The WORST Wrestling Story Every Year (1989-2025)

2016 - Vince Vs. Shane McMahon

Vince Shane McMahon
WWE.com

The hell was this?

WWE, mired in an injury crisis, brought back Shane McMahon for a huge WrestleMania match against the Undertaker. (This worked, it should be noted; WWE shifted tens of thousands of tickets upon the announcement).

While commercially successful, creatively, this was staggeringly dumb - and it stood out, since Vince McMahon hadn’t quite reached his brain-worms era of 2018/19.

Shane came back, vowing to take control of Raw. Vince said he could have it - so long as he could defeat the Undertaker. The Undertaker, a babyface, didn’t seem pleased at the idea of being Vince’s instrument, but he went all along with it regardless. Those swimming pools don’t pay for themselves.

At one point, Shane mentioned that he knew what was in Vince’s “lockbox” - the implication being that Vince was harbouring some evil secret that would damn him in the eyes of the public. This was dropped.

The Undertaker defeated Shane at WrestleMania. The match was tedious. ‘Taker and Shane lived out their sad “we’d be good in the UFC if we tried” fantasies for about 20 minutes before doing the honourable thing and doing a roof bump off the sell.

It sucked. Shane fell onto what obviously was a crash pad, and while it would be dumb to expect the real Mick Foley experience, Michael Cole ruined the moment by very obviously reading his prepared line from a script. Just remember it, you hack.

Shane still took over Raw, rendering the entire, awful saga a complete waste of time.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!