Well it finally happened and I'm bummed about it.

[Navi]

I was one of the biggest Shield marks on this forum, and was totally pissed off when they broke up. But that was three years ago and I've moved on. It doesn't mean I didn't want them to reform at some point as I knew they would, but wanted it to happen for the right reasons.

It happened tonight on RAW, like the title of this thread says I'm bummed. It just doesn't feel like the Shield. There was too much prep, hints and teases for it to be any sort of a surprise and that's what I wanted a surprise. Been waiting forever to hear SIERRA, HOTEL, INDIA, ECHO, LIMA, DELTA, SHIELD, then the camera pans into the crowd and out they come down the stairs in their riot gear.

Tonight on RAW Reigns came out to his music, Ambrose and Rollins the same. All three were dressed as they normally are, although later in the show they were wearing matching Shield shirts, and it just wasn't right. I don't know how the WWE could take the reformation of one of the best factions they've ever put together and screw it up so much.

Now some if not most fans of the Shield will be thrilled that they are back together, and I suppose they should be. I always thought for some stupid reason they would reform for a reason that would make sense, nothing about this makes any sense.

Maybe I'm missing the point, but KB said it best on the RAW LD thread. He said that this felt too corporate and forced. Now that it's happened I guess we'll have to see where it goes, but not feeling it right now.

 

[Dolph Ziggler's Gimmick]

The way they're handling it definitely tells you that they're still focused on them as singles stars, they might even abruptly end this with a poetic Ambrose heel turn.

Either way, I can't help but mark out for it. It's also possibly a good chance for Roman, he might come out of this looking like the badass we knew from the Shield and have a fresh start with the audience as a singles star. Then again I highly doubt it would work, since the damage seems to be done there, but I can at least hope for a subtle character change.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I feel you girl. It feels forced and it feels like the next step in getting Roman cheered. I’m not going to say there is no hope, because collectively you have three of WWE’s best (yes even Ambrose) and they typically deliver when it matters. I just wish the writing hadn’t been broadcast on the wall for weeks.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Meh. That was my reaction to it. It's just a throwaway deal in order to have a "special match" at TLC. Plus they're facing Miz, Sheamus, Cesaro and Strowman. Nothing against those guys, but they are not hot stuff and definately not worthy to be the catalyst of a Shield reunion. How did it even happen? Strowman faced Dean and Seth out of nowhere, then Cesaro and Sheamus got involved with Miz out of nowhere. There should have been a long build with a big payoff in order to justify the fact that they're back together.

You had the Club and the New Day and instead of building Shield back to face one of these two already established factions, they're facing 4 guys that just created a team. It will be a fun match and that's all.

 

[Wald]

Yeah I agree. I mean, how hard would it have been for them to book Miz, Sheamus and Cesaro to beat on Reigns in the ring only for the Tango, Foxtrot bit to come on and have Rollins and Ambrose come through the crowd for the save?

 

[George Steele's Barber]

They've barely been reunited for a fart. Anyone can walk down through the crowd or wear combat gear. What set The Shield apart was their matches. They had great chemistry and took three man tags to another level. We never had to get tired of a single guy in the ring because the next guy up was gonna come out and keep the action hot in their own style.

The rest was all newness and the additional icing on the cake that Dolph Ziggler is basing a new character on. The Shield's selling point in 2017 is getting them in the ring together and seeing if they can still go. That probably doesn't happen until TLC. Whatever you expected of them in one night is on you and completely unfair.

 

[Un-Bo-Lievable Jeff]

Think the whole point is that they are not 'The Sheild'. They are the guys who were in the shield, coming together for a match. They use the mannerisms as the fans eat that up.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Personally, I never understood why the broke them up in the first place. They always we're more over as a table then as single star so I'm happy that the brought them back together because it will help all three in the end.

Personally, I'm hoping that they don't break them up and keep them together as long as they can. What I would love to see is if they still want to do reigns vs lesnar at mania, keep reigns as part of the shield until mania. Have them come down with reigns to the ring and after the match is over and reigns won the belt from lesnar, have all three beat on lesnar, throw hm outside and do the triple powerbomb through the table on lesnar. So this would be a great to justify the exit of lesnar in case he doesn't resign next year. Then you could seperate them with sending one or two of the guys on smackdown.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

The biggest issue is that Reigns kept the Shield gimmick when they broke up. He kept the riot gear (albeit altered to sell shirts), he kept the crowd entrance (he later dropped it), and he kept the music - though slightly altered.

