Midway through the series, Vince says he has nothing in common with Mr. McMahon — a statement that’s immediately followed by a parade of WWE notables explaining that Vince and Mr. McMahon are essentially the same person. But if others can recognize on some level that McMahon was in fact the monster he portrayed, McMahon himself remains largely unrepentant, defending his actions throughout the series even in its most current interview. He doesn’t see himself as a villain.

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McMahon once admitted that in his famous feud with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, he identified more with Austin’s character than his own. The Mr. McMahon character wasn’t intended as a self-portrait, but it did serve to deflect criticism. It allowed Vince’s audience to channel their anger at him and the things he had done into his fictional persona — who, vitally, often got his comeuppance. McMahon was never afraid to be the butt of his own jokes, writing himself into the most embarrassing scenes, participating in matches that saw him take move after move and bleed with the best of them. In an era where kayfabe died a brutal and unmistakable death (thanks in no small part to McMahon himself) he still managed to blur those lines of reality, to make his audience cheer for his onscreen downfall while his company collected the money they paid for the privilege.

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But as McMahon also says during the series, perception is reality, and it seems clear that the lines didn’t just blur for the audience. Maybe Mr. McMahon isn’t the facade; maybe he never was. Maybe the facade is the quiet man sitting for an interview, delusionally insisting that the Attitude Era was family-friendly. Despite his lamentation that “nobody really knows me,” maybe Vince McMahon has spent the last three decades showing the entire world exactly who he is.