The Shield made their WWE debut as CM Punk’s hired help way back at Survivor Series 2012. The trio of Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins helped the Second City Saint retain his WWE Championship in a triple-threat match against Ryback and John Cena.
Back when Punk was still friends with Colt Cabana, he spoke about The Shield’s WWE origins on Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. The former WWE Champion said he was pitched to form a heel stable with Big Show and Daniel Bryan, but instead chose to build his own group.
“This will probably blow some people’s minds, and then some people will be like, ‘Oh, you’re full of s***!’ but I don’t f***ing care either way: The Shield was my idea,” Punk said. “What happened was, at that time [in WWE] the head writer was Eric Pankowski. He called me up one day and he was like, ‘Okay, uh, nobody knows you’re going to turn heel but we want to stick a stable with you.” (h/t ProWrestlingStories)
Punk said he approached Vince McMahon and Triple H with his own version of the group: Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Kassius Ohno (aka Chris Hero). While Vince agreed with the first two picks, he wasn’t very high on Ohno and told the Chicago native he wanted Roman Reigns to be the third member.
“They wanted Roman Reigns,” Punk recalled. “They came to me, and they were like, ‘What about Leakee?’ I didn’t… it wasn’t my hill to die on. I said, ‘Sure,’ because it made sense to me. Oh, they want their guy in, he’s the pretty guy, but that’s good because this guy can learn from working under me.”
All members of The Shield became world champions in WWE
The Shield is widely considered to be one of the greatest WWE stables of all time, with each becoming a world champion in Vince McMahon’s promotion. Seth Rollins was the first member of the stable to taste world title gold. The Architect won the WWE Championship after his “heist of the century” at WrestleMania 31.
Roman Reigns, who was always seen as the poster boy of the group, won his first world title after beating Dean Ambrose at Survivor Series 2015. The moment, however, didn’t last long as Sheamus cashed in his Money in the Bank contract minutes after the match to capture the title.
For Dean Ambrose, the title win came a little later. The Lunatic Fringe won the WWE Championship by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract against Seth Rollins at the 2016 Money in the Bank premium live event.
It was a night when every member of the group held the world title.
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