More on Shane McMahon’s Release & Backstage Issues at WWE’s Royal Rumble 2022 Event

This past Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble 2022 event in St. Louis, Missouri featured Shane McMahon making his in-ring return to WWE during the Men’s Royal Rumble match. McMahon was “let go” by the company earlier this week due to major issues and heat generated from his actions backstage during the event.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that while McMahon never had any real official management title within WWE since he did not work behind-the-scenes, he was working under a talent type contract. Meltzer reported that the longtime speculation of McMahon possibly taking over the company from his father Vince has been something that has not been true, even when he returned in 2009. McMahon reportedly was only brought back in 2009 under a talent contract and had no real backstage duties within the company.

Meltzer reported that besides the 2022 Men’s Royal Rumble match, McMahon had also worked as one of the producers for the 2020 and 2021 matches. McMahon reportedly was also involved in helping put together previous Men’s Rumble matches in the past dating back to the era of Pat Paterson producing the matches.

In regards to the backstage issues involving McMahon at this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble event, Meltzer reported that his sources stated that McMahon had a lot of trouble getting along with co-producer James Gibson, also known as Jamie Noble in WWE. One source spoken to stated that “Every single story you’ve already heard, multiplied many times over. He was unprofessional the likes of which left VKM (Vincent Kennedy McMahon) no options but to fire him.”

Besides Gibson, McMahon reportedly also had trouble working with Brock Lesnar over their different plans for the closing of the Men’s Rumble match. WWE officials and Vince ended up sided with Lesnar over this issue, who got to do a lot of the stuff he wanted to do while McMahon did not.

Meltzer reported that another main issue leading to McMahon’s eventual release was due to Bad Bunny being constantly confused backstage over the plans for the Men’s Rumble match. Bad Bunny reportedly kept being told different plans throughout the day of the event which led to WWE officials becoming worried over the negative perception of the company looking disorganized to real-life celebrities.