What if Bobby Lashley joins The Shield?

Lashley
Bobby Lashley joining in The Shield would mean big changes for all parties involved.

Bobby Lashley made a big splash when he re-signed with WWE and made a surprise return on the Raw after WrestleMania 34. Unfortunately, he has felt like a square peg in a series of round holes ever since. WWE seems to see him as above talents like Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, and thus he decimates them. At the same time, besides one victory over Roman Reigns, he has been locked out of the main event scene, thus occupying an awkward in-between space of a man WWE doesn’t seem to know what to do with.

So what if Lashley were to join The Shield?

Lashley isn’t necessarily the most natural fit for the group, as it has thrived on its original three members and already has its big man anchor in Reigns. Just the same, Lashley is a prominent face in need of direction, and particularly if someone gets hurt or someone turns on the group, but WWE still wants to keep the money-making faction together, Lashley could make sense as a pinch hitter. Moreover, his very presence could add drama to the group, and to the larger Raw landscape.

This article takes a look at five potential outcomes of Lashley joining The Shield.


#5 Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar as allies?

Strowman and Lesnar
An expanded Shield might make for the rise of other strange bedfellows.

Braun Strowman turned heel and recruited Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre as allies to combat The Shield. It was a bit of a marriage of convenience, as Ziggler and McIntyre were already feuding with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, besides which they were the de facto next top full-time heels available for the angle.

Were Bobby Lashley to saddle up with The Shield, though, it stands to reason the heels would need even more support in hopes of taking them on. Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar have each, individually, had their issues with Roman Reigns and been his biggest threats. Putting their differences aside to crush The Hounds of Justice would both make logical enough sense and create a dream scenario of two absolutely dominant monsters tearing through the competition.

Sure, they’d splinter in the end, but as a two man unit, or perhaps backed by McIntyre or Ziggler, or recruiting someone like Lars Sullivan to round out their unit, they could pose quite the imposing team.

#4 Dean Ambrose pushed closer to the edge

Dean Ambrose
Dean Ambrose's character may feel even more marginalized with Lashly in the faction.

On Raw this past week, WWE teased an impending heel turn for Dean Ambrose when Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre tried to get into his head about being the odd man out, used by his fellow Shield running buddies. Ambrose seemed to see through the ruse for the time being, and yet the seeds are there for him to eventually turn on his pals.

If Bobby Lashley were added to the group, it would add a new reason for Ambrose to resent everyone around him—feeling under-appreciated and like The Shield is focused on a new guy when he hasn’t yet gotten the spotlight. Lashley could replace Ambrose if he were to turn first, but if the Lunatic Fringe were still a part of the group when they welcomed Lashley into the fold, it would invite Ambrose to buck up against this interloper and perhaps want to prove himself as a still important part of the team.

#3 A power struggle

Lashley and Reigns
Lashley and Reigns may be vying for control of The Shield before long.

The Shield has typically been portrayed as a fairly egalitarian unit, with no one clear leader, and an emphasis on everyone involved being elite. Despite this original style, the latest incarnation has featured Roman Reigns a bit more than his associates as the reigning Universal Champion and the one Rollins and Ambrose are there to, at least in part, protect him and his title reign.

If Bobby Lashley were to enter the Shield mix, he’d do so with a clean win over Reigns from Extreme Rules under his belt. Reigns has beaten Lashley, too, but if anything that might add fuel to the fire as these two men may well find themselves vying for the leadership role or bragging rights as the top member of The Shield. An issue between the two big men may cause even more friction down below as Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins tried to assert themselves in a captain’s role.

#2 Seth Rollins back in the shadows

Seth Rollins
The addition of Bobby Lashley would push Seth Rolins further into the background.

Rollins was the first member of The Shield to have won a world title and is in many ways the agreed upon best all-around worker from the group. Even now, though, Rollins feels a bit in the shadow of Reigns as the Universal Champion and Ambrose who feels fresh after returning from injury and developing a new look. Add Bobby Lashley to the mix, and Rollins runs the risk of becoming a totally forgotten man relative to a big man with a new push, and likely lots of intrigue surrounding him.

When The Shield first launched, Seth Rollins was a clear front runner for the position of “most likely to get lost in the shuffle” whenever the group parted ways. It’s not that Rollins wasn’t talented. Dean Ambrose had a big personality and best-defined character, though. Meanwhile, Roman Reigns best fit the mold for a WWE main eventer and seemed early on to be the chosen one who’d become—or at least be in the conversation to become—the next face of WWE. Were it not for Rollins’s exceptional talent and WWE brass like Triple H looking out for him from the beginning, he may have been the one left without a direction when the faction splintered.

#1 An eventual heel turn for Lashley or Reigns

Lashley vs. Reigns
At some point down the road, one of The Shield big men would turn.

Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns had a rivalry this past summer that culminated in Lashley winning their one on one match at Extreme Rules, after which The Big Dog got his win back on an episode of Raw.

Lashley and Reigns haven’t interacted much on air since, but if WWE were to put them directly in each other’s line of sight again, one has to believe the old tensions would eventually pick up again. The two have already worked a face vs. face feud—a mold WWE typically steers away from, and a set up WWE likely views as played out at this point. No, when the time comes for WWE to revisit Lashley vs. Reigns, it will probably be with one man as a heel, and especially so if it comes out of them working together under The Shield banner, and then splitting up.

Lashley would be the more obvious choice to go rogue, given WWE’s seeming commitment to keeping Reigns face and given Lashley hasn’t worked heel yet with this company. Depending on the timing and surrounding circumstances, though, things could conceivably break either way.

Meet the man who called CM Punk the softest man alive HERE