— Shane McMahon returned to WWE for the Royal Rumble and just as quickly has seemingly disappeared with reports surfacing that he was quietly let go by the company. While that statement is somewhat ambiguous as Shane was not currently an employee, he was under some sort of talent contract and multiple sources are reporting that he has been released from that with the company phasing him out of all storylines that they had planned leading into WrestleMania.

— A report from pwinsider.com indicates that the plan was for Shane to be a “regular heel” on Monday Night Raw storylines building to WrestleMania and he was pushing to work with Austin Theory at the annual PPV, playing out of Theory’s recent involvement with Vince, however, this was not locked into place; it was just something Shane was pitching. Other people were pushing for a Shane vs. Seth Rollins match at WrestleMania and one point a sequence was planned for the men’s Rumble match to set up that storyline. It ended up being scrapped along with a host of other things with all the changes that took place in the hours before the PPV. Rollins in fact was pulled from the Rumble match.

— Since then, Shane McMahon was “pulled” from the internal Raw roster and the creative team has been told that they will be going in a different direction. Shane was not backstage at Raw and has reportedly gone home. The report also adds that during the day of Royal Rumble, Shane grew frustrated believing many of his ideas were being shot down by Vince, almost all of which was due to a preoccupation of his own role. One of the beliefs was that he was upset that he wasn’t allowed to do what he wanted but he still remained as one of the lead producers along with Jamie Noble. When feedback to the men’s match was primarily negative, he ended up taking much of the heat for it.

— While Shane holds no executive position or even any official role in WWE and is apparently “gone” from the company, most believe that once things blow over, he will be back in some form or another.