"When we stop growing, we die" is what McMahon said. It is ironic because the man has not grown emotionally since his adolescence. Paul Heyman, the voice of reason among the talking heads, said it best, that McMahon is overcompensating for the deprivation that he endured in the first 12 years of his life. He was abandoned by his biological father and severely abused by his stepfather, resulting in a core belief of defectiveness. Nothing he has ever achieved, no amount of success or adoration, will ever truly be enough to heal that inner child who still feels inadequate because daddy left him.
It may be true that, without McMahon's voracious appetite to make something of himself, we would not have the behemoth that is the WWE. However, his true legacy lies in normalising domestic violence, fuelling misogyny and encouraging toxic masculinity in the storylines he conceived of to achieve ever higher ratings, including putting his own family drama on full display in his shows. What kind of person accuses his daughter of being selfish for not wanting her wedding televised on pay-per-view, and then arranges a wrestling match against him to humiliate her?
Despite his insistence that Mr. McMahon is only a character, it is nevertheless one borne out of and embodying his unconscious desires, a medium through which he can express his true self with impunity. Mr. McMahon was his Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card; "Oh, I did something wrong? That was my character, not me". He is not a role model to any man, not even his son, from whom he withheld affection and validation the same way that his own father did to him. This man lives in the fantasy that he does not perpetuate abuse in spite of his abusive childhood and clear evidence to the contrary. This documentary is one of abuse and the legacy of abuse, more than it is about wrestling, and it need not have been six hours long.
