WWE television is much better off without Shane McMahon

Shane McMahon has been all over the wrestling news this week. He returned to WWE at Royal Rumble and apparently got a ton of heat for his role in producing the very boring men’s Royal Rumble match. Less than a week later, Shane is already gone from WWE. At the very least, this means we shouldn’t expect to see Shane on WWE television in the short-term. He will no longer be part of WWE’s creative plans for the Saudi Arabian Elimination Chamber or WrestleMania 38.

And that’s a very good thing.

After exiting WWE in 2009, Shane O’Mac made his long-awaited return in 2016 for a WrestleMania 32 match against Undertaker. He’s been part of WWE’s regular rotation of part-time wrestlers over the last six years. Shane’s had his memorable moments, such as jumping off the Hell in a Cell twice, or having one of the best matches of the night with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 33 in 2017. But ever since late 2018, Shane’s presence on television has involved some of the worst crap WWE has put out there.

He won the Best in the World trophy by beating Dolph Ziggler in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel 2018. This led to a terrible feud with The Miz throughout the first half of 2019, including multiple pay-per-view wins for Vince McMahon’s son. Shane would go on to actually defeat Roman Reigns on pay-per-view during this time. He dominated television with his Best in the World persona, and it was change the channel awful.

Shane was also the host of the Raw Underground fight club in 2020 where he made lots of excited noises. Thankfully he didn’t actually compete in the fights presented there.

More recently, McMahon feuded with Braun Strowman last year at WrestleMania 37. The storyline centered around Shane calling Braun dumb every week and Braun getting very angry about it. It was a feud filled with green slime and very bad promos.

The full-time wrestlers in WWE already have a hard enough time trying to stand out amidst WWE’s crushing booking where they are too often treated as inferior to the part-timers. Even though Shane doesn’t win as often as many other part-timers, the fact that Kevin Owens and Matt Riddle have to stand there in the Royal Rumble match and sell McMahon’s laughably bad strikes makes them look like total chumps.

This isn’t anything new with Shane. That WWE booked him to go toe-to-toe with the Undertaker in 2016 was completely absurd, because it’s an obvious squash match. That he is presented as even close to the same level in the ring as AJ Styles or Kevin Owens makes it harder to take them seriously as great wrestlers. Wrestling fans aren’t stupid. They know Shane is not a wrestler and that he shouldn’t be competitive with the top stars in WWE. He’s just the owner’s son who likes to dive off very high objects.

The rumor mill suggests Shane was actually going to compete for the WWE championship inside the Elimination Chamber, and move on to a match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38. That will no longer happen, and it’s the best possible thing for the quality of WWE television over the next two months. Can you imagine Lashley selling Shane’s junk offense inside the chamber? Or if Bob is off limits, then Riddle and Styles would probably be the suckers who have to endure Shane’s bad MMA moves in that match.

Every once in a while the Shane match can work, but it’s worn out its welcome. WWE needs to focus on building new stars; how many wrestlers have really benefited as a result of working with Shane McMahon over the last six years?

I imagine we’ll see Shane back in WWE sometime down the road, perhaps later in the year in a return trip to Saudi Arabia, or next year at WrestleMania. But for now I’m letting out a big sigh of relief that I won’t be subjected to these awful Shane McMahon segments on WWE television for the next few months.

Will you miss seeing Shane McMahon on the road to WrestleMania 38, Cagesiders?