The relationship between a father and son can be complicated in the best of times, but imagine if both are in the limelight, with every move being scrutinized and every little action being put under the microscope. Also, imagine if Vince is your dad; controversy’s his middle name, and he doesn’t really give a damn about anything as long as he keeps raking in the cash and WWE keeps growing as a company. There must have been some interesting times for the McMahon kids when they were growing up, especially after witnessing Vince’s crazy antics over the years on screen; he’d hardly likely to have been a docile dad. Shane must have been affected in some way, the goings on as a kid must have shaped his personality and contributed to him being the person he is today, which incidentally, is a rather successful businessman and family man.

The McMahons really are a fascinating entity in the world of wrestling entertainment – and in entertainment full stop. The business they’re in allows for different personalities, and over the years we’ve seen the differences between the McMahon kids and the main man himself. Because of Stephanie’s role at WWE, a lot of what she does comes to light. But what about her elder sibling – Shane? Here are some fascinating facts – things you didn’t know about the father-son dynamic between Vince and Shane.

15 15. Shane Had To Grow Up Really Fast As A Kid

Now that Vince is raking in the cash and has achieved billionaire status, it might surprise a lot of you to know that at one point – actually on a few occasions, pretty much for the duration of Shane and Stephanie’s childhood – he and his family were really struggling financially. In fact, things got so bad that Vince and Linda filed for bankruptcy, but Vince never gave up on his daily struggle of trying to accomplish his dream and make it big, and evidently it all worked out.

During these hard times, Vince was out of the house constantly, working multiple jobs just to keep their heads above water. So, with the parents out and about, the responsibility fell on young Shane to look after his younger sibling. Shane essentially took on the parental responsibility of raising Stephanie and therefore had to grow up and become wise beyond his years really fast.

14 14. Vince Made Shane Pay His Dues

By 1998, Shane was beginning to appear more and more regularly on WWE television as a notable member of The Corporation. Shane and Vince were founding members of The Corporation and the villainous stable went on to terrorize the rest of the roster until it disbanded around five months down the line. This is the first time we really started seeing what Shane was all about – we started seeing him in a different capacity, other than as a referee.

But he wasn’t just thrust into The Corporation. Vince made Shane pay his dues to get to that stage; he’d been doing the unglamorous jobs backstage for many years, was willing to be the general dogsbody of the WWE locker room, and this earned him a tremendous amount of respect.

13 13. Vince Got Pissed Off With Shane’s Partying Ways

When Shane first started appearing on our screens, his performances didn’t capture our imagination. Sure, it’s safe to say he grew into his role and got better with experience, but during those initial stages he was still finding his feet, and it was evident. Part of the reason may be because – as Vince thought – he wasn’t taking his work with WWE too serious. Why did he get that impression? Because at one stage Shane seemed more preoccupied with partying and becoming best buddies with some of the prominent names on the roster, than growing into his role with the company. He used to stay out until the wee hours of the morning, getting intoxicated with some of WWE’s talent; he consequently got sloppy on occasions and Vince wasn’t best pleased as these wild escapades began affecting his work.

12 12. Shane’s Violent Run-Ins With The Talent

I’ve just mentioned how Shane loved spending all night drinking with the stars. But on occasions, it wasn’t just raucous boyish behavior that ensued. Sometimes things got physicals – between Shane and some of his wrestling drinking buddies – and as you can expect, this caused Vince a number of headaches.

Vince disapproved of Shane’s partying ways and felt he should have been focussing more on this work, but hearing about these crazy antics must have been close to pushing Vince over the edge.

Apparently, there were a few instances where things got physical after a night of drinking, but one sticks out, where Bret Hart was Shane’s drinking buddy for the night. Bret’s wife was also there, and Shane thought it’d be a good idea to grab her butt. Of course, Bret’s wife didn’t take to kindly to being groped, and Bret wasn’t going to stand idly by and do nothing, thus things got a little physical.

11 11. Shane Was The First McMahon To Win A Title In WWE

The fact that Vince, Shane and Stephanie have all won wrestling titles, and with companies owned by Vince, has unsurprisingly brought a lot of criticism Vince’s way.

