The Shield

The Shield was a professional wrestling stable in WWE that consisted of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. Their original characters were mercenaries for CM Punk; however, they quickly became mainstay main-event names on the Raw brand.

The group debuted on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29. In May 2013 at Extreme Rules, all three members of The Shield won a championship, with Ambrose winning the United States Championship while Rollins and Reigns captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. Rollins and Reigns were WWE Tag Team Champions until October 2013, and Ambrose was United States Champion until May 2014, which was a record reign for the WWE version of the championship. As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.

The Shield at different points in their history worked for CM Punk and The Authority while later going on to face their former employers in separate feuds.] They wrestled in the main event of numerous Raw and SmackDown television shows and headlined one pay-per-view, the 2014 Payback event, which was their final match as a trio until 2017. Rollins left the group on June 2, when he attacked Ambrose and Reigns with a chair and sided with The Authority. Ambrose and Reigns went on their own ways as singles wrestlers later that month, marking the end of The Shield.

Following the group's dissolution, each member of The Shield went on to become a world champion. All three reigned as WWE World Heavyweight Champion within a three-minute span at the end of the 2016 Money in the Bank event: Rollins defeated Reigns for the championship and then Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase (which he won earlier that night) on Rollins to win the title.

In the lead-up to the 2017 SummerSlam event, Ambrose and Rollins reunited and captured the Raw Tag Team Championship from Cesaro and Sheamus. Then on the October 9 episode of Raw, the trio reunited to feud with The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus, with Reigns now retconned as the group's leader. In December 2017, the team dissolved once again after Ambrose suffered an injury. Following Ambrose's return from injury the previous week, The Shield reunited once again on August 20, 2018 episode of Raw to prevent Braun Strowman from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Reigns. However, in October that same year, The Shield disbanded following Reigns' hiatus over his leukemia rediagnosis and Ambrose's betrayal towards Rollins. After Reigns returned in February 2019 and announced that his leukemia was in remission, the trio reunited and won the main event match of Fastlane that same month. Although this was promoted as The Shield's final match together, they reunited at the special event The Shield's Final Chapter;

 Ambrose's final WWE match due to not renewing his contract.

MEMBERS/CHARACTERS :

The Shield has from the beginning of their existence voiced their intentions to fight what they perceived as "injustice". They were also known for their black ring attire (including protective vests) with each member having their own style,their tendency to approach the ring through the live audience and their trademark promos, which were recorded from a first-person perspective using a handheld camcorder.They were a group which possessed teamwork and a willingness to sacrifice themselves as an individual for the good of the team,which achieved victories by overwhelming opponents with superior numbers after incapacitating their teammates. The Shield referred to WWE as their "yard" during their speeches and were nicknamed as "The Hounds of Justice".

For their individual characters:

Dean Ambrose – played the "de facto leader" and "mouthpiece" of the group. Ambrose's role was described as being "the more vocal leader of the group" and was then tweaked to become more verbally arrogant in mid-2013. WWE also described Ambrose's character as "slightly off" and "wild"

Roman Reigns – was established by WWE as the "powerhouse" and "heavy hitter" of The Shield, as well as an "exceptional athlete". Reigns was noted as the least talkative of The Shield members.In mid-2013, Reigns' character was described as being tweaked to become extremely confident and a source of leadership with "quiet strength".

Seth Rollins – was described as having a "chaotic" in-ring style. In mid-2013, he was described as "the out-spoken, hot-head who will do crazy things" to help The Shield.In 2014, Rollins gained the labels of "The Aerialist" and "The Architect" of The Shield. While out of character, Rollins explained "The Architect" moniker as that he had a "cerebral approach" in coming "up with the blueprints" for their wrestling matches or storylines.

While out of character, the group has credited trainer/producer Joey Mercury as a mentor. The group were originally supposed to wear turtlenecks and carry riot shields, but changed their attire before their debut. CM Punk later claimed to have come up with the idea of The Shield, which he proposed were to be his storyline protectors and consisting of Ambrose, Rollins and Kassius Ohno—Punk described "their guy", Reigns, replacing Ohno, who had been rejected by Triple H.WWE Spanish announcer Marcelo Rodríguez named the group for Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins "The Shield" on November 19, 2012, one day after the Survivor Series

History

First run (2012–2014)

Ambrose, Reigns, and then-reigning NXT Champion Seth Rollins debuted at Survivor Series on November 18, interfering in the triple threat main event between CM Punk, John Cena and Ryback for the WWE Championship, allowing Punk to pin Cena to retain the title. On the November 26 episode of Raw, the group identified themselves as "The Shield" and vowed to rally against "injustices". Despite claiming that they were not working for either Punk or his manager Paul Heyman, over the next few weeks on both Raw and SmackDown they routinely emerged from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries.They also attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Brad Maddox, who was the referee who helped Punk defeat Ryback during their Hell in a Cell match at the previous Hell in a Cell event for the WWE Championship.This led to The Shield's debut match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 16, where they defeated Ryback and Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match.

After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair, Brodus Clay And Sheamus,The Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other wrestlers, such as Mick Foley,Tommy Dreamer and Ricardo Rodriguez. The Shield's attacks were also used to write off wrestlers from television via injury angles, such as Randy Orton and Sin Cara, who were already suffering from legitimate injuries.

On the January 2, 2013 episode of NXT (which was taped on December 6, 2012), The Shield made their first appearance as a group in NXT, where Rollins was the inaugural NXT Champion. Rollins defended his title against Corey Graves, but Ambrose and Reigns attacked Graves to cause a disqualification so that Rollins retained his title. After the match, The Shield then fended off the entire NXT locker room, but retreated from Big E Langston. On the January 9 episode of NXT (which was taped on the same date as the previous episode), Rollins lost the NXT Championship to Langston in a No Disqualification match after the NXT locker room neutralized the interference of the other Shield members.

    

On the January 7 episode of Raw, The Shield once again aided CM Punk by attacking Ryback during their Tables, Ladders and Chairs match for the WWE Championship, which resulted in Punk retaining the title. On the January 21 episode of Raw, The Shield attacked The Rock, Punk's WWE Championship contender at the Royal Rumble, resulting in Mr. McMahon declaring that their interference in the title match would result in Punk being stripped of the championship. Four days later on SmackDown, Punk denied an alliance with The Shield before calling them out and informing them that he did not want them to interfere in his upcoming title match. However, during Punk's title match at the Royal Rumble on January 27, during a blackout, The Rock was attacked by The Shield in the darkness and when the lights came back on, he had been put through the announce table, leading to Punk pinning The Rock and retaining the championship; the match, however, was immediately restarted by McMahon with The Rock winning the WWE Championship. The following night on Raw, it was revealed through footage played by McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------