What if Shane McMahon is the next WWE Champion?

Shane McMahon did the unthinkable when he emerged the victor of the World Cup tournament at Crown Jewel, to earn a right to call himself “the best in the world.”

It felt like a bit of a farce for not only how absurd it was to call McMahon the best in a field that included Seth Rollins, Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Dolph Ziggler, Bobby Lashley, Jeff Hardy, and The Miz—any of whom it’s pretty tough to deny aren’t better on at least an all time list than Shane-O-Mac.

The win was even more absurd for how McMahon entered the tournament, skipping the first two rounds to go in fresh and sub in for a kayfabe injured Miz against a battle weary Ziggler.

While McMahon has played a face character on TV in recent years, the unfair advantage he took and the way he celebrated in such over the top fashion felt an awful lot like he was edging toward a heel turn.

Some rumors suggest it’s as simple a matter as reigniting Raw vs. SmackDown tensions going into Survivor Series, but what if there is more in play?

Shane McMahon in no way deserves to be world champion, especially at this point in his career, and especially on a roster that also includes AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, and Shinsuke Nakamura, in addition to the World Cup competitors.

But what if McMahon, not unlike his father in especially his ECW run, plays the corrupt leader who positions himself to be champion? This article takes a look at that very possibility.

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5. Over the top heel promos

Shane McMahon will get a lot more obnoxious if he collects the WWE Championship.

It would be just about impossible for Shane McMahon to win the WWE Championship without turning heel, or at least WWE anticipating a huge heel reaction for perceptions of nepotism and more worthy champions getting bypassed.

WWE is smart enough in 2018 to recognize that, especially for hardcore smart fans, putting McMahon on top of SmackDown wouldn’t go over any better than his World Cup victory.

As such, we’d have to expect that McMahon’s over the top joyous celebration of winning the World Cup—despite only wrestling for three minutes and beating an exhausted opponent—was the tip of the iceberg.

If he took the WWE Championship, no matter how he might do it, we could expect him to go even more over the top in his arrogant heel shtick as he portrays himself as standing tall among great champions like Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and John Cena.

4. The fans get back behind AJ Styles

Seeing Shane McMahon steal the title might get fans excited about AJ Styles again.

An interesting thing has happened as AJ Styles’s current WWE Championship reign broaches the one year mark. While he’s still highly respected and darling of Internet fans, the audience also seems to have grown bored with him on top.

To be fair, that might have more to do with WWE more often than not booking him in lukewarm situations, as opposed to any fault of Styles’s own. Just the same, more fans than anyone would have expected seem to be calling for him to drop the strap.

Having Shane McMahon be the one to unseat Styles after such a long reign, only for Styles to give chase could be just the thing to reignite fans’ passion about The Phenomenal One.

Even if Styles were not to regain his title, the righteous indignation that he dropped the title not to Shinsuke Nakamura or Samoa Joe, but to a McMahon would be enough get the hardcore audience fired up.

3. Daniel Bryan vs. Shane McMahon

Daniel Bryan would be a natural rival to Shane McMahon as a heel champ.

The conventional wisdom is that Daniel Bryan isn’t yet done with The Miz, and that the two may square off one more time at WrestleMania 35, potentially with the WWE Championship involved.

There is another direction for WWE to go, though, which might play off of similar dynamics of Bryan as the serious and talented wrestler going against the arrogant heel who can’t really hang with him. That’s Bryan vs. Shane McMahon.

Bryan and McMahon have no shortage of history to play off of, after over a year and a half of sharing authority figure duties on SmackDown. That era includes them butting heads more than once, in addition to ultimately teaming up at WrestleMania 34 for Bryan’s return to the ring.

A one on one match between the two at a showcase event—maybe even WreslteMania 35—could be a fine way to tie up their story, and Bryan is uniquely situated as the only guy who may be even more credible than Styles as a respected face fans would want to see destroy Shane-O-Mac.

2. Shane McMahon’s a heel for a while

Shane McMahon winning the title is likely to cement his heel status for years to come.

There are those times when WWE engages with short term turns to experiment or fill a void in the card. Consider Braun Strowman or Nia Jax each edging heel when the show demanded it opposite Roman Reigns and Ronda Rousey, respectively.

For Shane McMahon, though, a heel turn would mean more than a simple, short storyline contrivance. In booking him to win the World Cup the way he did, WWE seemed to acknowledge the simmering disdain hardcore fans have had for him in recent years.

Yes, it was a huge deal to see Shane-O-Mac first return to WWE, and immediately get slotted in a Hell in a Cell Match with The Undertaker. Neither that match, nor any of McMahon’s other in ring efforts since have been particularly good (or at least good in a way that can be credited to McMahon).

The general consensus is that fans feel like he’s taking the spotlight and big match opportunities away from more deserving talents.

So, if WWE does go full throttle into this heel turn, especially with a title reign, we can assume that they’re not looking to turn back anytime soon—McMahon will join the rest of his family as a default heel for years to come.

1. A face turn for Stephanie McMahon

Stephanie McMahon may balance out her brother's heel turn.

Stephanie McMahon has mostly played a heel for the last five years. However, she has shown glimmers of face behavior like being the face of WWE in making announcements about the Women’s Royal Rumble and Evolution.

Additionally, she has won the begrudging respect of a number of fans for moments like allowing Vickie Guerrero to throw her in a mud pit on her last night, or tapping out to Ronda Rousey in her debut match.

To strike a broader balance in the WWE Universe, it’s conceivable WWE will turn Shane heel and Stephanie face. This dynamic would particularly make sense for the annual brand wars between Raw and SmackDown, as having both brand’s leaders play heel may make it especially difficult for either side to generate sympathy.

Maybe we’ll even see Shane send some top female talent from SmackDown like Becky Lynch to attack his sister to really heat up the storyline. While Shane could reach nuclear levels of heat with his world title reign, Stephanie could come off all the better for trying to stay out of the fray, and finding creative ways to come back at her sibling.