Shane McMahon has been out of wrestling for over a year, but that changed this week.
The former WWE executive vice president has been out of the limelight since tearing his quad muscle in a WrestleMania 39 match against The Miz. Fightful reported in June that McMahon no longer was under contract with WWE but hadn’t had any conversations with AEW founder and president Tony Khan.
That changed Monday when the two had a meeting in an office at a private Arlington airport, according to Fightful and WrestleTalk. A photo of the meeting was leaked, and Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful added the sides discussed “possibilities moving forward.”
“Sapp noted that Khan had been ‘open’ to talking with McMahon for a while, but it’s believed they’d never met — or even spoken — before the rumors about McMahon possibly joining AEW emerged recently,” WrestleTalk wrote.
“Khan is said to have been ‘very open’ to ‘using’ Shane McMahon for several weeks now, and has also made it clear that he was open to the idea of talking to McMahon when people have brought the topic up to him backstage.”
In an interview with Sports Illustrated in June, Khan said McMahon would always be welcome in AEW.
AEW was in the middle of renegotiating its media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery when the McMahon news was reported Wednesday. McMahon hasn’t had business ties with WWE since 2009 and hasn’t owned stock in the company nor does he own stock in its parent company TKO Group Holdings.
