He is the Crown Prince of WWE, Shane O’Mac and now, the self-proclaimed Best in the World. Shane McMahon, the son of WWE owner Vince has been appearing in front of the WWE Universe for more than three decades. He debuted as a referee in 1988 before transitioning into a backstage personality and then the on-air character we know today.
Over the years McMahon has fought both alongside and against his father and sister and all of those battles have brought him face to face with some of WWE’s top stars. Despite turning down the 1999 Pro Wrestling Rookie of the Year award, saying “these are for the boys, not me”, Shane O’Mac has put on some stellar feuds in his time. Here are some of the best.
10 Test
After his first – but by no means last – confrontation with Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1999 left Shane with his ownership control over the then-WWF reinstated (Austin had temporarily held 50% control of the company), McMahon turned his attention to his sister’ Stephanie’s on-air boyfriend Test.
Shane O’Mac announced that he did not approve of his sister dating “beneath” her standards. He and the Mean Street Posse set out to make the Canadian superstar’s life a living hell. The feud culminated in a “Love Her Or Leave Her” match between the pair at Summerslam 1999. Shane lost and was forced to give his blessing to the pair.
9 Steve Blackman
During the year 2000, Shane began uniting with heel wrestlers to further both their causes and his own. This included helping Chris Benoit against The Rock and enlisting Test and Albert’s help against Big Show. It also led to Shane’s run as Hardcore Champion, a belt he took from “The Most Dangerous Man In The World” Steve Blackman.
Shane won the belt with the help of Edge and Christian but would be forced to battle Blackman for the championship again at Summerslam. Their brief feud ended with Shane taking his iconic 50ft fall from the scaffolding, after Blackman hit him with a Singapore cane as he was trying to get away.
8 Kane
After a two-year hiatus following his firing at the end of the Invasion angle, Shane returned to WWE in 2003 as his father was in the mist of a feud with Hulk Hogan. He then faced off with Eric Bischoff over remarks Bischoff made about Shane’s mother Linda McMahon. But it was the actions of another superstar to his mother which sparked one of Shane’s most brutal battles.
After Kane tombstoned Linda McMahon, Shane rushed to her rescue and confronted the Big Red Machine. This bitter battle included a Last Man Standing Match at Unforgiven in 2003 and the first ever Ambulance Match at Survivor Series, which saw Shane put Kane through a table and hit him with an SUV before losing the contest.
7 Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon stood side-by-side as members of the Alliance (sort of) for parts of the Invasion angle, but it started with the two at each other’s throats. It began immediately after Judgement Day, when Shane interrupted Angle’s celebration of his victory at the PPV and mocked his achievements.
After Angle attacked McMahon, Shane returned the favour the next week, executing Angle’s own finishing move against him. The feud led to one of the most violent matches of recent times at King of the Ring 2001, which included Angle taking multiple attempts to put Shane through a plate glass window on the set.
6 D-Generation X
In early 2006, Shane became embroiled in his father’s feud with Shawn Michaels. The McMahon heir eliminated HBK from the Royal Rumble and then continued to attack him, forcing him to kiss Vince McMahon’s ass and defeating him in a Montreal-style screwjob on Saturday Night’s Main Event.
After a tag match between the McMahon’s and Michaels with his partner “God” at Backlash, Triple H came to his old friend’s aid, reforming DX. The duo then went to war with the McMahons, culminating in DX beating Vince and Shane at Summerslam and again at Unforgiven in a Hell in a Cell match also including ECW Champion Big Show.
5 Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
McMahon and Owens came to blows during the latter’s attempts to win the United States Championship from AJ Styles in 2017. After both combatants were warned not to put their hands on Shane, who was acting as guest referee, Owens and McMahon came to blows during a match at Summerslam.
This led to a Hell in a Cell match at the 2017 Hell in a Cell PPV, where Sami Zayn interfered to save Owens and gift him the win. The trio continued their confrontation at Fastlane in 2018, when Shane stopped both Owens and Zayn winning the six-pack challenge for the WWE Title and Owens superkicked McMahon. The duo then attacked Shane on the next edition of Smackdown, leading to a tag match at Wrestlemania which Shane and his partner Daniel Bryan won.
4 The Miz
After McMahon replaced The Miz in the finals of the 2018 WWE World Cup due to injury, he went on to win the tournament. Miz began to seek a tag team with Shane and the pair eventually won the Smackdown Tag Team Titles from The Bar at the Royal Rumble in 2019.
But after they lost the titles at Elimination Chamber, Shane turned on his “Co-Bestie” and attacked him, declaring himself the “Best in the World”. The pair battled in a Falls Count Anywhere match at Wrestlemania 35, where Shane assaulted Miz’s father, and again in a cage match a Money in the Bank, with Shane winning both times.
3 Stone Cold Steve Austin
It is inconceivable that the heir to Vince McMahon could have avoided crossing paths with his father’s nemesis, and Shane has faced off with the Texas Rattlesnake many times over the years. In 2005, Shane and his family all received Stone Cold Stunners from Austin on the three-hour Homecoming edition of Raw. But the two faced off long before that during Austin’s battle with Vince McMahon in 1999.
After Shane took control of The Corporation, the faction joined with The Ministry under Vince McMahon’s leadership to try and halt Austin’s run as WWF Champion. When Linda and Stephanie McMahon announced they had made Austin 50% owner of the then WWF, he and the McMahons went to war, including Austin dumping manure outside Vince’s office. At King of the Ring, Shane and Vince beat Austin in a ladder match to regain control of the company.
2 Randy Orton & The Legacy
After Randy Orton punt kicked Vince McMahon in the head on an episode of Raw in January 2009, Shane returned and attacked The Viper. The two would face off in a No Holds Barred match at No Way Out and an unsanctioned match on Raw, with Shane losing on both occasions.
On a March edition of Raw, Shane appeared alongside Triple H and Vince McMahon to attack Orton and his Legacy cohorts Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes. Shane, Triple H and the returning Batista then faced Orton and Legacy in a six-man tag match at Backlash, with Triple H’s WWE Championship on the line in a match which Orton won.
1 The Invasion/Vince McMahon
In 2001, Vince and Shane McMahon came to blows over the elder’s affair with Trish Stratus and plans to divorce Shane’s mother Linda. With a father vs son match set for Wrestlemania 17, Shane revealed he had bought WWF’s rival company WCW days before Vince himself planned to do so.
After winning at Wrestlemania, Shane and his sister Stephanie united WCW and ECW in a bid to run their father out of business. The inter-promotional battle came to a head at Survivor Series, where Kurt Angle turned on The Alliance and handed WWF and Vince McMahon the win.