One of the hottest topics within WWE this week has been the heat on Shane McMahon for his role as lead writer and producer of the Men’s Royal Rumble Match, which was won by Brock Lesnar. Shane was an entrant in the match.
There is said to be a substantial amount of heat on Shane for his role in booking the Men’s Rumble. Ringside News notes that McMahon “openly buried Jamie Noble” and “tried to book the Rumble around himself.” Furthermore, Shane was said to be confrontational and was “gung-ho to put himself over, even fighting with people to do so.”
It was noted that the entire locker room was “really angry” over Shane “fighting everyone, booking himself to be one of the last one’s out, eliminating Kevin Owens, and just standing toe-to-toe with everyone.”
Another comment from a source on the matter said, “when Shane is more impactful in the Rumble than Big E or Owens, even people who don’t normally complain are complaining loudly today.”
When asked why Shane was made lead writer and producer of the Men’s Royal Rumble match, one source responded, “his father obviously made a mistake.”
It was noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Shane had an idea of what the Rumble was going to be, and a lot of that ended up being changed. There were several people in WWE who made off-handed remarks to The Observer’s Dave Meltzer about Shane.
Shane doesn’t do any office work for WWE but he has helped book Rumble matches in the past as WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon, for whatever reason, has allowed him to help with The Rumble over the past few years. It’s always been Shane and many other people booking the match, and this one was the same way, but Shane really took charge and rubbed many people the wrong way.
It was also said that the deal with the Men’s Rumble was basically for Lesnar to “murder everybody” and that this was likely Lesnar’s call because there was talk that Lesnar was going to get “exactly what he wanted” at the Rumble. What Lesnar wanted was to get himself booked as strong as possible for the WrestleMania 38 match with WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
WWE had other things they wanted to do in the Men’s Rumble, such as spots with Drew McIntyre that would’ve really protected him. However, they were running low on time and had to rush to get off the air, so they didn’t get to do as many spots as they had planned.
Shane is expected to work WWE Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38, and is reportedly planned to work the RAW brand as a heel.
Stay tuned for more.
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