When Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon hugged it out to open the final SmackDown before WrestleMania, it appeared WWE‘s newest power couple had been formed. However, it may have been a way to set up a WrestleMania backstabbing.
According to Cagesideseats, there’s a growing belief that Shane McMahon will turn on Daniel Bryan at some point during their WrestleMania tag match.
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As fun as it is to watch Bryan and Shane-O-Mac, it will be better to watch them become bitter enemies.
With the entire wrestling world still wiping their tears from the catharsis of Bryan’s miraculous return, the moment is ripe for something terrible to happen to him. Pardon our masochism, but babyface, especially ones of Bryan’s caliber, need horrible obstacles to overcome to tell their comeback tale. And a betray by Shane and an ensuing beatdown by Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens would be a great way to work up some sympathy for Bryan.
This would likely lead to a high profile match between Shane and Bryan—probably at SummerSlam. However, considering Shane’s heel turn has yet to happen, we may be a little ahead of ourselves.
But, the groundwork for the turn was set months ago. Shane and Daniel have had palpable tension dating back to last fall and originally, it looked like it would be Bryan who joined the dark side. Voicing his empathy for journeyman for Owens and Zayn, Bryan often sided with the diabolical Canadian duo and their destructive ambitions.
However as Bryan lent an ear to Owen and Zayn’s whining, it was Shane who started to look like his maniacal father. Fueled by revenge, Shane spent the winter trying to eviscerate KO and Sami, so much so that Bryan had to question Shane’s intentions.
WWE is all too aware of this footage and will happily play it back in a video package to accommodate Shane’s turn next week on SmackDown.
Shane has been a top-5 babyface in the company since his return and it feels like WWE has gotten all of the juice out of that version of him. Even if Shane doesn’t turn at ‘Mania, he likely will at some point in 2018.
