9 Last-Minute WWE Disasters That Came So Close To Ruining WrestleManias!

1. Shane McMahon’s Severe Infection In The Lead-Up - WrestleMania 34

Shane O Mac was involved in a big-time match at WrestleMania 34 when he teamed with the returning Daniel Bryan after Bryan amazingly got medically cleared to wrestle after 3 years away from the squared circle to take on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. It wasn’t only the return match for one of the most beloved wrestlers in WWE history, it was meant to be the conclusion to Shane’s lengthy storyline with Owens and Zayn. But a gigantic infection nearly spoiled these plans. WWE.com a few weeks before the event posted ‘Shane McMahon is currently recovering from acute diverticulitis and an umbilical hernia in a New York-area medical facility.’

WWE made haste in trying to come up with backup plans for ‘Mania that year because of Shane’s hospitalization. Chris Jericho has even revealed on his Talk Is Jericho podcast that Vince McMahon contacted him about possibly replacing Shane. Jericho had a history with Owens but was out of WWE at this point, having started his run in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and was touring with Fozzy the same day as WrestleMania. This still didn’t stop The Chairman though, with Jericho revealing;

“A few weeks before WrestleMania, maybe three or four weeks, I get a call from Vince. And he’s talking about Shane and his appendix, or not his appendix, his diverticulitus, and he had an infection in his hand and he had a staph infection and he had a hernia. And he goes, ‘Listen, we don’t know if he can do ‘Mania.’ And he had somehow looked, or got someone to look at my schedule, and we had a Fozzy show that day. So he was like ‘I know you’re doing a Fozzy show, and you’re gonna watch WrestleMania with your fans,’ he goes, ‘what would you think about coming to New Orleans if Shane can’t do it?’ And it’s funny because we were looking, we were googling airports, and it was in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, like the most out of the way place. We were looking up airports close to Hampton Beach and how long is the charter to get there (New Orleans), and he was like ‘Okay, you can make it right on time and we’ll give you a police escort, and you’ll basically have to go right into the ring.’”

In the end though Shane proved he has the same genes as his Genetic Jackhammer father and made an astounding recovery just in time for WrestleMania 34.