Keys to Building Shane McMahon vs. Undertaker Feud for WWE WrestleMania 32 Bout

As the construction of the Shane McMahon vs. Undertaker feud progresses ahead of WWE WrestleMania 32, major holes need to be filled.

Their Hell in a Cell clash is built on a shaky foundation. WWE must repair it by painting Shane-O-Mac as a dark horse with more than a slim chance of victory, remove the mystery from Undertaker's motivation and shine a light on the real heart of this narrative.

Many expected added clarity surrounding this rivalry when Undertaker appeared on Raw last Monday.

He didn't explain his part in this family squabble at all. Instead, he issued a warning to Vince McMahon that did nothing to make sense of a fragmentary storyline.

The folks at The New Age Insiders podcast are among those hoping for things to straighten out soon:

WWE doesn't need to reveal everything about this feud at once, but the story has to be grounded in logic. It needs to leave us wanting to see how it unfolds next, not confused about how it has gotten to this point. 

It would also help if Shane didn't feel like a terrier making his way into a dogfight. 

Establish Shane's Chances

Shane-O-Mac is a 46-year-old father who hasn't competed since 2009 and was always more stuntman than wrestler. Imagining him stepping inside The Deadman's steel playground and beating him on the stage where he has only lost once in 23 tries is mighty difficult. 

To avoid this feeling like a one-sided affair, WWE must convince the audience that Shane can hold his own.

Splicing together some of the executive's training videos is one way to do just that. WWE should show clips of Shane grinding it out in the gym, training with Tommy Dreamer and studying video clips of Undertaker in action.

In addition, WWE would do well to remind fans of Shane's history of huge upsets.

Fans will have no issue imagining the bigger, more experienced immortal in black beating Shane. The focus moving forward should be on planting doubts in the audience's head that Undertaker will just stomp his foe into a wet spot on the canvas.

The company doesn't have to mention that Shane's two wins over Shawn Michaels came 10 years ago; it just needs to make fans flash back to his past miracles.

Event	Opponent	Stipulation
WrestleMania XV	X-Pac	European Championship match
No Mercy 1999	X-Pac	European Championship match
King of the Ring 1999	Steve Austin	2-on-1 Ladder match (with Vince McMahon)
SmackDown, Aug. 29, 1999	Mankind	Standard match
Judgment Day 2000	Big Show	No Holds Barred Falls Count Anywhere
Raw, Aug. 21, 2000	Steve Blackman	Hardcore Championship match
Backlash 2001	Big Show	Last Man Standing
Raw, March 6, 2006	Shawn Michaels	Standard match
Saturday Night's Main Event, March 18, 2006	Shawn Michaels	Street Fight

Playing up Shane as a man who somehow pulls out unexpected wins is smart. The more WWE does this before WrestleMania, the more an upset will seem possible. 

WWE can amplify that and create hype for the bout at the same time by having Shane hint at an ally waiting on the sidelines ready to help him. He can allude to having a secret weapon that will allow him to even the odds.

Clear Up Undertaker's Role

The plot hole that plagues this rivalry right now is that Undertaker is essentially a pawn in the McMahons' war and doesn't seem to have any issue with it.

That's the element that leaves one scratching one's head. That's the part of all this that makes the least sense.

At Chair Shot Reality, Blake Mitchamore posed two key questions: "Is The Undertaker going to make a deal with the devil and work with Vince McMahon? Will Vince McMahon find something to hold over The Undertaker, forcing him to do his bidding and destroy Shane O Mac?"

WWE has yet to answer that, but it needs to. The concept of The Undertaker simply willing to have his strings pulled and do what Vince asks of him, namely fighting to keep The Authority in power, is too illogical to ignore.

In the process of clarifying Undertaker's motivation, WWE will likely address the feud's other flaw: confusion about who to root for.

If Shane is trying to oust the tyrannical group that controls WWE today, that makes the man protecting that regime's reign the natural villain in the story. The problem is, Undertaker doesn't have a villainous aura about him right now.

It's really hard to not pull for him, nebulous relationship with The Authority or not. As Nic Negrepontis noted on the Camel Clutch Blog, "The Undertaker is possibly the greatest Superstar of all time and is not only almost exclusively a babyface wrestler when he competes at WrestleMania, but he's also competing in his home state!"

WWE has to find a way to counter that. It should make The Deadman a mercenary in it for the money and script it so that his losses to Brock Lesnar have turned him colder and heartless. 

The only option the company can't go with is not touching on this issue at all.

Focus on Power Struggle over Family Drama

On last week's Raw, Vince went on about wanting to disown his son. Stephanie McMahon delivered a charged promo about how much she hated her brother. 

Undertaker was on screen for just a fleeting moment. Shane wasn't around at all. The idea that Raw may end up in Shane's control was not mentioned nearly as often as his father's and sister's personal issues with him.

While the tension within the McMahons is a surefire way to add drama to the bout, the more important element is what's at stake when Shane steps inside the Hell in a Cell: control of the company's premier show. If Shane wins at WrestleMania, WWE might revert back to the days of the brand split.

That's too massive a possibility to be overshadowed.

This is where the bulk of WWE's focus should go between now and WrestleMania. The company's job is to make the audience anticipate the possibility of the whole WWE world being upended by the bout's result. The power of that idea is what will truly draw fans in.

Credit: WWE.com

Promising big-time stunts and barbaric action entices to a point, but teasing a rearrangement of WWE's entire structure has more impact.

WWE should show Vince and Stephanie scrambling backstage, worried about what will become of Raw if things don't go to plan. Shane should talk about his vision for what's ahead for the show. WWE just needs to keep playing up that aspect more often than it delves into family bickering.

The good news is that WWE has time to work out the kinks in the Shane-Undertaker feud. It is still nearly a month until WrestleMania. The company, though, isn't repairing a single blemish; it has to hammer out the dented, warbled frame of this narrative.

WWE Creative has ample work ahead of it.