The challenge arises that you have to keep Ambrose and Rollins as their own entities - otherwise they're a main event equivalent to the Miztourage. They're just accessories to Reigns.

I agree wholeheartedly though, this reunion begs for the phonetic alphabet and the riot gear. It's like Triple H and Shawn Michaels coming out to The Game and Sexy Boy while being DX, it's not quite right. They didn't keep the DX theme for their singles runs though.

I think we see the Shield theme at TLC. It only makes sense, and it'll get a bigger pop while maintaining the integrity of characters not named Roman Reigns. I'm not certain we'll see the riot gear though.

Maybe as entrance gear. Personally I've been waiting for Ambrose to drop the jeans forever. Maybe they'll get vests like Roman with their symbols. The new Shield t-shirt says it all, with the fist bump and each individual's logo on their respective fist.

Hopefully Roman gets a new theme moving out of this. Their does exist the chance though that they all keep their separate themes, they keep their individual looks, and this new Shield is a different Shield.

As others have pointed out, the music and the gear didn't make the Shield great, it was the chemistry that they had together in and out of the ring. They can't fully go back to how the Shield were before, just as every iteration of DX or nWo was slightly different - thought the Shield only works with these three.

The biggest thing for the Shield reunion is the opponents. The Shield generally faced a rag tag group of faces consisting of whatever combination of Cena, Ryback, Sheamus, Big Show, Orton, and whoever else didn't have a singles angle.

Towards the end of the Shield, they turned face and got to feud with the Wyatts and with Evolution. WWE already supplanted the Miztourage with The Bar plus Braun Strowman. Where does it go from here?

WWE needs factions for The Shield to feud with. Fortunately they have a few options. New Day is on SDL (Survivor Series is coming). You can put the Wyatts back together easily, ditto for The Club (with either Balor or AJ). The challenge is just making them threats.

TLC would be fine with Miz and the Bar, but now they've thrown in Strowman like a kid sending more action figure bad guys after their heroes. Where do we go from here before there's nowhere to go?

WrestleMania season isn't really that far away. There's still a lot of 2017 to go though. WWE needs something to carry the Raw brand through Lesnar's absence. This is looking good so far.

 

[GOOZEKING]

The way I see it is either
A) we cheer the shield and program and all three are praised by Vince
B) we boo the shield and program and Ambrose and Rollins are blamed by Vince

 

[Jack-Hammer]

They've barely been reunited for a fart. Anyone can walk down through the crowd or wear combat gear. What set The Shield apart was their matches. They had great chemistry and took three man tags to another level. We never had to get tired of a single guy in the ring because the next guy up was gonna come out and keep the action hot in their own style.

The rest was all newness and the additional icing on the cake that Dolph Ziggler is basing a new character on. The Shield's selling point in 2017 is getting them in the ring together and seeing if they can still go. That probably doesn't happen until TLC. Whatever you expected of them in one night is on you and completely unfair.

That sums up how I feel about the whole situation. The Shield originally clicked because of their chemistry and the fact that each of them brought different elements to the table. Reigns shined as the mostly silent, bruiser/enforcer of the group, Ambrose was the wild brawler of the group who only knew one gear and Rollins brought the athleticism & technical knowhow. They meshed extremely well together and that sort of chemistry can't be forced.

No offense to the OP, it's just that this feels like typical internet stuff in which something is condemned right from the start because it didn't go down the way it was hoped, thought of or expected to go down in one's head. In my opinion, this is a HUGE part of what's choking the life out of pro wrestling in the modern era: nothing is hardly ever good enough because it doesn't live up to some often unrealistic standard.

Last night, the Shield officially reunited and didn't miss a beat. They were dominant, they built up anticipation for TLC, they gave a strong dose of nostalgia with potential promises of things to do and they meshed last night as though they hadn't been officially broken up for the last 3 years. Is this set to be a one or two time thing? Are they going to be a faction going forward for the foreseeable future? I've no idea, but I intend to try to have fun watching along the way; otherwise, what's the point?

 

[JoeMallard]

I'm not even disappointed, I just don't care. Where do they go after TLC, Reigns has already destroyed Wyatt's and The Club support group on his own. This just gets Reigns cheered until they split again then what? Only a heel turn by Reigns will be an acceptable outcome of the whole story.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

i think it'S easy to play armchair quarterback when you're not under pressure to write tv every week and try to give something compelling for every guy on the roster. I feel like i read so many thread about how somebody don't care about something or how this made no sense even on podcast i heard it all the time. It's becoming such a sickness for the wrestling industry as a whole in my opinion. I feel like those guys work really hard to provide us with a tv show every week and we shit on everything before we even know what the outcome is going to be.

