For a long time, the McMahon family was a staple of WWE programming. Former CEO Vince McMahon featured heavily alongside his daughter Stephanie McMahon and son Shane McMahon. Many times they kayfabe feuded and even wrestled against each other. Stephanie and Shane McMahon had an interesting on-screen relationship switching from partners during the invasion to rivals in recent years.

Why Shane McMahon threatened Prichard and Hayes

In 2001, WWE was at the peak of its power following the success of ‘The Attitude Era’. It had propelled the company into the mainstream, allowing them to make huge profits. Vince McMahon wanted to capitalize on this and expand his empire, thus launching the XFL. XFL was going to be an alternative to the popular National Football League, the NFL.

The current Co-CEO of WWE, Stephanie McMahon, served as the sideline reporter for the league during its first short-lived season. In his book “There’s Just One Problem…: True Tales from the Former, One-Time, 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE,” former WWE writer Brain Gewirtz revealed that just before Stephanie made her first appearance as an XFL sideline reporter, Shane McMahon allegedly issued threats to Bruce Prichard and Michael Hayes.

READ MORE: “Stephanie Didn’t Have to Do That”: WWE Hall of Famer Reveals Unbelievable Stephanie McMahon Gesture That is Polar Opposite of Her Witchy On-screen Persona

In an excerpt from his book, Gewirtz claimed, “Before she did her first on camera in the stands, Shane pulled Michael and Bruce aside. ‘I just want you two to know, I love you both like family, but if anyone lays a hand on my sister, I will legitimately kill you.’ Just the type of thing you want to hear before leading a famous person into a drunken mob.”

As it turns out, no one from the crowd hurt Stephanie McMahon during her reporting. Shane McMahon’s alleged threat to two long-term WWE employees was to ensure that his sister remained safe while reporting.

This may come off as aggressive, but it was an incidence of a brother being overly protective of his sister. Well, they had their history on-screen, but Shane always looked out for Stephanie off-screen.

Watch This Story: From Triple H and Stephanie to Edge and Lita’s wedding top on-screen weddings on WWE TV