10 Biggest WWE Creative Mistakes Of 2016
7. Shane McMahon's Lockbox
Shane McMahon made a welcome return earlier this year. In a promotion often dominated by megalomaniacal authority figures, Shane is a likeable presence on SmackDown, and while guilty of hogging the spotlight a little too often, his presence is a lot more tolerable than his sister’s on Raw.
Unfortunately, the road that saw him become SD’s Commissioner was long, winding, and incredibly contrived. Shane came back to WWE to demand his father cede control of Raw to him, and used a lockbox full of sensitive information to blackmail Vince’s compliance Vince, of course, started panicking: the box presumably contained some of his deepest, darkest secrets, and if they were revealed to the world, he’d be ruined.
Vince and Shane struck a deal: Shane would face The Undertaker at WrestleMania, and if he won, he’d have control. If he lost, however, he’d leave the company forever, and Vince would remain in-charge.
What happened? Shane lost, Vince gave him the job regardless, and the lockbox was never mentioned again. The charade rendered Shane vs. Taker utterly meaningless in the end, and the lockbox joins the pantheon of unfinished WWE storylines. Creative could scarcely have come up with a more hackneyed way to reintroduce Shane McMahon.