LOS ANGELES — Well, well, look who’s back. Despite all indications that Shane McMahon’s stint as Raw’s de facto showrunner last week was a one-and-done deal, overwhelming fan support handed him the keys to the Corvette for a second consecutive week. Shane picked up exactly where he left off, too, using his “new stars, new opportunities” edict to place Sami Zayn — who was bushwhacked out of last week’s Fatal 4-Way by Kevin Owens — in a match against AJ Styles. A win against Styles would add The Underdog from the Underground to WWE Payback’s WWE World Heavyweight Title Match as a third competitor.
This, unsurprisingly, was met with no shortage of resistance from Owens himself, who took Shane-O-Mac to task for showing favoritism to his former best friend and for not giving him a rematch for the Intercontinental Title he never technically lost. Shane met KO in the middle with an opportunity to become the No. 1 contender to the Intercontinental Championship. Of course, Owens would have to get through Cesaro in the process, but hey, adversity is just opportunity in disguise, right?