestling so obviously it can't be two hours."

When asked if he thinks McMahon will be happy with it, Simmons responded, "I don't know."

"I think if you strip away all the other stuff and you just talk about the last 50 years that he had, it's a pretty good topic for a documentary," he continued.

Simmons, who also produced HBO's documentary on Andre the Giant, continued to talk about the difficulty of producing documentaries on subjects related to pro wrestling.

"We dealt with this with Andre, part of the problem with wrestling is, talk about a game of telephone," Simmons said.

"Especially with wrestling, which is hyperbole and embellishment and blowing everything out, it's really hard to sift through. And we had a lot of trouble with Andre about even the WrestleMania III match. Just, 'Okay, Hogan's telling us now that he didn't know if Andre was going to kick out or not,' how true is that? So then you have to really dive into it and then it's like, 'Well, Vince is also saying that's true.' It's just... wrestling is a tough space."

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