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Dutch Mantell recently spoke about how Vince McMahon pushed The Shield and put the faction's members over every superstar in WWE.
Mantell was on this week's episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk to review the latest SmackDown show. The former WWE manager was impressed with the company's storytelling as they aired vignettes from back in the day when Seth Rollins betrayed Roman Reigns to break up the stable.
Mantell recalled that Vince McMahon took a liking to Reigns, Rollins, and Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley in AEW) during the initial stages of the trio's run:
"When I was with Swagger there, The Shield was just getting started. Vince loved them. He shoved them down everybody's throat and they got over, they did. It's not like they were better than anybody else. He just looked at them as a promoter would look at them. And if you're going to put all this time and energy, you want to see dollars on them somewhere. And he saw that."
Mantell continued, "And actually, they kind of proved him right because he kept pushing them. Of course, he pushed Moxley right out of the company. Now he's off doing his thing elsewhere. We see where Roman Reigns has gone and Seth Rollins has gone. So his initial assessment of them proved to be right."
You can check out the latest episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk below:
The Shield debuted nearly a decade ago
Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins debuted on the main roster in November 2012. The three men interfered in a Triple Threat main event for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series to make their mark.
The Hounds of Justice allowed CM Punk to retain the WWE Championship by interfering in the match. As a result, Punk would continue to hold the title for a historic 434-day reign.
They quickly became the most dominant faction in WWE in recent memory, beating the likes of the Wyatt Family and Evolution. Following The Shield's split, the three men eventually became mainstays as solo stars on the WWE roster, with Reigns and Rollins still living up to that status even today.
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