Upcoming creative plans for Shane McMahon have been scrapped and Shane has been “quietly let go,” according to a report by Ringside News.
Following Shane’s return at the Royal Rumble, there were reports that the plan was for him to be a regular on Raw going forward, including being involved in big matches at Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania. But those plans now have reportedly been scrapped and the creative team was told that Shane will no longer be involved in WWE’s plans, RSN says.
According to Dave Meltzer, Shane was at one point scheduled to be in the Elimination Chamber match, and possibly in a match against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania.
As previously reported, Shane was involved in laying out the men’s Royal Rumble match and reportedly had heat with a lot of people backstage over it.
A source told Ringside News, “Vince had no choice. Shane created chaos, had everyone in an uproar, pissed off everyone in the Rumble, openly buried other producers, and was changing things that Vince wanted. Vince had no other choice but to send him home.”
Andrew Zarian added that there was also heat over Shane making numerous changes to what number Bad Bunny entered at in the Rumble, which caused concern in WWE because they didn’t want to come off negatively to a major star.
Ringside News added that Vince McMahonn is “quietly using the term ‘let go’ to describe the situation,” as in Shane McMahon has been “let go.”
It’s always possible that he could return down the line, but for now, the immediate plans involving him seem to have been scrapped.
Update
PWInsider confirmed that immediate plans for Shane McMahon have been scrapped and he has been “internally pulled from the Raw roster.”
Shane had also been pushing to be involved in a match against Austin Theory at WrestleMania, with the Vince storyline playing a role, but those plans were not locked in. There were also people in WWE pushing for Shane vs. Rollins at WrestleMania. Rollins was apparently supposed to be part of the Royal Rumble match and would have had spots with Shane to set up their WrestleMania match, but with all the changes to the card, Rollins did not end up in the Rumble match.
Shane was “frustrated” on the day of the show, PWInsider added, and the talk was that he was upset that his ideas were being shot down by Vince McMahon and “he wasn’t being allowed to do what he wanted.”
PWInsider also says that the feeling among some in WWE is that Shane is taking the heat for the poor reception to the Royal Rumble and once things blow over, he could eventually return.