In a major swerve, Shane McMahon ended up winning the WWE World Cup tournament at Crown Jewel. Shane replaced the injured Miz in the final match. Shane went on to defeat Dolph Ziggler to win the tournament. I think that I speak for most fans when I say that nobody expected that to happen.
So what is next for Shane after he won the World Cup tournament? I wanted to share my thoughts on two directions where I think WWE will go with Shane.
Let’s start with Survivor Series.
With the theme of Survivor Series being RAW vs Smackdown, I see the World Cup trophy playing some sort of a factor here. My early guess is that it will be Team Smackdown (led by Shane) against Team RAW (led by Baron Corbin). The winning brand gets control of the WWE World Cup.
Even if the World Cup trophy isn’t involved, I still see Shane as the captain of Team Smackdown for Survivor Series and the Men’s Elimination match.
What about the long-term plans for Shane?
The more interesting part of all this is where it could lead to for Shane down the road. After what happened at Crown Jewel, I think some seeds may have been planted for an upcoming feud between the Miz and Shane.
The story is easy. Shane replaced the Miz and stole his glory. The Miz has plenty of reasons to want to get some retribution on Shane for stealing his spotlight. My guess is that we could be in for a match between Shane and the Miz at some point. Maybe WWE even saves that one for Wrestlemania 35?
How would you feel about Shane vs the Miz? Let me know in the comment section below.
On a related note, here are 31 things that we learned from Crown Jewel.