WWE’s Original Plan For The Shield’s Break-Up

One of the most shocking betrayals in WWE history was the implosion of The Shield on the June 2nd, 2014, episode of Monday Night RAW. The notorious trio transitioned into babyface roles a few months prior, amid overwhelmingly positive reactions from the crowd. WWE’s original plans for disbanding The Shield, however, were significantly different from what the company implemented in the summer of 2014.

According to Seth Rollins, the company was eager to drop the storyline as far back as December 2013. During an interview with Steve Austin on The Broken Skull Sessions in 2021, The Shield’s Architect commented on the company’s original plans for the group’s split. Of course, none of the three members agreed with the original pitch and pushed for a new direction, and the rest is history.

What happened was, they wanted to break us up back in January [2014], maybe December. They wanted to go to Ambrose and Roman at WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans. I was left out. Maybe a special referee or something. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ They wanted to break us up and we had just turned the corner into being babyfaces. Over time, it was like, ‘they’re too cool, we can’t boo them anymore.’ We were like, ‘No. What are you doing? We’re not ready for that yet, we have a whole run as babyfaces.

There’s a lot of merch money on the table.’ We went to Hunter, we talked about it, we ended up hashing it out and worked with The Outlaws [Road Dogg & Billy Gunn] and Kane at WrestleMania, which was a truncated match, a glorified squash because you guys [Austin, The Rock, and Hulk Hogan] talked for 35 minutes and the Daniel Bryan and Hunter went out and did 35 minutes [laughs]. You know how it goes, sh*t falls downhill. We had about 90 seconds and we went out and did our thing. Then, we did two matches with Evolution, no peep of a turn, no peep for a breakup, no one said anything. We wiped the floor with Evolution, it was a clean sweep in the elimination match. They pull us into the office and say, ‘tonight is the night.’

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The Shield’s Final Chapter, which aired exclusively on the WWE Network, saw the trio wrestle together one last time. On April 21, 2019, a one-hour special aired from the TaxSlayer Center (now known as Vibrant Arena) in Moline, Illinois. The three defeated Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and Baron Corbin in the main event.

This month marks the tenth anniversary of The Shield. It remains to be seen whether Reigns, Rollins, and Jox Moxley will ever share the same ring again in AEW. To get the latest updates, keep an eye on Ringside News.

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