Kevin Owens could have had his $100,000 fine rescinded on SmackDown Live. Instead, the show went off the air with him being fired by Shane McMahon.

Shane McMahon has been inexplicably absent from WWE TV for the last few weeks. Honestly, it has been a breath of fresh air. This week on SmackDown, Shane O Mac returned. Partly due to SmackDown emanating live from MSG, but also because there was a tournament spot open for him to insert himself into.

Early on in the show, McMahon revealed that Elias had broken his ankle. That meant Chad Gable had no opponent in his King of the Ring semifinal. Rather than give him a bye, McMahon assured Gable that he would find him an opponent. That opponent wound up being himself, naturally. McMahon doing the same thing during WWE's World Cup was even hinted at.

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To ensure that "luck" was on his side, McMahon recruited himself a special guest referee. Kevin Owens. Although the two of them are mortal enemies, McMahon promised KO he would rescind the $100,000 fine he issued him if he did his job correctly. That naturally left Owens with quite the quandary as we all know what Shane O Mac's idea of doing the job properly meant.

kevin owens shane mcmahon
via WWE

Gable managed to win the match incredibly quickly via a rollup. However, with ten minutes of the show left, we knew there'd be a twist. McMahon then made the match a two out of three falls affair. After some not so kosher back and forth, Gable locked in an ankle lock and forced McMahon to tap, thus booking his spot in the KOTR final versus Baron Corbin at Clash of Champions.

Since KO had nothing to do with the final decision as Shane tapped, he technically did his job properly. McMahon obviously didn't see it that way. The irate loser blindsided Owens after the match and pinned him to the mat. McMahon then angrily informed KO that he was fired, and that's how SmackDown went off the air. Fingers crossed we see the fired party show up on the PPV this Sunday and somehow get his revenge on McMahon.

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