Junior

The story of Vince McMahon and essentially the story of the rise of WWE (WWF.)

I thought this was quite a terrific first episode, as a youngster I was obsessed with WWF as it was then, my bedroom was plastered with Mr Perfect, Hulk Hogan and others.

They go into some detail of McMahon's relationship with his father, and I'm sure it has a lot of substance to the story itself.

Great footage, great interviews, we have the story, and a teaser of something huge to follow.

McMahon comes across as a very clever businessman, he knew exactly what he was doing, he saw an opportunity and boy did he go for it.

I think even as an eight year old I knew they were acting, parents and older siblings used to delight in telling me.

It's a great start, I'm already hooked.

8/10.

This was a great way to start the doco, showing the beginnings of The Business itself before introducing the main star, as it were, and probably only long-term and die-hard fans would know most of it.

The way the company started, the fact that Vince Jr didn't know his father - Vince Sr - until he was 12, the way the Vince Jr worked so hard to earn the favour of this man he barely knew before entering his teens...it's actually pretty fascinating to me.

I also really appreciate that the doco works to humanise Vince Jr somewhat. I really felt for, and identified with, Vince Jr when he was talking about how his father's praise of his work to build and expand WWF made him feel, how he felt when his father finally said the words "I love you" towards him. Even knowing to some degree where this is all heading, and knowing the kind of person he's gonna be shown as, I couldn't help but actually feel a kind of sympathy for him.

There is Vince McMahon the owner of WWE who revolutionised wrestling and became a multi billionaire.

Then there is the persona of Mr McMahon, the heel boss who liked to play the arrogant bad guy.

This Netflix documentary was largely based on interviews with Vince McMahon before various allegations of sexual abuse came to light. It led to his departure as boss of the WWE and he gave no more interviews for the show.

Later Vince returned as the head of WWE but it was short lived. Further allegations were made about his behaviour.

You can tell from the opening, this was going to be a puff piece. Vince said he would not be telling the real truth. He will just give a glimpse of what may be his true character. Later events have shown why he might have something to hide.

Vince also saw himself as having two different personas. Vince is not the same as Mr McMahon. Other contributors like Hulk Hogan disagreed. Apart from the McMahon family like his kids or son in law Triple H. Maybe they had good reason to tow the family line.

The more interesting part of the first episode was Vince opening up about his abusive childhood. His stepfather would always hit him, he only saw his real father properly when he was 12 years old. A lot what Vince did afterwards was to get his father's approval.

Apart from that, if you are even a casual wrestling observer, there was not hing much new as to the rise of the WWF in the 1980s.