The Shield (professional wrestling)

The Shield
The stable's logo
Stable
MembersDean Ambrose[1]
Roman Reigns[2]
Seth Rollins[3]
Name(s)The Shield[4]
Combined
billed weight		707 lb (321 kg)[1][2][3]
DebutNovember 18, 2012
DisbandedApril 21, 2019
Years active

The Shield[7] was a professional wrestling stable in WWE that consisted of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. Their original characters were mercenaries for CM Punk; however, they quickly became mainstay main-event names.[8] The group debuted on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view.[5] The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29.[9] In May 2013 at Extreme Rules, all three members of The Shield won a championship, with Ambrose winning the United States Championship while Rollins and Reigns captured the WWE Tag Team Championship.[10] Rollins and Reigns were WWE Tag Team Champions until October 2013, and Ambrose was United States Champion until May 2014, which was a record reign for the WWE version of the championship.[11][12] As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.[13][14]

The Shield at various points served as hired guns for CM Punk and The Authority while later going on to face their former employers in separate feuds.[15][16] They wrestled in the main event of numerous Raw and SmackDown television shows and headlined one pay-per-view, the 2014 Payback event, which was their final match as a trio until 2017.[17] Rollins left the group on June 2, when he attacked Ambrose and Reigns with a chair and sided with The Authority.[18] Ambrose and Reigns went on their own ways as singles wrestlers later that month, marking the end of The Shield.[6]

Following the group's dissolution, each member of The Shield went on to become a world champion. All three reigned as WWE World Heavyweight Champion within a three-minute span at the end of the 2016 Money in the Bank event: Rollins defeated Reigns for the championship and then Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase (which he won earlier that night) on Rollins to win the title.[19]

In the lead-up to the 2017 SummerSlam event, Ambrose and Rollins reunited and captured the Raw Tag Team Championship from Cesaro and Sheamus.[20] Then on the October 9 episode of Raw, the trio reunited to feud with The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus.[21] In December 2017, the team dissolved once again after Ambrose suffered an injury. Following Ambrose's return from injury the previous week, The Shield reunited once again on August 20, 2018 episode of Raw to prevent Braun Strowman from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Reigns. However, in October that same year, The Shield disbanded following Reigns' hiatus over his leukemia rediagnosis and Ambrose's betrayal towards Rollins. After Reigns returned in February 2019 and announced that his leukemia was in remission, the trio reunited and won the main event match of Fastlane that same month. Although this was promoted as The Shield's final match together, they reunited at the special event The Shield's Final Chapter, Ambrose's final WWE match due to not renewing his contract.

  1. ^ a b "Dean Ambrose". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Roman Reigns". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Seth Rollins". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  4. ^ Caldwell, James. "Caldwell's WWE Raw Results 11/26: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw – The Shield speaks, Cena-Ziggler". PWTorch. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  5. ^ a b "WWE Champion CM Punk def. John Cena and Ryback (Triple Threat Match)". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Pruett, Will. "WWE Raw - The sad tale of the Stretcher Match and every other gimmick match I'd like to see retired". prowrestling.net. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  7. ^ "The Shield's 10 best Six-Man Tag Team Matches". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  8. ^ "Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns: Who are they and why did they help CM Punk?". WWE. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  9. ^ "The Shield def. Randy Orton, Big Show & Sheamus". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  10. ^ "Extreme Rules 2013 results". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  11. ^ "Where does Dean Ambrose rank among the longest-reigning United States Champions ever?". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  12. ^ "United States Championship". WWE. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  13. ^ "The Shield & The Real Americans def. WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes & Goldust, The Usos & Rey Mysterio (Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match)". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  14. ^ "Batista won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  15. ^ "CM Punk def. The Shield (3-on-1 Handicap Match)". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  16. ^ "Raw: April 7, 2014". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  17. ^ "The Shield def. Evolution (No Holds Barred Elimination Match)". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  18. ^ Caldwell, James. "Caldwell's WWE Raw Results 6/2: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw – PPV fall-out, huge angle at the end of Raw, post-Raw coverage, MITB hype, more". PWTorch.com. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  19. ^ "Seth Rollins def. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns; Dean Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion". WWE. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
  20. ^ Benigno, Anthony (August 20, 2017). "Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins def. Cesaro & Sheamus to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions". WWE. Retrieved August 21, 2017.
  21. ^ Keller, Wade. "Keller's WWE Raw report 10/9: Shield reunion continues, Miz TV with Sheamus & Cesaro, TLC build up continues". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved October 9, 2017.