diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
index a75c9fe4d23..7bbf91f8bac 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/HMaster.java
@@ -865,11 +865,6 @@ public class HMaster extends HRegionServer implements MasterServices {
     // Make sure meta assigned before proceeding.
     status.setStatus("Recovering  Meta Region");
 
-    // Check if master is shutting down because issue initializing regionservers or balancer.
-    if (isStopped()) {
-      return;
-    }
-
     // we recover hbase:meta region servers inside master initialization and
     // handle other failed servers in SSH in order to start up master node ASAP
     MasterMetaBootstrap metaBootstrap = createMetaBootstrap(this, status);
diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java
index 83e21b66601..d6b73f44214 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/assignment/AssignmentManager.java
@@ -1895,20 +1895,9 @@ public class AssignmentManager implements ServerListener {
         .getRegionInfoForReplica(RegionInfoBuilder.FIRST_META_REGIONINFO,
             RegionInfo.DEFAULT_REPLICA_ID);
     RegionState regionStateNode = getRegionStates().getRegionState(hri);
-    if (regionStateNode == null) {
-      LOG.warn("RegionStateNode is null for " + hri);
+    if (!regionStateNode.getServerName().equals(serverName)) {
       return;
     }
-    ServerName rsnServerName = regionStateNode.getServerName();
-    if (rsnServerName == null) {
-      return;
-    }
-    if (rsnServerName != null && !rsnServerName.equals(serverName)) {
-      return;
-    } else {
-      LOG.warn("Empty ServerName in RegionStateNode; proceeding regardless in case latched " +
-          "RecoverMetaProcedure procedure for clean up.");
-    }
     // meta has been assigned to crashed server.
     LOG.info("Meta assigned to crashed " + serverName + "; reassigning...");
     // Handle failure and wake event