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The Shield shocked the world when they reunited the night after Summerslam to help Roman Reigns defend The Universal title, and while the storyline is having immense benefits for Monday Night Raw, the move doesn't come without its problems. The question, however, is whether the positives outweigh the negatives or not.
With that being said and a good month of The Shield reunion now in the books, here are the negatives and positives of the Shield reunion so far and what fans should expect moving forward. Keep in mind that these positives and negatives are just opinions and might be very different from the ones you hold.
Furthermore, they may be based on things that you as a wrestling fan don't care about. Of course, that probably isn't the case for all of the things on this list, but there are probably going to be one or two instances when you as a reader disagree with what is written due to how differently we all view things.
In the end, try to keep an open mind to the other side of the conversation and the overall discussion based on points from each side of the argument. Only then can we truly debate the issues that are laid out in this article and dissect what WWE is doing both right and wrong in regards to The Shield reunion
As always, remember to let us know your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to tell us what you like and dislike about The Shield reunion as well.
Positive: Merchandise sales
It was reported by Cagesideseats.com last month that Roman Reigns had passed John Cena as WWE's top merchandise seller, which interestingly enough, happened after The Shield reformed on Monday Night Raw. Even more interesting, however, is that another rumour by Cagesideseats.com claims that The Shield's reunion was in part to drive merchandise sales.
Of course, that's what WWE does with every faction that does a reunion tour and it would be a waste on WWE's part not to. With that being said, the move was smart on WWE's part and it helped WWE establish Roman Reigns as their top guy in the process, which is believed to be the overreaching goal.
In the end, merchandise sales of Roman Reigns going up is a great indicator of the move's success and also proof that The WWE Universe will pay money to see nostalgic acts. Whether that continues or not remains to be seen and will depend on what WWE does with The Shield throughout the next couple of months, but its great for fans and WWE in the meantime.
Negative: Limiting Roman Reigns on the microphone.
While this would have been an excellent idea six months or a year ago, it now creates a situation where your top guy isn't talking, which limits him storyline wise. Of course, some fans are probably going to prefer this change to Reign's character, especially after his earlier work was beyond abysmal, but he has grown a lot since then.
In fact, between the promos Reigns cut on Brock Lesnar, to how Reigns was suddenly able to channel his own egotism to egg on the crowd, he is becoming very good at getting The WWE Universe to do what he needs to them to do. Unfortunately for Reigns, turning him back into the silent type doesn't help him continue to grow on the microphone.
In the end, if WWE really thinks they can get Reigns over as the strong silent type, then more power to them, but it's obvious that they would have a much easier time getting fans behind him if he was talking more. Furthermore, the promos that he has cut lately have been interesting and it will be sad to not see them continue as Reigns develops as a character.
Positive: Helps get The WWE Universe behind Roman Reigns
Let's be honest here. the only ways WWE was going to get away with making Roman Reigns the top guy was if they brought back The Shield during his title run. Not only did it force The WWE Universe into either rooting against Reigns and against The Shield or rooting for them as a unit.
Of course, The WWE Universe eventually relented and started to throw their support behind Reigns and The Shield as collective, but there are some detractors that the company is going to have to win over in the coming months. Furthermore, WWE is going to have to make sure to build Reigns as an individual so he doesn't lose all his momentum once The Shield splits.
Negative: Moving Finn Balor out of the title picture immediately
While most fans were probably happy that Finn Balor got a chance at the title he never lost the night after Summerslam, it seems like the move was a carefully crafted plan by WWE to knock Balor off his perch and make sure he had no legitimate claim to the title. Unfortunately for Balor, they did just that by having Reigns beat him clean in the closing contest of the night.
With that being said, WWE drove the point home by having Balor lose to straight contests on Monday Night Raw, before finally letting him get his momentum back in a match against Elias. In the end, WWE doing this to Balor at the same time that Reigns is champion just seems to be a way to eliminate support for Balor and make him irrelevant on Raw.
Why else would they put him against Elias in the main event of the evening? Sure, the match was a way to give Balor some of his momentum back, but it doesn't really work when you consider that Elias hasn't done a lot lately either. in the end, it just sucks that WWE would do this to one of their most popular stars in order to help another star finally get over.
Positive: Fighting champion
Roman Reigns has only been the Universal champion for about a month or so and has already defended the title. Not only is that a huge step up from the title being defended every couple of months in a throwaway match by Brock Lesnar, it also sets the stage for the belt to gain a lot more legitimacy then it had when it was in Lesnar's hand.
