One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY WWE WrestleMania

18. WrestleMania 24 | The Original Idea For And Mastermind Behind Floyd Mayweather

Shane McMahon thought that he was one day going to run WWE. In a world warped by nepotism, it was his birthright. 

An under-reported 2009 departure that felt far more acrimonious than was ever made public put paid to his life’s dream. There’s fleeting evidence of his qualifications, which is what usually happens when somebody doesn’t have to prove themselves elsewhere in the same field. Shane was an MMA obsessive who predicted the popularity of the sport, but that’s not the same thing as actually promoting UFC. Shane did sense the rift between the young and ageing fans in the WWE audience, and campaigned for the ECW reboot to become a web-only, anything-goes real alternative accordingly. (Ironically, it was his competitor for the throne, Triple H, who improved his reputation by gunning for the hardcore fan with NXT). Shane’s combat sports fixation is what ultimately led to the Floyd Mayweather deal: it was Shane’s idea, and his father, for once, agreed. 

After the most famously detestable sportsman of his generation was initially portrayed as a babyface (of course), WWE got Floyd Mayweather right in the end. Watching the most deadly man in the world become a stooging pro wrestling heel bumping for the Big Show was magic of the most unlikely kind. 

Shane knew what to do before Vince did: per the February 25, 2008 Observer, Shane’s initial idea was for Floyd to team up with an unspecified heel to wrestle Oscar De La Hoya and, before injury ruled him out, Rey Mysterio.