Could Shane McMahon really ditch WWE and turn up in AEW?

Shane McMahon has WWE in his veins, literally. As the son of WWE founder Vince McMahon, he's been connected to the world's biggest wrestling company ever since he was born.

But a report this week suggested that the "prodigal son" might be about to cross the floor and join rival company All Elite Wrestling (AEW). On a new episode of legendary wrestling commentator Jim Ross's podcast Grilling JR, promoter Conrad Thompson claimed that Shane McMahon had made initial approaches to some people within AEW.

Thompson said: "There was a friend of ours. I shouldn't say their name, but he went out of his way to text me and say: 'That's not as crazy as you think. I know for sure that Shane McMahon has at least reached out to wrestlers on the AEW roster to at least hypothetically discuss the idea'."

McMahon himself has not commented on these claims, but wrestling fans are abuzz with the potential for a McMahon family member to cross the floor. The question is whether it can actually happen.

Why would Shane McMahon in AEW be such a big deal?

This would be an enormous moment in the ongoing rivalry between the two biggest wrestling companies in the USA. While numerous figures from WWE have decided to make the change to AEW and a handful have gone the other way, including current WWE Undisputed Champion Cody Rhodes, McMahon would be something different.

By virtue of his surname and the identity of his father, the potential impact of McMahon popping up in AEW would be enormous. It would certainly win mainstream headlines all over the world in a way that AEW has struggled to manage of late, given that the initial wave of success since the company's debut in 2019.

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It's fair to say that, given he's now 54 years old, McMahon's best days as an in-ring performer are probably behind him. When he last got in the ring at WrestleMania in 2023, he tore a quad muscle within the first minute of the match and had to be replaced by Snoop Dogg — because wrestling is a mad thing.

But, even outside of the athletic side of wrestling, McMahon can make big moments happen. When he first returned to WWE in 2016 after almost a decade away, the result was one of the most amazing crowd reactions in modern wrestling history.

Watch: Shane McMahon returns to WWE in 2016

The arrival of Shane McMahon in AEW would be even more surprising than that moment in 2016. If AEW were able to spring a shock of this size, they could get one of the most amazing crowd reaction moments in their history. It could even rival the response to CM Punk's arrival in 2021, seven years after his acrimonious departure from WWE — to whom he has since returned.

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What's less clear is the role McMahon would play in AEW. We've already established that he's not capable of anything more than an occasional match, so that means he would likely be some sort of backstage "authority figure" character or a mouthpiece for another wrestler.

AEW has an abundance of authority figures as things stand, so it's not immediately obvious whether there's a space for him. Given how much of a coup his signing would be, though, AEW boss Tony Khan would be unlikely to say no.

Could Shane McMahon really go to AEW?

At this point, Shane McMahon going to AEW still feels unlikely. Whatever happens with the McMahon family — and despite Vince McMahon's current legal struggles — the clan still has a grip on WWE. Former wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque is now in charge of the company and he's married to Shane's sister, Stephanie McMahon. There has historically been reports of tension between the siblings about the future control of WWE.

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So it's not impossible that Shane McMahon could show up in AEW. He has a clear passion for the wrestling business — alongside his other business interests in the technology world — and it seems unlikely that he's a major part of the plans for WWE's future.

On the podcast episode that revealed the news, Ross — himself an AEW employee as an occasional commentator — gave his own take on whether this explosive move could happen. He said: "It’s viable. He’s got great name identity. People recognise him. It’s a long shot, I’d say less than 50/50 that he would re-engage with pro wrestling. But I can’t say that it’s impossible, because it isn’t."

As for the AEW side of things, Tony Khan had an emphatic response when asked about McMahon by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. He said: "I've never met him or talked to him in my life."

But if he were to be offered a home for his ideas at AEW, it's just possible that Shane McMahon might be inclined to jump ship in dramatic fashion. It would be the most sensational and shocking free agent debut since WWE — then called WWF — faced off with World Championship Wrestling during the "Monday Night Wars" of the 1990s.