Of course, Brock Lesnar not competing on a monthly basis was probably both a design choice of his title reign and his own choice, but Roman Reigns defending the title on a much more consistent basis is going to help that title immensely. In fact, he could end up making the big red belt the preferred title in WWE if he keeps this up.
Negative: Turning the entire lockeroom against The Shield
It might have seemed like a good idea to someone at the time, but having the entire heel roster turn on The Shield was a move that was both shocking and awkward. Maybe it would have had more of the desired effect if WWE didn't make the move out nowhere, but even worse, they really failed to follow up on it.
With that being said, having the locker room turn on the Shield isn't a problem in itself, but becomes one when the execution gets sloppy and they don't make the moment meaningful. In fact, by having The Shield get their revenge so early on the heel locker room in the opening minutes of the go home show to Hell in a cell, they essentially squashed them after only a week of existence.
And while most of them were just a bunch of pawns in the overall scheme to limit the impact of a loss for Bruan Strowman at Hell in a Cell in The Universal title match, them being handled so easy by the Shield is pretty good sign that WWE sees everyone besides The Shield as expendable.
Positive: Eventual payoff
It's no secret that it will probably be a while before Roman Reigns finally parts with The Big red belt, but even then WWE has quite a few options to with when the time goes. In fact, between a rumoured match with The Rock at WrestleMania and being betrayed by Dean Ambrose further down the line, it seems like WWE is in quite a good place right now.
Of course, that doesn't mean WWE can't mess it up in some way, shape, or form, but if they manage to minimize their mistakes moving forward, they have a great chance of setting Roman Reigns up to be the guy. Furthermore, it finally allows WWE to right years of mistakes and finally gets fans behind Reigns in the way that was originally intended.
Negative: Braun Strowman heel turn.
WWE has made some ballsy moves in the past when it comes to making Roman Reigns look good, but the biggest one of them all this year had to be when the company turned Bruan Strowman heel. Not only did the moment confuse the Toronto crowd that saw Strowman betray Reigns live, it also undid all the work they had done on Strowman in the past.
If nothing else, it was a desperate blow to try to make sure fans had no one to root for besides Reigns and The Shield and it unfortunately for worked. In fact, while Strowman still has a groundswell of die-hard supporters, the number of people rooting for The Shield greatly outnumbers them.
In the end, WWE really needs to stay away from controversial booking like this and not sacrifice everyone on the altar of getting Reigns over with the crowd. Maybe WWE thinks it will all work out in the long run, but what if it doesn't? Even worse, what if WWE is sacrificing superstar after superstar for something that is not going to work long term.
Positive: establishing new talent.
Whether WWE wants to admit it or not, there will come a time in the future when WWE is forced to hand The Shield their first big loss in a long time and it's going to be a big deal. Its also going to be a chance for WWE to finally put over a talent besides Roman Reigns, which will hopefully ricochet them into the title picture or the main event storyline.
For example, let's say that Drew McIntyre is somehow able to beat Reigns for the title down the line. Not only would it be the best way to establish McIntyre as WWE's next big thing, it also takes some of the heat off of Roman Reigns for finally losing the title to an up and coming star after a lengthy title run.
Another thing WWE could do is have The Shield loss in a six-man tag match, which would go a long way in helping get a young babyface or heel over and maybe even set them up for a title run in the future. In the end, these are all possibilities that WWE is going to have to face sooner or later it could have a big impact on the future if the company isn't careful.
Negative: Forcing Reigns down fans throats
Will WWE ever stop pushing Roman Reigns?
While WWE has done a great job squashing any resistance to Roman Reigns' Universal title run so far, especially after The Shield reunion and Braun Strrowman's heel turn, that doesn't mean this is necessarily what fans want. In fact, what WWE is doing now seems to be so far removed from what fans want that it's utterly ridiculous.
Think about it! The WWE Universe has been telling the company for months that they didn't want to see Reigns in the title picture anymore or at least for a while and WWE just keeps him there. Furthermore, they have him win the title in one of the most unconvincing ways possible, which didn't help things at all.
With that being said, this doesn't mean WWE needs to scrap the idea entirely or even that they have to take the title off of Reigns sooner rather than later, it just means that WWE really needs to stop pushing on Reigns so hard. It doesn't help anything at all and even has been known to turn people off from the product entirely.
In the end, WWE needs to treat their fans with a little more respect and stop desperately trying to shove a particular character down their throats. Of course, WWE has done this with countless characters in the past and will probably do so again when the time comes, but they need to consider what the consequences are for doing so.
