Shane McMahon, the former WWE executive and wrestler, had a meeting earlier this week with Tony Khan, the President of AEW, at a private airport in Arlington, Texas, as we’ve mentioned previously. Assumptions are being made that this could be McMahon’s strategy to negotiate a potential return to WWE.
McMahon had exited WWE in 2009, at which point he let go of all his WWE shares to invest in other commercial projects. When he made his WWE comeback in 2016, he was under a lucrative wrestling contract, without holding any off-stage executive position as he had done previously.
McMahon received criticism from some WWE insiders after the 2022 Royal Rumble event, where he is reported to have tried to centre the match around himself, causing backstage disagreements with other wrestlers.
Dave Meltzer, on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, mentioned that despite McMahon’s attempts to re-engage with WWE, those within the organization don’t seem interested.
Meltzer commented, “I know Shane McMahon has looked to get back in WWE. I know that the people in charge of WWE have no interest in him. Could that change with the idea that he would be willing to go to AEW? Maybe, maybe not. Would he really be willing to go to AEW? I don’t know where his mind is…Shane got a lot, a lot of money if you compare the amount of money Shane got for the amount of work that he did when he was an active few-times-a-year pro wrestler. It was a really high number.”
Additionally, Meltzer expressed, “As I’ve said, is this a strategic move for him to try to return to WWE? I wouldn’t be surprised at all but I know from people in WWE, yeah, like I’ve said, he’s tried to return and they don’t seem interested. There’s a lot of resentment, I would say, which has been there for a long time. His return wasn’t exactly eagerly awaited. Linda (McMahon) was really pushing for a long time for him to return and they accepted him back largely due to injuries and knowing his bout with the Undertaker at WrestleMania 32 would do good business. He had no role in the company other than being a very handsomely paid talent. He held no executive position or anything of that kind.”