One of the hot topics going on today in WWE is the status of Shane McMahon. Out of nowhere, he entered the 2022 Royal Rumble match as a surprise entrant at #28. Within a few minutes, the field had been narrowed down to a select few (in part due to McMahon scoring an elimination by taking out Kevin Owens). One of those few names in the final three was McMahon himself, who was tossed out by Brock Lesnar on The Beast Incarnate’s streak of domination.
Weird, right? Even weirder was what followed, though.
Reports all over the place with rumors. The plans are that he’ll face Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania. On second thought, he’ll fight Lashley at Elimination Chamber and be in the cage match. No, he’s actually supposed to be facing Seth Rollins. But wait a minute, those plans were scrapped when Rollins was taken out of the Royal Rumble.
Never mind. He’s FIRED after having massive heat on him for a match he either did or didn’t produce, wherein the people responsible for saying yes or no said yes and agreed to these ideas, only to do a 180 flip 24 hours later and be so against it that they took the most drastic action they could have.
What?! This has been a whirlwind that is hard to track in any way that makes sense. I don’t buy into half of what it is just because it’s contradictory, and I’m curious what the actual truth is behind it all.
Nevertheless, this got me thinking. If Shane McMahon was indeed factored into plans for WrestleMania 38, what would he have done? Who are the realistic Superstars I could imagine would have been set up as opponents for him? For that matter, who, if anyone, would I have LIKED to face Shane O’Mac?
So while the dust hasn’t settled on this story and it’s still all up in the air in confusion, let’s toss out some what if scenarios with some speculation and fantasy booking.
What WWE Might Have Had Planned
After the “buh buh buh” Braun Strowman stuff from last year, I don’t have a lot of faith whatever was planned would have been any good. That feud was garbage and The Monster Among Men deserved much better than for Shane to randomly turn heel and start bullying him out of nowhere.
Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley are the two names floating around the most. I would have hated both of those options, I’m sure.
Bobby Lashley would have been an even worse option, though. Nobody would have bought into Shane winning the Elimination Chamber, nor at WrestleMania. The match would have been a flop, since Shane jus doesn’t have the style that would make sense to take a beating from Lashley without it being eye-rolling. Plus, wouldn’t you want someone on the legitimate roster to be built up to face Lashley, rather than for Shane to randomly step in and take that opportunity?
With Rollins, it would have meant either Seth turned babyface for it and abandoned his friendship with Kevin Owens, or both turned babyface and Owens wasn’t factored in (nor would he have a match with Rollins), or Rollins would have randomly started fighting with Shane out of nowhere.
My guess is this would have been entirely built upon “you eliminated me, and now, I’m mad.” There are worse ways to start a feud, but that’s not something that would have meant anything to me between those two.
I think Kevin Owens might have been another person they would have tossed around. Yes, it would have been a rematch we’ve seen multiple times, but that hasn’t stopped them before. Hell, look at WrestleMania this year. They seem to WANT to make it about rematches. Obviously, I would have had zero interest in this, as I want Owens to do something better (like face Edge, maybe) and since I’ve seen it before, let’s move on to a fresher alternative for both guys.
God help me, I think one of their ideas they would have tossed around would have been Drew McIntyre. I can fully imagine them pitching that to Drew, saying they have nothing else in mind for him, he can’t be in the title picture right now, but hey, this is a BIG match. It’s SHANE O’MAC! You can’t get much bigger than that, right?!
And then, the feud would have been trash. Shane would have been a heel that nobody would have believed could beat McIntyre. He’d cut some awful promos in the coming weeks and have some goons like Jinder Mahal and Shanky or, more likely, Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss, do his dirty work for him. McIntyre would beat those guys one after another, then in a handicap match, but suffer some multi-man beatings and talk about how he can’t wait to get his hands on Shane….AT WRESTLEMANIA. Blah. They fight, Drew kicks his ass and that’s the end of that chapter.
Maybe they would have pitched something with Finn Balor or Big E or whatever, possibly even approaching Edge about it, but I don’t think any of them would have bitten. Edge wants matches with AJ Styles, Owens, and so on. Balor’s talked about how frustrated he is with the politics and he has to know by now that they don’t see him as a big star worth their investment anymore. Big E going from champion to just fighting Shane with no value to it would have probably been met with “I’d rather just do something with The New Day.”
What I Would Have Done
AUSTIN, FUCKING, THEORY. The answer is so obvious!
Vince McMahon’s protege that he’s treating like the son he never had and wants to mold into a better star than how he was able to mold his real son? Come on! Self-explanatory. This writes itself.
Theory starts talking about how he’s accomplished more already than Shane did at his age. Vince doesn’t entirely deny it and enjoys the pseudo-sibling rivalry. Shane’s a babyface who thinks the whole thing is ridiculous, and he’s watching out for Theory when he says it’s not a great thing to have Vince as puppet master.
You do the match and Theory wins. He celebrates with a selfie. But Shane says he has something else up his sleeve. Theory not only isn’t a McMahon, he’s not worthy of the name Austin, either, and he knows someone who his father is very well-acquainted with who has something to say about it here in Texas.
Glass shatters. Stone Cold Steve Austin comes out. Theory asks for a selfie. Austin gives him the finger, hits a Stunner, grabs some beer and takes a selfie over Theory’s lifeless body being doused with booze.
What do you think Shane McMahon was going to do at WrestleMania 38, if anything? Drop your ideas in the comments below!
