WWE: Shane McMahon beating Kofi for the Title is the worst option

There is speculation abound that WWE plans for Kofi Kingston to eventually drop the WWE Championship to Shane McMahon, which would be the worst decision.

Well, I came across a startling bit of news. You know all of those Shane McMahon segments – practically 45 minutes worth of air time every week on WWE between Raw and SmackDown Live – that we have been seeing as of late? The ones where whether he’s beating tenured wrestlers or bullying announcers, he’s always been booked super strong? There is a reason why and if you’re like me, then you are not going to like what that reason is.

New reports are emerging suggesting that WWE has plans to book Shane McMahon to eventually beat Kofi Kingston for his WWE Championship, hence why we have seen Shane-O-Mac get pushed so heavily in recent months. I can’t speak for every fan out there in the WWE Universe, but I think if WWE follow through with this decision, it would be the worst decision they could ever have made in recent memory.

Mind you, they’ve made some pretty bad booking decisions lately. This one takes the cake.

I understand the thought process behind why WWE thinks that Shane would be the best option to dethrone Kofi Kingston. Especially now that he’s been booked so heavily and so strongly as of late. He may very well be the top heel on the WWE roster right now. But is he an effective heel? I’d say no. In fact, I’d argue that Shane McMahon’s run as a heel – and frankly, a wrestler – has been counterproductive when it comes to making his opponents look good.

Every wrestler is expected to come out of a program or a feud making the other wrestler look good and vice versa whether they are booked to lose the feud or not. Even in defeat, a wrestler should come out of a feud looking either stronger than they were before, or at least remotely credible. Because Shane McMahon is a non-wrestler, never trained to be such, his opponents actually lose credibility and momentum by losing to him.

The Miz came into his new babyface run this year smoking hot, but as my colleague Graham Matthews went on to conclude in his own respective piece, “WWE has already managed to mangle” that run by having The A-Lister lose three consecutive matches to the self-proclaimed Best in the World.

I’d say Miz’s first loss to Shane at WrestleMania wasn’t so bad as it did what a feud is supposed to do: make both men look strong; Miz got his revenge while Shane simultaneously got a win he could gloat about. It was the following month’s loss at Money in the Bank where he looked like a geek. The third loss, even if it came after two previous competitive matches, especially didn’t do The Miz any favors. He came out of that match and the feud looking like a chump.

The same can be said for Roman Reigns, who lost to Shane McMahon at Super Showdown. Granted, Drew McIntyre helped Shane out at that pay-per-view, but The Big Dog noticeably lost a bit of his luster that night. On paper, just having a non-wrestler have a win in his column over the top star of the company isn’t a good look. Looking at how losing to Shane McMahon severely hurt these aforementioned wrestlers, a loss for Kofi Kingston likely would produce a similar effect.

Much to the surprise of many, Kofi has had one whopper of a title reign. He’s had one banger of a title defense after another and remains consistently entertaining as a member of New Day. It would be disappointing and perhaps a bit anti-climactic to see Kofi’s title reign end at the hands of Shane McMahon of all people when so many possible contenders are at WWE’s doorstep.

WWE have plenty of other options out there for someone to dethrone Kofi Kingston. Someone who could actually benefit from the rub of taking Kofi’s title. Drew McIntyre, Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, Braun Strowman or even a returning Bray Wyatt are more suitable challengers that immediately spring to mind.

Hell, I’ll even take a Lars Sullivan title win over Shane McMahon, despite gripes the WWE Universe have with Sullivan’s past online comments. Because at least Sullivan is a trained wrestler where losing to him wouldn’t make Kofi look like a complete geek. A scenario where the heir to the McMahon dynasty wins the WWE Championship is the exact opposite scenario.

Beyond just losing credibility for its key Superstars, WWE risks losing its key fans if they put the strap on Shane. Judging by Twitter responses alone, fans are sick of seeing Shane take up so much screen time on a weekly basis. A lot of people argue that Shane brings down the show just as it starts rocking. His presence makes some people want to change the channel. That, in this industry, is what we call “go away heat.” That’s not good heat, ladies and gentlemen.

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At a time when more and more wrestling alternatives are emerging elsewhere, WWE cannot risk turning away their audience right now, but for a lot of fans, they would be doing just that if they make Shane McMahon their WWE Champion.

Please, WWE. Look at your roster and look at your other options before pulling the trigger on a Shane McMahon title reign. Your fanbase will be eternally grateful and won’t be so quick to change the channel.