The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose) was the most popular faction in pro-wrestling in the 2010s. They debuted in 2012 at Survivor Series and broke up in 2014.
They had multiple reunions, but their run finally ended in 2019, when Ambrose (Jon Moxley) left WWE for AEW.
Now, 5 years later, Roman and Seth are not in touch with Dean. Here’s what Rollins said on The Pivot podcast:
“None of us are as close as we were. Everyone’s off doing their own thing. Roman and I see each other occasionally at the premium live events if he is on those, and neither of us see Mox ever.”
Rollins went on to give major credit to The Shield for changing the landscape of wrestling:
“I referenced breaking up The Shield earlier, and to me, that was an extremely important moment. In our industry, if you look back, we did that in 2000—was it 2014? Yeah, it would have been 2014. Business was not great then. We were not doing great; television ratings were kind of declining as, you know, TV was shifting to streaming.
Live Events weren’t doing well, and the talent roster wasn’t doing great either. We came in 2012 with a goal to make a huge impact, and we did great as The Shield. But you have to realize, it’s three guys in one act. You need three acts, right? So we broke up The Shield, and that was a huge moment.
That moment took all three of us—myself, Roman, and Dean Ambrose—in separate directions. The butterfly effect of that decision changed and catapulted the business, bringing it, 10 years later, to a place that’s financially as big as it’s ever been.
We’re about to jump into a new streaming deal with Netflix, a first-of-its-kind 5-year, maybe 10-year deal if things work out.
We’re doing things in our industry now that I don’t think would have happened if we hadn’t had that moment. If you keep The Shield together longer or do something different with it, that butterfly effect isn’t the same.
I don’t know that the business, myself, Roman, Jon, or the industry as a whole would be where it is today without that moment.”
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