Wrestling

Shane McMahon’s return to WWE ‘Raw’ fuels talk of C-suite role

Prodigal sons rarely receive the raucous homecoming that Shane McMahon got on his return Monday night to WWE’s “Raw.”

In his first appearance since resigning from the family-run company nearly six years ago, the 46-year-old son of WWE kingpin Vince McMahon had the crowd — thanks to video boards screaming his name — chanting, “This is awesome!”

Shane left the WWE in 2010 to, in his words, “make it on his own.” Well, it looks like Shane has been reading the business pages between visits to the gym.

While “Raw” contained the usual over-the-top McMahon scripted mayhem, Shane also played a C-suite role by discussing the issues surrounding the company’s performance.

He told his 70-year-old dad that he is the rightful heir to the WWE throne — not his sister Stephanie, who is WWE’s chief brand officer. Shane also blamed current management for the company’s lackluster stock performance.

WWE shares are fractionally down over the last six years during his absence — while the S&P 500 Index is up 74 percent over the same span.

But can Shane step right in and run Vince’s circus?

Shane McMahonGetty Images

“Shane’s digital, international and a helluva performer,” said one media industry executive who produces wrestling entertainment. “I’ve never heard anyone who’s worked with him say a bad word about him.”

Shane also asked his CEO dad if he could take control of “Raw,” the company’s highly rated USA Network show.

Vince said he was willing to honor that request provided the wayward offspring prove himself in a match with The Undertaker — a 6-foot-10 WWE veteran whom Vince described as “not quite as big as Shane’s ego.” The son accepted the challenge amid a chorus in the crowd of “You still got it.”

So is Shane really going to take over running the Monday night show? Don’t hold your breath.

A WWE spokesman advised against reading too much into Shane’s bid to run “Raw,” saying the son’s merely “playing a character on a TV show.”

But Chris Harrington, who covers the financials of professional wrestling for Wrestlenomics Radio, called Shane’s possible return to WWE’s executive suite “a tantalizing puzzle piece” in light of the company’s designs on China.

China is one of the few major countries not yet served by WWE Network — the company’s two-year-old over-the-top offering — and much is riding on its success in a market so difficult to crack, even Netflix is being kept at bay.

However, upon leaving WWE, Shane became CEO of You On Demand, the first video-on-demand and pay-per-view service in China.

“He has spent years focused on the issue of how do you generate real revenue with Chinese OTT media,” Harrington wrote Wednesday in a piece for Seeking Alpha. “That’s a topic where WWE needs an expert.”