CM Punk reveals two legends who were supposed to be in place of The Shield

CM Punk was the third guest of former WWE announcer and presenter Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast.

The two spoke about The Shield, and CM Punk revealed how WWE had plans to use two other WWE Superstars instead of the trio of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.

WWE's original plans for CM Punk's mercenaries

CM Punk stated that he helped several wrestlers in WWE and that his exit also played a role in the promotion of Superstars like Daniel Bryan into main event stars. Renee Paquette agreed and said that her husband, Jon Moxley, fka Dean Ambrose, wouldn't have had a career in WWE if not for CM Punk bringing him and the other two members of The Shield, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, to the main roster.

CM Punk revealed why he brought in the trio from FCW, three virtual unknowns, rather than established names, to be his henchmen. He also stated that Big Show and Daniel Bryan were the original stars who were supposed to be beside him rather than The Shield.

"Yeah, the whole Shield thing is I needed guys to work. That was it. Super selfish, honestly. I don't know if you remember Eric Pankowski. Eric Pankowski was hired to be a head writer - and that is a job that has an expiration date. He wasn't there for a long time, at least. One of his ideas was, 'We want to have some guys with you. Some bad guys to protect you. You know, you're a chicken sh*t heel.' And I was like, 'great.' He said Daniel Bryan and Big Show. And I was just like, 'why don't we use guys noboby has seen before' instead of all these guys that I've alread had on-screen history, that for better or for worse, have been beat by everybody, probably me included at the point. So why don't we get some new blood in there. And I went up to Vince (McMahon) and Triple H and I was like, 'we've got to use some young guys.' And there are guys that are ready and nobody else was watching FCW and saying, 'heu, we need these guys up.' These guys are ready, they are not getting any better down there. They are at the point where the need to be down the road at least... let's get 'em up. They obviously did not want Chris Hero as a part of it and they were high on Roman Reigns... So they came with that and was like, 'great, let's do it' because we needed new blood."

All three members of The Shield went on to become future world champions in WWE, before the faction was disbanded last year following the exit of Dean Ambrose.

Please H/T Sportskeeda and Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette if you use any of the quotes