The shield reformation is good for everybody involve because let's face it, All three weren't setting the world on fire as single guys. Reigns is struggling to be accepted by the hardcore fans, Seth face turn didn'T stick as well as they thought and Dean ambrose is just there at this point. This is a great rehab for all three of them and if they can milk this until at less mania if not more then i'm all for it. In the end, the last thing they need to do is have somebody turn this time. If you're going to split them up it as to be because either a) somebody gets traded tot smackdown or b) they split amicably. All three will benefit greatly from this current push and you're going to have three main event start coming out of this instead of just one.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It's way too early to have any major thoughts on this. I loved the original version of The Shield so I'm certainly interested in seeing where this is going. The whole thing seems like a final desperate attempt to get Roman Reigns more fan support. I'd give it until at least after TLC before calling it a failure or even a bummer. Do I want the phonetic letters and original entrance theme? Sure. Up until the TLC match it's not fully necessary. It's something I hope to see at the PPV which would make it more special if they hold off on that until then. I also hope they are booked evenly as opposed to just Rollins and Ambrose coming off like Reigns' sidekicks, I'm not getting my hopes up on the latter though. I'm gonna give it more time. It could still end up being cool.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Yeah I didn't care for this.

Let's force a Shield reunion in our 137th attempt at getting Roman over.

I just don't get it. It was supposed to be a huge moment, but now it's just a hurdle in the path to Reigns/Lesnar 2 like everything else in WWE.

Also it was extremely predictable. They practically gave it away the last three weeks.

 

[CyberPunk]

This is just the result of not having your Universal Champion around. They need a main event level program and they don't have their main event championship, so what do they do? I haven't formed an opinion on this because for all I know, this is going to last a couple months before Reigns goes off to his quest for the Universal championship.

At least I hope it'll be an exciting way of treading water till Lesnar shows up in a couple months.

 

[H16HP01N7]

The way they're handling it definitely tells you that they're still focused on them as singles stars, they might even abruptly end this with a poetic Ambrose heel turn.

Either way, I can't help but mark out for it. It's also possibly a good chance for Roman, he might come out of this looking like the badass we knew from the Shield and have a fresh start with the audience as a singles star. Then again I highly doubt it would work, since the damage seems to be done there, but I can at least hope for a subtle character change.

This is obviously just the newest vehicle to try and get Roman cheered by the fans, and it will end the same way as it has for the last 3 years since The Shield split. The best way for them to finally get what they want (the coronation of Reigns as the new face of the company), is for them to keep the Shield going until after Mania 34, and have Dean, Seth and (ugh) Reigns standing tall at the end of the show. This is the only way that Reigns will get cheers at the end of WM34.

As for a Ambrose Heel Turn, I'm crossing my fingers, but personally, I'd have Reigns do it, and finally admit that he's not going to get over as a Face, until he's been a badass, name taking, ass kicking Heel.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

In my opinion, this is a HUGE part of what's choking the life out of pro wrestling in the modern era: nothing is hardly ever good enough because it doesn't live up to some often unrealistic standard.

No. Wrestling really is just bad these days. Nothing is hardly ever good enough because some people have actually watched good wrestling before.

The Shield have been gone for what, 3 years? I have shit in my fridge that's been there longer than that. During the three years, you've had Reigns using a rip-off Shield theme and wearing bootleg Shield clothes to try and leech any remaining heat from the team, while Ambrose has been his wacky neighbour who continually needs help from the Big Dog. And now they reunite them for a B-PPV after booking themselves into a corner against 5 midcarders. It's a stunning lack of foresight that would make Ray Charles blush. Present day Ray Charles.

Lack of patience is a hallmark of WWE though. Instead of waiting and building it properly, they just throw shit out in desperation to ever diminishing returns. Like how they booked the Shield triple threat last year at a B-PPV instead of saving it for a Wrestlemania main event.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

No. Wrestling really is just bad these days. Nothing is hardly ever good enough because some people have actually watched good wrestling before.

The Shield have been gone for what, 3 years? I have shit in my fridge that's been there longer than that. During the three years, you've had Reigns using a rip-off Shield theme and wearing bootleg Shield clothes to try and leech any remaining heat from the team, while Ambrose has been his wacky neighbour who continually needs help from the Big Dog. And now they reunite them for a B-PPV after booking themselves into a corner against 5 midcarders. It's a stunning lack of foresight that would make Ray Charles blush. Present day Ray Charles.

