Shane McMahon returned to WWE television Monday night to introduce RAW Underground.
The son of WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon teased a new concept that would take place in the third hour of the show. Shane was in a room with dimmed lighting and a ring with no ropes surrounded by Performance Center talent.
The rules of RAW Underground contests were not made entirely clear. It has elements of an MMA fight, with competitors wearing gloves. There were also scantily clad women dancing in the corner, just because.
Once the segment aired, McMahon did the ring introduction for Dabba-Kato, who smashed jobbers with a series of strikes. Kato is formerly known as Babatunde.
The broadcast also showed shots of the door outside being guarded by NXT trainee Jordan Omogbehin, who had previously been used as one of Akira Tozawa’s ninjas.
WWE first announced that McMahon would be appearing on the show on Monday afternoon. The @WrestleVotes Twitter account teased that McMahon would be on the show to announce this new concept. There were later widespread reports of ‘chaos’ behind the scenes at WWE’s TV taping once the Raw Underground concept was presented to the crew.
Several WWE Superstars participated in Shane McMahon’s Raw Underground fight club, including Dolph Ziggler and Erik of the Viking Raiders. MVP’s new Hurt Business faction crashed Raw Underground at the conclusion of the show.
RAW Underground: Original Idea?
A few fans on Twitter noticed that the ‘underground fight club’ gimmick presented by Shne McMahon has already been done elsewhere, including GCW Bloodsport and Chikara.
Shane McMahon was written off of WWE television last when he lost to Kevin Owens in a ladder match on SmackDown with the stipulation of “loser leaves WWE.”
