Debuting in 2012, The Shield is one of WWE’s biggest success stories.
Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have all been the company’s top champion,
and are still seen as one of the best factions of all-time.
But how did it all start?
Well, Mi nombre es El Fakidor, and this is the story of the formation of The Shield.
At the end of 2012, Seth Rollins was NXT champion, Dean Ambrose was one of the most promising
talents in the developmental brand but wasn’t being featured on TV, and Roman Reigns was
being groomed as a top prospect for the company.
Ambrose and Rollins were already well-known in the world of wrestling, particularly on
the independent scene.
After signing for WWE, they would lock horns several times in FCW, which was WWE’s developmental
brand before NXT came along.
They fought multiple times for the brand’s championship, but Ambrose never picked up
a single victory.
This is perhaps surprising if you believe former WWE writer Kevin Eck, who in an interview
with PWTorch explained that Ambrose was always seen as the guy the company were going to
push as a singles star.
“Dean was seen as the guy who was most ready at that point to come in and assume a singles
role.
He was seen as the best promo, [and having] the most in-ring experience.
He was seen as ready-made.”
Reigns by contrast was a reasonably successful American Football player, and really only
turned to wrestling when he failed to make a name for himself on the gridiron.
He signed a developmental contract with WWE in 2010, his first venture into the world
of professional wrestling.
What many will not be aware of is that Reigns, Rollins and Ambrose was not the original line-up,
or that is if both Eck and CM Punk are to be believed.
In a blog-post for Press Box Online, Eck revealed that Reigns was never meant to be a part of
the trio and that Chris Hero - or Kassius Ohno - was set to be the third member.
Punk, went one further during his appearance on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast
by saying the idea of The Shield was actually his idea, and one that WWE stole.
Punk explained that he had been approached with the idea of heading a new stable, one
which would include the Big Show and Daniel Bryan.
Punk rejected the idea, and instead suggested he lead a trio from NXT, immediately suggesting
Rollins, Ambrose and Hero.
According to Punk, Triple H didn’t like the idea of Hero in the stable and instead
suggested Reigns.
Plans for Punk to lead the group were also scrapped, something Punk believes was done
to make it look like The Shield was entirely WWE’s idea.
Speaking to Cabana, Punk said: “I pitched all that, they loved it, things got changed,
I didn't really care.
Those three guys got called up, they're all f***ing doing fantastic right now, mazel tov
to them.”
However, former WWE writer Kevin Eck has a different version of events.
In his Press Box Online blog post he wrote that he had pitched The Shield with a different
origin story.
Eck explained that originally, the idea was that ECW legend Tommy Dreamer would return
to WWE in the role of head talent scout, and that he would appear on Raw’s 1000th show
to introduce the baby face stable of Rollins, Ambrose and Hero.
“It was my spin on The Nexus, a heel stable of developmental wrestlers who invaded WWE
in 2010.
After a hot start, The Nexus fell victim to questionable booking and lasted just more
than a year before being disbanded.”
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Explaining the idea in a blog post on PressBox, Eck explained the trio would win their first
six-man tag and then turn on Dreamer.
They would then explain the next week that they simply used Dreamer as a stepping stone
to move forward in the company and then reveal that the leader of the faction was in fact
Daniel Bryan.
“As it turned out, the big angle we went with on Raw 1,000 was CM Punk turning heel
on The Rock.
Several months later it was decided Punk, who was WWE champion at the time, would get
three guys from developmental to become his henchmen and help him retain the title.
I suggested my trio of Ambrose, Rollins and Ohno to Triple H in a booking meeting.”
But as previously mentioned, Triple H was not keen on Hero and all ideas and story lines
involving him were scrapped.
Ohno was then released by WWE in 2013.
Punk described Reigns as the “pretty boy”, and someone that WWE had built themselves,
something they were keen on doing given that both Ambrose and particularly Rollins were
successful Indy wrestlers before being signed by the company.
Since debuting on the main roster, the trio have amassed a staggering 16 separate title
reigns, two money in the bank ladder match wins, and in the case of Roman, the most heat
possible by defeating the Undertaker at Wrestlemania.
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