Vince’s reign as WWE Champion was laughable, Stephanie’s run as Women's Champion wasn’t much better, but what may surprise a lot of you – because he often flies under the radar and his accomplishments in wrestling tend to get forgotten about – is that Shane got his hands on a WWE tile first, becoming the first McMahon to do so. Sure, the title he won wasn’t the main belt, but he won it all the same. In 1999 he won the European Championship from X-Pac, and probably being so proud of his accomplishment, he later wanted to retire the belt, which would’ve meant that forever more he’d be known as the undefeated European Champion. He didn’t get his wish.

10 10. Shane Was Meant To Run WCW And ECW

Shane’s been associated with WWE in some capacity or another for an eternity, and being Vince’s son and his eldest, many thought that it was a given that he’d eventually take over certain aspects of the promotion and begin running things. But Shane kind of fell by the wayside and Stephanie came to the forefront.

While Shane was working under his dad he was eager to have a more prominent role in the company, and that’s how the idea came about that Shane would actually run WCW as a separate company entirely. It was Shane’s idea and unfortunately for him it was only he who thought it was a good idea. Vince shot it down and did the same when Shane brought up the idea about relaunching ECW as an online company.

9 9. Shane Almost Got Vince To Buy MMA Companies

Shane was eager to take control of things and start running a company on his own – wrestling or otherwise.

In the early 2000s he pushed his dad into buying UFC. The UFC was worth pennies compared to what is today and MMA wasn't a mainstream sport, but Shane was a forward thinker and realized the potential of acquiring such a major asset. Look at where the UFC is now and you’d have to say that he was probably right, although with the McMahons at the helm, who knows how things would’ve turned out.

When Shane brought up the idea, Vince was quick to shut it down. So, Shane came up with another idea - buying the Japanese promotion, PRIDE MMA. This time Vince actually took the idea on board and they were very close to securing the deal. But then the company Vince had let slip, UFC, bought PRIDE, stealing a great deal of pride from Vince and Shane too.

8 8. Vince Hired Shane’s Friends, Because They Were His Friends

Remember the wrestling faction, The Mean Street Posse? The posse that used to come to the ring in sweater vests and dress pants? Well, they were only around for just over a year in WWE, 1999-2000, and they were only around because they were Shane’s buddies. They were portrayed as being Shane’s friends, and that was the case in real life. They went to school together and were only hired by Vince as a favor to Shane. Gas and Rodney were Shane’s school friends and were struggling to get opportunities, as was the third member of the group, Joey Abs, who was trying to make it work as an aspiring independent wrestler at the time, so Shane stepped up and got them hired to give them some exposure and help them out.

7 7. Shane Being Bullied By Wrestlers

Shane, having been brought up in a wrestling household was eager to get involved in any way possible. So, when he was growing up and his dad was still doing some stuff for his dad, Shane began coming along to events run by Vince McMahon company – he started helping out in whatever capacity he could and just hanging out backstage. It must have been an exciting experience for the young Shane, being where all the action’s occurring and being in the midst of some prominent wrestling personalities.

Apparently, he was thought of as the little mascot and was bullied quite severely, particularly by the older guys like Ivan Putski. They’d rough him up and shove him in the lockers; it would’ve been enough to make any young guy run a mile, but Shane didn’t give a damn about being on the receiving end of their bullying antics – he was just happy to be there, be around the guys he looked up to with adulation.

6 6. Shane Demanded A Raise From His Dad, Didn’t Get It, So He Walked

When Shane was growing up, he was always involved with his dad’s operations in one capacity of another. As I’ve mentioned in a previously entry, Vince made Shane pay his dues before giving him a shot at the big time. One of the things he did, before he’d even appeared in the ring, was work in the WWE warehouse during his summer holidays. Just because Shane was his son, Vince wasn’t going to pay Shane a penny more than what the job was worth; Shane was therefore getting a pretty meagre salary, and he kept scrimping and saving in an effort to buy himself a new car. But with the money he was earning, that would’ve taken an eternity, so he asked his dad for a raise, but Vince refused.

