Home Notebook: What value, other than shock value, would Shane McMahon bring to AEW?
Wrestling

Notebook: What value, other than shock value, would Shane McMahon bring to AEW?

Chris Graham
shane mcmahon
(© Christopher Lyzcen – Shutterstock)

Shane McMahon has confirmed that he met with AEW owner Tony Khan earlier this week, which he didn’t really need to do, since there was a photo, but still.

He called it a “meeting,” in a message that he asked Bully Ray to share on “Busted Open Radio” on Thursday, which Bully Ray said is significant, that McMahon called it a “meeting.”

“He didn’t say, ‘We got together for coffee.’ It wasn’t something just casual. Normally, when you have a meeting, what are you discussing? You’re discussing business,” Bully Ray said on the show.


AEW


A “meeting” between a McMahon and Khan is bound to get people speculating about a possible business venture between McMahon’s father, Vince, and Khan, now that Vince McMahon is out of the picture at the company that he led for 40-plus years, WWE.

It’s certainly possible that Shane McMahon was acting as an emissary for his father, but I think it’s more likely that he got together with Khan to test the waters for something much more innocent, like becoming an on-air talent for AEW, as he was for the past 14 years of his run in WWE.

Keep in mind that Shane McMahon was not involved on the business side at WWE following his 2010 resignation as a company executive vice president, so I don’t see Khan mining Shane for ideas on the business side at AEW, or a possible role in the corporate hierarchy at the company.

Shane’s value to AEW at this point is just the McMahon name, and getting that McMahon name on AEW TV a time or two.

Basically, it’s shock value.

It would be worth it for Khan to throw Shane a couple of six-figure checks to get that shock value, and for Shane McMahon, it’s not like he has any value to WWE anymore, with his father gone, and a sports-entertainment conglomerate running the company.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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