Rumor: Shane McMahon Could Become Key Part of WWE Raw Creative Team

The last 13 months have seen a lot of creative changes in WWE. It was last summer when Paul Heyman was named the Executive Director of WWE Raw and Eric Bischoff was named Executive Director of WWE Smackdown. A few months after that, Bischoff was out and Bruce Prichard was promoted to that job. Prichard was out of WWE for over a decade when he made his return. A few months ago, Heyman was out as the Raw Executive Director and Prichard took that job in addition to running Smackdown. Keep in mind that Vince McMahon really runs everything from a creative standpoint, so it’s Vince’s decisions, then Bruce working under him and everybody else below them.

Now there’s a rumor out there that another name may take on an important job on the Raw creative team: Shane McMahon.

It’s being reported by Alex McCarthy of Sportskeeda that Vince’s son Shane, who turned 50 years old this year, might become the new “head” of the Raw creative team while Bruce would remain on Smackdown. Once again, Vince McMahon would have final say on everything as he has had for over 40 years.

As we already know, Raw Underground is Shane’s idea. McCarthy notes that Shane has also had a lot more backstage influence this year including a major role in booking the men’s Royal Rumble match, which was a great match. Shane has also been sitting beside his father Vince in the Gorilla Position, which is where you sit to help run the shows.

The report from McCarthy notes that Shane is being considered to have the Raw job while Bruce would remain in his Smackdown role. The burden of trying to run two shows has been a lot for Bruce, so it’s believed he might want to just have one show, not two. McCarthy notes that Prichard has made “no secret about the fact he’d like to lighten his workload and he’s been struggling with the long hours.” It’s not known if that means Shane would be the new “Executive Director” of Raw, but that’s the job title they used last year when Paul Heyman got the job.

Shane is well-liked in WWE circles. I have read countless interviews and podcasts where people talk about Shane as being a nice guy that is easy to get along with. He may be the most rational and likable of all the McMahons depending on who you talk to.

There will probably be fans wondering why not Triple H for a spot like this? It’s probably because Triple H is entrenched as the man running NXT, NXT UK and being a key part of the company’s developmental program. If they take Triple H away from those roles then those parts of the company may suffer.

Shane has done it all in WWE except being in a position of really running creative of a major show. Shane was a referee at one point, he’s done everything there is to do behind the scenes, we know he’s had hundreds of matches including some great ones on major shows and he’s got a lot of experience as an on-screen character, both as a face and as a heel. While Shane did leave WWE from late 2009 until his return in early 2016, the WWE business is in his blood and he’s learned everything from his father Vince.

Shane’s sister Stephanie was a major force on the creative team throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s as well, but she is now the Chief Brand Officer of the company and has moved onto other roles.

Shane recently returned to WWE TV as the guy in charge of the Raw Underground segments in Raw’s third hour where wrestlers “fight” on a black canvas in the backstage area. As noted, that was Shane’s idea that Vince gave the green light to.

TJR Thoughts: It’s still a rumor, so take it as such, but now that it’s out there it will be interesting to see if there’s any truth to it. I can understand Bruce being overwhelmed by trying to run both shows under Vince and that’s probably not an ideal situation. I can also see Vince turning to his son to help him out because that’s what he always does.