WWE announced on Monday morning that Shane McMahon will appear on this week’s Monday Night Raw. McMahon played a big role on WWE television in 2019, first teaming with The Miz to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships before turning heel and feuding with his former partner, followed by programs with Roman Reigns, The Undertaker and Kevin Owens. That last feud with Owens resulted in him getting written off television, losing a ladder match in October where Owens was given the right to fire him. He’s reportedly been working as a backstage producer since then.
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It’s unclear if McMahon’s return means authority figures are making a comeback, though it does come two weeks after Stephanie McMahon popped up to issue a ruling on the Raw Women’s Championship.
Shane-O-Mac is back!@shanemcmahon RETURNS to #WWERaw TONIGHT. What will he have in store? pic.twitter.com/el0kAtiUpg
— WWE (@WWE) August 3, 2020
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Elsewhere on Raw this week Drew McIntyre and Asuka will both look to get revenge on Randy Orton and Sasha Banks, respectively. Apollo Crews will also make his return and face MVP to crown the undisputed United States Champion.
Over the past few months Monday Night Raw has been struggling mightily with television ratings, breaking the record for lowest viewership in show history multiple times. Vince McMahon addressed those struggles in the recent annual shareholders meeting.
“We have a 30-plus year track record of creating compelling characters and engaging a variety of audiences, and we obviously remain confident we can continue that with our collective ability, even in the most challenging environments with no live audience.
“The media echo system obviously has changed. We change with it. Our engagement metrics across platforms are understandably and obviously — however, the importance of linear programming is paramount in all of our businesses — we consistently have seen year-over-year increases in a variety of digital metrics and engagement. And positive trends have continued, even during COVID.”
He was then asked about the ratings again during last week’s quarterly earnings conference call, saying that NXT and AEW had both bounced back from the initial hit of the pandemic because they are “newer.”
