The third episode of the new Netflix documentary series, “Mr. McMahon,” covers the Monday Night Wars between WWE (then WWF) and the now-defunct WCW.
Vince McMahon believed he was the target of attacks from Ted Turner’s billionaire media empire, prompting him to respond by airing the well-known “Billionaire Ted” skits.
However, the documentary revealed that former WCW President Eric Bischoff shared the skits with Turner, who found them amusing.
Bischoff said, “I kept gnawing at [Vince] and hitting him and doing everything I could to get him to react, and he did. They started doing the Billionaire Ted skits. That was the first real sell. I finally got him to react, which means he was off balance. When I first saw them, it’s like, ‘Let’s tape these things. I gotta’ run them up to Ted.’ We brought them up to Ted and he laughed his ass off. He thought they were funny as hell.”
Kay Koplovitz eventually intervened to halt the skits and requested WWE to discontinue them. The documentary series also features clips of Turner chuckling at the parody of Hulk Hogan, known as “The Huckster.”