Shane had that car on his mind so he decided to go elsewhere to make it happen and packed in his job at the warehouse in favor for work at a construction site. He wound up earning triple the money and was able to buy himself the car he wanted. You’d have thought Vince may have been a little cheesed off at this, but he was actually a proud dad – proud that Shane had been a man about things, taken the initiative and gone on to find a better paying job.

5 5. Shane Appointed Vince His Best Man When He Got Married

There’s been tons of speculation about Vince and Shane’s relationship over the years. But despite their ups and downs, much of which has been highly publicized, and the pressures of business and the industry they’re in, they’re still father and son and have a close relationship; nothing demonstrated this more than when Shane got married and asked his dad to be his best man.

Before all the shenanigans in WWE started occurring, Vince and Shane were extremely close for a period around 1996. So, when Shane decided to tie the knot to Marissa Mazzola, he wanted his dad to have the honor of being his best man. That really is a huge honor for a son to bestow upon a father, and it just goes to show how close they really were.

4 4. Vince Chose Stephanie Over Shane To Run Things At WWE…

From the moment he knew what wrestling was, Shane was always around wrestling, at the events, helping his grandad and then his dad, working meagre jobs in an effort to make things work for himself and work his way to the top. But it was never a given that one day, it’d be he who’d be at the helm of the promotion. There was another McMahon sibling who also wanted to grow with the company. Shane’s hopes of running things were dashed as it was becoming apparent that Vince had made up his mind and was in the process of grooming Stephanie and his son-in-law, Triple H, for the takeover. Shane was despondent – his ideas kept getting shut down and now his biggest dream had been dashed. So, he went on his own merry way to make a success of things in the business world, away from his family.

Imagine what it would have been like if Shane was at the top of WWE today? Based on his success in business, you can imagine that he’d have been pretty successful, but the promotion would no doubt be totally different to what it is today.

3 3. …But He Loves It When He Gets Involved

Vince never asked Shane to leave WWE – he left on his own accord. It was kind of inevitable that it would happen though; Shane must have felt snubbed and felt there was no longer a place for him to grow at the company, so left to try and make his luck elsewhere. The events must have created at least a tad of hostility within the family.

When Shane returned to confront Vince and Stephanie, this must have exacerbated the rumors that things weren’t all well between the McMahons. But in actual fact, plenty have testified that Vince was thrilled when Shane came back. He and The Undertaker called Shane and twisted his arm into making him comeback and wrestle The Undertaker. It turned out to be a great return, and so Vince appointed him Commissioner of SmackDown Live in an effort to get him to stay, which he did.

2 2. The Incest Angle

The infamous incest angle was another crazy idea by Vince that very nearly happened.

Now, Stephanie’s gone along with a lot of Vince’s crazy concoctions over the years, most of which have seen her be sexualized tons of times, but even she drew the line at this proposed angle. Apparently, the idea had been floating around in Vince’s head for years, and when Stephanie fell pregnant, he thought it was finally the perfect opportunity to bring his idea to life. He wanted to run with a rather sinister storyline in which it’d be revealed that he was the dad of Stephanie’s baby.

When he brought it up, she downright refused, so Vince attempted to get his son backing. His response wasn’t any different from Stephanie’s, but Vince was obsessed with this incest storyline, so instead, he pitched the idea to Shane that Shane would be revealed as the baby’s dad. Of course, Shane said no again, and that was that. Vince’s idea was thankfully squashed.

1 1. Shane’s Reason For Leaving WWE

After Shane returned to WWE following a seven-year absence, wrestling fans were eager to know about Vince and Shane’s relationship. They wanted to know if it was strained after he left and why he left in the first place. He sat down with Mick Foley and revealed all for a WWE podcast.

He basically left so that he and his dad would still have some sort of a relationship. Their business relationship wasn’t working out – he felt his voice was no longer being heard and that it had stopped being a collaboration – so he decided to get out so that their business relationship wouldn’t start to affect their personal lives. Things were beginning to deteriorate rapidly, so he thought “I love him too much, I’m going to leave,” and that’s exactly what he did and their relationship’s probably all the better for it.