Much is being said about Shane McMahon's recent meeting with AEW President Tony Khan. It's pretty obvious the photo didn't "leak" by accident and, at this point, we'd be shocked if the son of former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon isn't soon dubbed "All Elite."
Now, WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray (Bubba Ray Dudley) has shared a statement from Shane which he read out on the latest edition of Busted Open Radio.
"Tony and I were connected through a mutual friend and we had a great meeting," Shane said. "We talked about many things, but mostly about our shared love for the business and the rewards and challenges of working with family. I congratulated him on the five-year anniversary of AEW and look forward to see how he evolves the business moving forward."
This happening when Vince still ran WWE would have been unheard of, but it seems Shane is now weighing up his options. His father has been ousted from WWE amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations and Shane hasn't wrestled since he blew out both quads seconds into a match with The Miz at last year's WrestleMania.
As for Stephanie, she made a couple of appearances over this April's WrestleMania weekend, suggesting Endeavor has no problem with the wider McMahon family.
Despite that, WWE supposedly isn't keen to bring Shane back into the fold, likely because of the fallout from the 2022 Royal Rumble when he attempted to book the 30-man match around himself and subsequently clashed with wrestlers backstage.
"I know Shane McMahon has looked to get back in WWE," Dave Meltzer recently said on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio. "I know that the people in charge of WWE have no interest in him. Could that change with the idea that he would be willing to go to AEW? Maybe, maybe not. Would he really be willing to go to AEW?"
"I don’t know where his mind is. Shane got a lot, a lot of money if you compare the amount of money Shane got for the amount of work that he did when he was an active few-times-a-year pro wrestler. It was a really high number."
"Like I said, is it a leverage play for him to try to get back in WWE? Wouldn’t surprise me at all but I know from people in WWE, yeah, like I said, he’s tried to get back and they don’t have interest," Meltzer continued. "There’s a lot of negativity, I would say, has been there for a long time. And his coming back, it wasn’t like when he was gone they were begging him to come back."
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.