It’s no secret that Vince McMahon likes it when his performers are at least partially at odds behind-the-scenes. Especially leading up to WrestleMania. He was happy to see The Rock and John Cena get nasty on air to build up anticipation and tension for their match. He reveled in Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart hating each other. And it’s possible that Vince is setting the stage for Shane McMahon to have a real behind-the-scenes feud with the power couple of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
It’s been widely speculated that Shane McMahon left WWE because he saw that Stephanie and Triple H were being groomed to be successors and he was looking at being cut out. So, his return was sure to ruffle feathers. According to the Wrestling Observer, the speculation that Shane could come back and get some executive position, that threatens the grip Stephanie and Triple H have on the future of the company. Vince also apparently resents the idea that he’s out of touch and Stephanie and Hunter are the people with their fingers on the pulse. So, it’s possible that bringing Shane in is a gut punch to their expectations of taking over.
So, we can also look between the lines at the promos and see just how close into “shoot” territory everyone is getting.
As an aside, the Observer is also reporting that Triple H drew some heat from the powers that be for continuing to do public appearances without selling his beatdown from Roman Reigns. This is the same guy who had his arm “broken” by Brock Lesnar, then showed up totally healthy to hang out with Floyd Mayweather and Justin Bieber a week later, so I’m not sure what they expected.
