By: Clint McCain (The Average Sports Guy)
On the February 22nd Edition of Monday Night Raw there was a possible shakeup at the beginning of the show. While Stephanie McMahon was receiving an undeserved reward, that familiar but unheard music hit and we heard “Here Comes the Money”. Just like that the Prodigal Son had returned. Shane-O-Mac was back! The one McMahon that we actually ever liked had returned to “SAVE US” (Y2J pun intended). The Authority is stale and Vince can only be an on air character in spurts, so this return makes logical sense. The match for control of Monday Night Raw that was set up between Shane and the Undertaker doesn’t make sense on the surface but hopefully will start to materialize and build leading to WrestleMania.
There are several ways that the outcome can affect the WWE on air leadership and the outcome of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. I will assume that the Undertaker will show on a few more Raw episodes leading up to WrestleMania 32 and help build toward the match and give clarity to the feud. By this match being a Hell In A Cell match, I do anticipate someone coming to the aide of Shane to allow for a victory and not give the Undertaker a clean loss to Shane. There are many people who have a reason to assist Shane to get Vince and the Authority off of Raw. The most obvious would be a Mega Swerve by WWE and we finally see Titus O’Neil get his long overdue push. Having Titus return during the match and assist Shane to win by giving the Undertaker a Clash of the Titus among other moves would cement him as a Shane guy and keep the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on HHH. I know we hear the rumors that HHH does not have a new on air personality contract but that’s not a big deal, he’s family they can work it out.
With the shock factor of Titus, Big Show, The Rock, Stone Cold, Ryback, The Wyatt Family, or Kane among other options including Baron Corbin from NXT, coming to the aide of Shane that could force Vince’s hand to ensure HHH retains the WWE World Heavyweight Championship because the champion has power. Having the champ retain would take heat off of Reigns who isn’t getting over mainly due to WWE tipping it’s hand too early and too late at the same time on Reigns. He should have had Batista’s spot a few years ago.
It seems to be a forgone conclusion that Roman Reigns will win his third (that is another story) WWE Championship at WrestleMania 32. The addition of Shane possibly running Monday Night Raw if he finds a way to win over Undertaker could cause the brand split to return and/or HHH to retain the belt. Shane must find a way to win so that his return isn’t worthless, Anything other than him running Monday Night Raw makes this a worthless Storyline and just a way to get Undertaker a winnable match at WM32. We could see the formation of a group to counteract the heel groups that are placed in prime positions in WWE as of now.
We could see Monday Night Raw under control of the Prodigal Son, we could see HHH find a way to win which could cause a character switch in Reigns to a guy who is pissed and needs to kick some butt to earn his spot back, Brock Lesnar could destroy Dean Ambrose and then set his sights on the Authority by screwing over the Undertaker, we could revisit the brand extension, and we could have a new Divas Champion. I do believe that Shane winning his match would have a snowball effect on the rest of WM 32 as it would allow many unexpected things to happen and all of them could be in some way tied to Shane winning. This is how the one event of Shane returning can affect WWE as a whole.
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