Former WCW President, WWE Raw General Manager, and GFW executive Eric Bischoff recently addressed Shane McMahon's departure from WWE back in 2009 on his Bischoff on Wrestling podcast:

“When Shane left WWE he left under, I think, contentious circumstances. I don’t think it was like people were throwing him going away parties or anything like that. I think there was some tension in the family and it was a tough decision. I wasn’t there, I haven’t talked to Shane about it but I have talked to people that were close to Shane at that time and were there. So I have a little bit of a second or third-hand perspective. I was kind of shocked that Shane left but I understood as well having worked with Shane and having seen the inner workings from my perspective backstage.

“I wondered when Shane made that move to China initially and I heard about the people he was working with … I kind of wondered if it wasn’t a well thought out plan more than anything else. If he was going to leave the company at least he was going to go and learn, make in-roads and build out his Chinese Rolodex so to speak so that he could bring assets to WWE,” Bischoff said.

“I don’t know if it was by design or coincidence but clearly, WWE is planting a major flag in a very, very important market. Doing business in China is incredibly difficult because you’re not generally just doing business with companies. You are doing business with the government. It’s a communist government at that. Hats off to them.”