Summarizing The Shield's WWE career so far

The Shield

It looks like that The Shield’s domination in the WWE has nearly came to end after the trio lost to the Wyatt Family at Elimination Chamber. Although they stood up to their attack the next night on Raw, and will face the Wyatt Family again on next SmackDown, things have changed a lot since the time when they ruled the WWE as a unit.

Debut of the “Hounds of Justice” and aiding CM Punk

The Shield made their WWE debut at Survivor Series 2012 and helped the WWE Champion CM punk in retaining his title against John Cena and Ryback by sending the latter through the announce table. After attacking Punk’s other opponents, like Team Hell No, over the next few weeks, The Shield were put in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match against Ryback and Team Hell No at TLC. It was their debut match and they finished it off together by delivering a triple powerbomb to Daniel Bryan through a table. In January 2013 they again attacked Punk’s opponents: Ryback and The Rock, and made the triple powerbomb their signature move. This move was not only their biggest weapon but it also showed how united this team really is.

Becoming the U.S. and Tag Team Champions

At Extreme Rules, Dean Ambrose won the U.S. Championship from Kofi Kingston and later that night Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins defeated Team Hell No to win the Tag Team Championship. These wins marked The Shield’s transition from just newcomers to WWE’s top stars. And even at this point of time no one had pinned them or made them submit, i.e. The Shield were still undefeated. They were nearly invincible in tag team matches and also thrived in singles competition as they aided each other in their respective matches. They were really a UNIT.

But everything has to come to an end and so did The Shield’s undefeated streak, it was in a match against the team of Randy Orton and Team Hell No on the June 14 episode of SmackDown. After that, Kane challenged Ambrose and Orton and Bryan challenged Reigns and Rollins for the U.S. and the Tag Team Championship respectively at Payback, but neither of them succeeded, The Shield were still the champions. Later, they again retained their titles against The Usos and Rob Van Dam in their respective tag team and singles title matches.

http://youtu.be/vLj35oevpG8

Working for The Authority and losing Tag Team Championship

In August, The Shield started working for Triple H and helped the WWE Champion Randy Orton in his feud with Daniel Bryan and also attacked stars like Big Show and Dolph Ziggler who voiced against Triple H. The trio again retained their titles at Night of Champions, but their time as tag team champions was nearing an end. At Battleground, Reigns and Rollins lost to the fired Rhodes Brothers: Cody and Goldust, who had their jobs at stake. They again lost to the Rhodes Brothers, and this time it was their turn to stake something: the Tag Team Championship. Although they lost their titles, Ambrose retained his title against Dolph Ziggler.

Ambrose considering himself a leader, but coming out as a loser

With only Ambrose left in the group as the champion, his ego took the better of him and he started considering himself as the leader of The Shield, a group which never had a leader, but three equal parts. It’s funny how right after this, their opponents started finding him as the easiest man to pin in the group, he was also defeated more than once by CM Punk. At Survivor Series, Ambrose was the first man to get eliminated from his team with Reigns remaining as the sole survivor of the match. It was a big reality check for Ambrose and the turning point of Reigns’ fortune. After that Ambrose suffered another embarrassment as he was the one whom CM Punk pinned in his team’s handicap match against Punk at TLC, right after Reigns accidentally speared him.

http://youtu.be/X-0Cyrw30IQ

Further dissension

When The Shield were involved in their feud with the man they were once helping: CM Punk, nobody except for Reigns was able to defeat the “Straight Edge Superstar” and Punk’s pipe bombs did further damage to the trio’s unity which was already tampered by Ambrose’s ego. During a backstage interview prior to Royal Rumble all three members of The Shield got into an argument where they talked about eliminating each other in the Royal Rumble and it became obvious that someone is going to act as the backstabber in the match, and that man was the one and only Dean Ambrose who tried to eliminate Reigns, who in turn eliminated both his teammates and eventually finished as the runner-up.

Feud with Wyatt Family showed that Ambrose is the weak link

During their feud with the Wyatt Family, after the group cost them their Elimination Chamber qualifying match, Ambrose apparently developed a will to prove himself, prove that he is not the group’s weak link, and started to find chances where he could prove that. For instance, in a tag team match he tagged himself in after Reigns came close to a pin so that he himself could record the win for his team. Later, he put up an open challenge for his U.S. title and Mark Henry decided to face him. He retained the title but only with help from his teammates.

The very next week, Reigns picked up a clean victory over Henry but after the match Ambrose started attacking Henry to prove that he can also beat Henry just like Reigns did. At Elimination Chamber, Bray Wyatt took Ambrose to the crowd from where he didn’t return and the outnumbered Reigns and Rollins ultimately lost the match. And next night on Raw just when Reigns came close to a win over Bray Wyatt, Ambrose went after Bray and caused a disqualification which was, well… accidental. So, in a bid to prove himself, Ambrose has only caused damage to his team. Will he realize his mistakes? Only time will tell.

http://youtu.be/KLSVs8kb5fw

What next?

The Shield and the Wyatt Family will face each other for one more (maybe last) time next week, before the Wyatt Family get busy with John Cena, and the outcome of this match is going to determine the future of The Shield, because sooner rather than later The Shield are going to remove the weak link from their team. The growing tension among Reigns and Ambrose also points towards a feud between the two, which WWE might think of stretching until WrestleMania XXX. Whatever the outcome of this Shield vs. Wyatt Family Part II be, we just want to see a great match with an ending that gives us a clear idea about where The Shield are heading prior to WrestleMania.