Ranking every single Shane McMahon one-on-one match since his 2016 return

Shane turned heel at Fastlane
Shane turned heel at Fastlane

Shane McMahon finally turned heel at Fastlane, attacking The Miz in his hometown of Cleveland. He even put his hands on Miz's father, George Mizanin. Honestly, this has been a long time coming. The owner's son made an enormous return to WWE on the Raw after Fastlane in 2016, covering for major injuries to a host of the company's top stars. What was initially a short-term deal turned into a permanent stay for Shane O'Mac on WWE programming.

He has always played the popular babyface, the good McMahon if you will. But deep down, we all knew he had some bad. After all, he is a McMahon. Shane is set to face his former tag team partner at WrestleMania, in what could be a really fun match. He has wrestled quite a few times since his return, with most of them coming in tag team action at Survivor Series, or in his most recent run with The Awesome One. The former SmackDown commissioner has had four one-on-one matches in the past three years, a pretty surprising stat considering how much of the spotlight he gets.

Anyway, here is every Shane McMahon one-on-one match since his 2016 return, ranked from worst to best.


#4 Shane O'Mac vs Dolph Ziggler (Crown Jewel 2018)

Best in the World
Best in the World

This match was a travesty and had zero redeeming qualities, aside from the fact that it set up the entire angle between The Miz and Shane McMahon. WWE held a World Cup tournament (with 8 Americans) at the infamous Crown Jewel event, with the finals guaranteed to be a Raw vs SmackDown bout. That match was scheduled to be Miz vs Dolph Ziggler, but a pre-match injury changed everything. Mr SmackDown, Shane McMahon, would swiftly replace his brand's representative and face Ziggler for the “prestigious” Best in the World trophy.

The match went for a couple of minutes and garnered a “This is awesome” chant from the Riyadh crowd, however, this was anything but awesome. After interference from Raw general manager Baron Corbin, Shane quickly gained control and won the match with the Coast-to-Coast Dropkick.

With a non-wrestler winning this WWE World Cup, it turned out to be a terrible mockery of a supposed accolade that WWE built up pretty vigorously in the previous weeks. But hey, at least it led to Miz vs Shane at WrestleMania.

#3 Shane O'Mac vs The Undertaker (WrestleMania 32)

This match felt like a slog
This match felt like a slog

When he returned to WWE in 2016, Shane McMahon was only supposed to be in WWE for a couple of months. So many top stars including John Cena, Seth Rollins, Sting, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton were injured for WrestleMania and would not wrestle. This left WWE incredibly short and without a suitable opponent for The Undertaker.

One family phone call later, and we got our match. Shane O'Mac vs The Deadman in a Hell in a Cell match. The segment in which it was announced was extremely exciting and this match garnered a spike in ticket sales for the largest WrestleMania till date.

However, the match was pretty dull. It went close to half an hour and there were no shenanigans whatsoever. Before the match, fans put on their fantasy booking hats and played certain scenarios in their heads where various wrestlers of the past would interfere in this match. Guys like Austin, Michaels and Foley would have made this match better.

Shane vs Undertaker turned out to be one huge spot in a 30-minute match. After no interference at all, the owner's son took to the top of the cage and leapt from 20 feet, crashing through the announce table. This was a memorable WrestleMania moment, but the match that preceded was not very good at all.

#2 Shane O'Mac vs Kevin Owens (Hell in a Cell 2017)

This was a great match
This was a great match

One and a half year after his experience with The Deadman inside, and on top of, Hell in a Cell, Shane McMahon returned to the Satanic structure. This time, he faced Kevin Owens in a match that was also Falls Count Anywhere.

The build to this match was great. The SmackDown commissioner accidentally cost Owens a couple of United States title matches against AJ Styles, causing The Prizefighter to viciously attack Vince McMahon. It was a savage beatdown on a man in his 70's, one of the most memorable moments in Owens's WWE career so far.

After that came the match. This was so much better than the WrestleMania 32 match with ‘Taker. After a really long period, Owens and Shane ended up fighting on top of the Cell for a frustratingly long time, before Shane got the better of that exchange. He looked to do the exact same thing he almost did at WrestleMania against ‘Taker, but this time he crashed and burned after a major swerve.

Sami Zayn moved Owens out of the way, rescuing him from certain injury. This moment was genuinely shocking, as Zayn saved his eternal nemesis from certain doom, kicking start an entertaining partnership, but months of the same tiring feud.

#1 Shane O'Mac vs AJ Styles (WrestleMania 33)

This match stole the show at The Showcase of the Immortals
This match stole the show at The Showcase of the Immortals

Shane McMahon is not a full-time wrestler, but he can certainly hold his own in the ring against even the best in the world. That was what happened at WrestleMania 33. When it was rumoured that AJ Styles might face his Blue brand boss at WrestleMania, fans groaned in frustration.

It seemed like a demotion for Styles, after an entertaining title reign. While this was no WWE Championship match, it was still a big deal. Just remember, any match involving the owner's son is a big deal. These two entered 'Mania with hardly much buzz, leaving the door open and the opportunity there for the show to be stolen.

AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon opened the main card of WrestleMania and both of them wrestled an absolute blinder under the cloudy skies of Orlando. Shane matched AJ almost move-for-move in this match, with some slick counters from both performers.

A Phenomenal Forearm was countered into a Triangle Choke, which was then countered into a Styles Clash. It was just beautiful to watch. Shane crashed through the announce table again, from the top rope, before another slick counter of AJ’s forearm into a DDT. A failed Shooting Star Press later, Shane lost the match. But what a match it was, with these two completely steeling the show.

Hopefully, Shane vs Miz is more like this, and less like the WrestleMania 32 match.

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