had a contract with McMahon to provide not only stock footage, but the waivers for the use of the names and likeness of the other wrestlers featured in the film. After the fallout from Montreal, McMahon feared how he would be portrayed in the film and refused both. The director goes on to state that WCW contacted the filmmakers and not only offered to pay for the lawsuit at an estimated cost of $750,000, but also offered a pay-per-view deal for the film and long-term distribution on the Turner network. Once McMahon became aware of this, the producers received a fax from Titan Sports Inc. saying that they would honor their original contract on the condition that the lawsuit be dropped and they could never sell the film to Turner. Jay said they were told they had a "slam-dunk" case but when asked about the film, they were told they would most likely be in court three to four years and "there would be no film" even if they won. Jay decided to make the film and drop the lawsuit. The director goes on to state that McMahon also used his reputation to kill some of the distribution deals in the U.S. and overseas. During Wrestling Observer Live on October 26, 2022 Dave Meltzer announced he took part in the recording on a commentary track with Bret Hart for a 25th Anniversary release. Reception The film was well received at the time and is today considered to be critically acclaimed. It won numerous film festival awards and has aired several times on both A&E and the Documentary Channel as well as on BBC Two in the United Kingdom; after a 1999 airing on BBC Two, journalist Greg Wood of The Independent described it "a story beautifully told". Wrestling historian Dave Meltzer has stated that Wrestling with Shadows, together with Beyond the Mat, are the two most critically acclaimed wrestling documentaries. The Canadian film study book North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980 declared the film to be one of the best National Film Board documentaries of the period and worthy of John Grierson's mission for the NFB. Jordan Peterson has expressed that the film as one of the greatest documentaries that he had seen in his life, stating that it was "one of the best documentaries about anything ever". The film won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary award at the