WWE: Rivalry Between Stephanie and Shane McMahon Finally Coming to a Head?

Stephanie and Shane McMahon have a long history of hating one another in WWE and this summer is no different.

When WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that his son Shane would stick around to help run Monday Night RAW despite losing to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 32, everyone knew this wouldn’t sit well with The Authority. In particular, we all knew it especially wouldn’t go over well with Vince’s daughter Stephanie McMahon, who was primed to take even more control over the show with Triple HHH taking on-screen time off after losing his title at Wrestlemania 32 to Roman Reigns.

Then, the two long-time sibling rivals were faced head-to-head over who would control the company. The WWE threw a curveball and had Stephanie compromise, agreeing to work with Shane for the time being. Stephanie’s newfound attitude was shocking, but again, we knew it wouldn’t last.

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It was a common sense conclusion that the two would face off in some fashion at this year’s Summerslam, presumably in a “winner-take-all” scenario for control of the company. But as time went on this summer and the pay-per-views started passing by with no conflicts arising, you started to question what the WWE’s plan actually was and if it would go through with the golden opportunity set in front of them for an easy main event match at the year’s second biggest pay-per-view

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Finally, on this week’s Monday Night RAW, Stephanie started to show some frustration with Shane’s willingness to make decisions without consulting her. Of course, we’re also getting the comically pushy Kevin Owens egging her on like a school-yard bully enforcing peer pressure on others to get his way. With Owens’ urging, Stephanie is starting to show signs of reverting back to the old Authority figure we all loved to hate. The sneering, nasty looks of anger and resentment are starting to slowly reappear on her face, all the while her impending conflict with her long-time rival brother Shane is once again a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. There’s a “hate” growing back inside of Stephanie, the same one she mentioned to Dean Ambrose after he had his own run-in with his former Shield members during the show. Stephanie knows it well, and like she said, she knows exactly how to use her hate to get what she wants. There’s a deeper plan in place, and it’s likely we’ll soon begin to see what that plan is.

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How will this all play out? That’s the one consistently great thing with this storyline: It’s hard to tell. At a quick glance, it’s easy to assume there could very well be an elimination tag match between a Team Shane and a Team Stephanie (we’re already seeing alliances being made between characters like Stephanie and Owens, and Shane and Ambrose). But there’s still the fact that there will now be two shows to run between Monday Night RAW and Smackdown. Will Stephanie control one while Shane controls the other? That makes sense, but then again, what would there be to fight for? There’s also the return of Triple HHH. Stephanie’s wild card husband is ready to be thrown into the mix anytime now, and what would Shane have to counter it?

There’s a lot of questions still left to be answered about the Shane vs. Stephanie rivalry, but that’s what’s making it the best storyline of the summer.

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