February 7, 2022 Observer Newsletter: Shane McMahon gone from WWE, Royal Rumble review

Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey won the 2022 Royal Rumble matches and will headline WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.

But perhaps the biggest news coming out of the Royal Rumble is that Shane McMahon is out of the company.

Shane McMahon never had an official title with the company as he didn’t work behind the scenes but does have a talent contract. While people fantasize about his being the guy to take over from Vince, something he probably figured was his birthright, nothing has changed since 2009 when he left the company because that was not going to happen. While he has appeared as talent on television and even as an authority figure on Smackdown, his only role in the company since leaving was as talent.

He was brought back as a secret entrant in the Royal Rumble, and also to produce the match, then go into the Elimination Chamber and finally wrestle Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. Shane McMahon had worked on previous Royal Rumble matches in the past, dating back to the Pat Patterson days. In 2020 and 2021, he was one of the producers for the Rumble even though he doesn’t work as a producer regularly, and has sometimes helped out backstage when he is at tapings. He was brought back this year as well, but there were many complaints about how he wanted to build the match around himself and issues involving co-producer James Gibson (Jamie Noble).

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