WWE News: Timetable For The Shield To Split This Year
There is an old saying that, when you have something great, you milk it until there is nothing left. WWE has been living this out exponentially with The Shield lately, but it could have been for a good reason. Most felt that The Shield was done after a while, as WWE used them only for the muscle in the Authority angle. So something had to be done to make them work for a bit, so that an end could come and we’d all care when it happened.
WWE planned originally to end the group after Elimination Chamber. The plan was always for them to lose to the Wyatt Family in the epic stable vs stable match, which would set up for a betrayal and subsequent triple threat match at WrestleMania 30. The plans changed as the New Age Outlaws(friends of Triple H), wanted to work with The Shield at WrestleMania.
They along with Kane were pretty much squashed by The Shield, setting the trio up for two WrestleMania wins in a row.
Due to the high popularity of the now face Shield, the WWE felt they could squeeze more out of them by having the trio work with Evolution, now that all members were back in the company again. Soon the idea turned into how well they could use The Shield, which has now seemingly turned into WWE’s new summer angle.
One idea that has been floating around was to continue to allow Dean Ambrose to hold the United States Championship(which he is now the longest reigning in WWE history with). A couple of other ideas was to have either Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns win Money in the bank as well. Obviously none of this is confirmed, only rumored. Would The Shield stay together even if they all left to have some singles runs? It could be likely.
Seth Rollins recently sat down with IGN to talk about The Shield and if there is a split coming any time soon. When asked if he feels the group should stick together a while longer he said:
“I definitely do. I think there’s a lot of life left in The Shield, especially with the different direction the crowd has taken on with us. I think there’s a long way to go for us as a group — as individuals as well. There’s no reason we can’t advance in both situations. I think people assume that for whatever reason there’s an exclusivity to being a single star and a great stable. But for me it’s never about that. We can all grow as individuals, and we can all be big stars in our own right. The Shield can be as big as it’s ever been. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”
It used to be the way to keep stables or tag teams together, yet also allow them to go and have singles success. The Hardys were a good example of this. Two real life brothers, known for great tag team work, wanted to do some singles stuff. WWE had Matt win the European and Hardcore Titles while Jeff also won the Hardcore and Intercontinental Titles. The two eventually split due to the draft and when Jeff left the company. Yet neither truly strayed too far.
The same happened with other tag teams, and WWE allowed this. Yet it seems that any time one person is worth a good singles push, instantly the idea is to break the group up and never expect a return to it. The Shield may change this pattern, where the group never truly dies and can be revisited any time there is a need. In the meantime however, the members can become singles stars.
Together, the group is amazing. However, all men in the group are tremendous singles competitors. The only wildcard entering with the trio was Roman Reigns, as everyone knew the abilities of Ambrose and Rollins. Now, Reigns is arguably the most popular guy in the group with the potential to a major star. Rollins’ mic work was also a question mark coming in, yet he has improved it greatly. Ambrose was the most complete star coming in and still is. So the idea to use them for a while is there, just we do not know if it’ll be together.
Neither man wants to really kill The Shield, all men have expressed this publicly. I’m sure they have done so privately as well. So Rollins told IGN the truth. He does not know where WWE will go with their story. However, he does know what he wants the group to do. All men are good friends who want the best for their faction, even if it means they cannot stay together after a while.
Currently, an argument can be made that The Shield is one of the top 10 and potentially top 5 best factions in history. WWE has a lot of potential with each man. How long they will stay together is up in the air. The idea currently though, is split them by the end of the year. We will see if WWE keeps to that or not.