Lack of patience is a hallmark of WWE though. Instead of waiting and building it properly, they just throw shit out in desperation to ever diminishing returns. Like how they booked the Shield triple threat last year at a B-PPV instead of saving it for a Wrestlemania main event.

That last part I put in bold, that is the damn truth. WWE rushes everything these days, and honestly I blame the fans for a fair amount of it. A lot of us get super impatient and can't stand a proper build.

It doesn't help that WWE is more interested in quick pops as opposed to the sustained pop of a longterm build, but you are spot on man. It's why the reunion felt flat, because it was rushed for five guys, minus Braun, who will likely never reach the level that WWE wants you to believe that the Shield are on.

 

[Navi]

That last part I put in bold, that is the damn truth. WWE rushes everything these days, and honestly I blame the fans for a fair amount of it. A lot of us get super impatient and can't stand a proper build.

It doesn't help that WWE is more interested in quick pops as opposed to the sustained pop of a longterm build, but you are spot on man. It's why the reunion felt flat, because it was rushed for five guys, minus Braun, who will likely never reach the level that WWE wants you to believe that the Shield are on.

I would have happily waited for a proper build to this, but like a number of people have said, it feels rushed. It's almost like they have nothing else to put out there so why not waste what could have been a great moment for a B PPV.

Been waiting forever for the Shield to reunite, and am so disappointed in the way that they did it, especially after watching RAW this week. They opened the show coming out as the Shield, but then Ambrose and Rollins came out to their own theme's. So are the Shield together or not, can't have it both ways. Was sitting there watching having a genuine shake my head moment.

 

[ShinChan]

I would have happily waited for a proper build to this, but like a number of people have said, it feels rushed. It's almost like they have nothing else to put out there so why not waste what could have been a great moment for a B PPV.

Been waiting forever for the Shield to reunite, and am so disappointed in the way that they did it, especially after watching RAW this week. They opened the show coming out as the Shield, but then Ambrose and Rollins came out to their own theme's. So are the Shield together or not, can't have it both ways. Was sitting there watching having a genuine shake my head moment.

I agree. The whole build has been inorganic. Like forced. And I'm sure that it's being rushed because of lack of World Champion to defend the top title. I never thought that Shield can be underwhelming.

RAW required headliners and therefore rushed the reuniting of Shield. It would've been better if we had a champion who wasn't lazy and actually cared enough to defend his title. Next title defense could be at Royal Rumble which is too dumb.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

You guys are ridiculous. I get not enjoying it or not enjoying it as much as you hoped or expected but these "it was too quick" or "inorganic" excuses are silly. These are grown men on a professional wrestling show, not a three hour superhero movie where Ben Affleck takes a break from groping to get a group of reluctant heroes together.

And it wasn't even that quick. Not only were they broken apart for three years but they have all been faces on the same brand for months. People were complaining about the length of time it took just for Rollins and Ambrose to tag together. I'm not sure what people expected. Did you want them to all feud together, fight in another triple threat and then all start kissing mid match? Should The Miz have kidnapped Angle's kids and spend weeks trying to find someone, no some group to get them back? Did you want Ambrose to have a long battle with prostate cancer only for The Shield to reunite and show that only the power of walking through crowd and wearing riot gear could defeat the Big C?

This is professional wrestling, not everything can be drawn out like the overwhelming success of finding out who the leader of Aces and Eights was <sarcasm>. Or the Higher Power <more sarcasm>. It would not be true to Reign's character to have long dragged out character development, dialogue, or indecision for them to finally get back together. The reunion was fine, what will deem this a success or not are the matches, or match.

 

[BIFFtheJEW]

Hello Everyone,

I don't know how to feel about this because the only member of the Shield that I genuinely feel for is Dean Ambrose. I like Seth Rollins but he is better as a heel and a single star. Roman Reigns should be heel. He should walk in, F**k s**t up and walk out. No crowd interaction (the man can't cut a promo, his best one was when he walked out, let the crowd yell and scream and all he said was "This is my yard now" and walked out.) He should be a Braun Strowman type (and on Smackdown or move Braun.).

The Shield together just seems like they are going to cut it as one of them betraying the other two (Dean Ambrose) and now we have a new member of the shield working with The Authority and bam we are back to that again. (It would be a surprise if it was Roman because of the story with him and Triple H.) This just seems like something to pass the year by until Wrestlemania Season starts and it doesn't seem like it wants to try to get any one to excited.