Shane McMahon Reportedly Has “A Lot Of Heat” Following The Royal Rumble

A new report has claimed that Shane McMahon “rubbed people the wrong way” after taking charge of producing the men’s Royal Rumble match.

Shane McMahon made his surprise return to WWE TV at the Royal Rumble, emerging at Number 28 of the men’s Rumble match. McMahon eliminated his one-time rival Kevin Owens and made it to the final three before being thrown over the top rope by eventual winner Brock Lesnar.

It has now emerged that, as well as competing in the match, Shane O’Mac was one of the figures who helped put the men’s Rumble match together. Earlier reports had revealed that backstage morale was low in the company due to frustration at the many changes made to both the men’s and women’s Rumble bouts.

Now, Dave Meltzer has reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that McMahon has a lot of “heat” on him for the way the men’s match was produced after he took charge of planning for the bout.

“There was a lot of heat on Shane [McMahon] because Shane was one of the producers, in fact, he was kinda the head producer of the Rumble. And then he had an idea of what the Rumble was gonna be and then a lot of that ended up being changed. I don’t know all of everything but I do know there were several people who kinda made off-handed remarks to me about Shane.”

“[Shane] has helped book the Rumble in the past. People are like ‘is he backstage doing any front office work?’ and the answer’s no, he’s not. But for whatever reason, Vince has allowed him to help do the Rumble the last couple of years. It was him and many other people and in this one, it was as well but he really took charge and rubbed some people the wrong way evidently.”

Meltzer also noted that McMahon has been pulled from planned appearances at Elimination Chamber and potentially WrestleMania. Seemingly McMahon was originally going to participate in the Elimination Chamber match in Saudi Arabia, setting up a WrestleMania bout with Seth Rollins.

“Shane McMahon was going to be in the Chamber and set up a feud for WrestleMania with Seth Rollins. I don’t know if that was going to be the championship match but obviously, whether it is or it isn’t, that was changed so I don’t know how that relates to Shane McMahon at WrestleMania.”

H/T to Inside the Ropes for the above transcription.