The Shield came onto the scene in November 2012, debuting at Survivor Series. It has been a long way since then. They broke up in June 2014 when Seth Rollins whacked Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose with a steel chair, aligning with The Authority.
Since then, The Shield split up and became singles competitors. It was needed at the time as they always intended for the three to be the company’s top stars. And there is no doubt that they have. There are no 3 bigger stars that the WWE have created in the recent years than these three.
Since 2015, every single main event of every Pay-Per-View has always had at least one Shield member. The 3 had their dream match square off at Battleground this year, where Ambrose walked out still WWE World Champion. Ambrose has since then been drafted to Smackdown. Even so, the three continue to lead and be the top stars of The New Era.
In an interview with The Inquirer, The Big Dog opened up on why he feels The Shield paved the way for The New Era: “It’s not talked about too often because of NXT and how big that product became and just the wave of new talent from NXT. It really shined through. But something a lot of people missed was The Shield is actually kind of the beginning of the new era. We kind of paved the road and took the bumps and made this process a lot smoother for those guys as well.
“We had to deal with the older guys who had been here, rooted in, and had the system their way. And we came in and did a good job of leading those in the new generation. People could say what they want, but no matter what, the three members of The Shield will lead the way"
When asked if he learnt from his fellow Shield members, he had the following to say.
“I absolutely learned a lot from them. A smart man, a good competitor, and a great performer is going to continue to learn because if you know everything, you better retire. I think there’s a whole lot of stuff that I took from them, and anytime you’re around with people, influenced and bond with them, you’re going to build those characteristics and you’re going to learn from them,”
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