There is a way to bring
the pack back together again ..
For the longest time, every
single fan of the Shield felt that the demise of the group was rushed. No one
felt that the time was right to pull the trigger, we all felt that they still
had a lot of great things to accomplish together and that we were going to get
that. Now I will admit that fans can be very demanding to the point where they
think they know what's best for business, (no pun intended), and that can be
very damaging to a wrestler’s career seeing as how fan reaction is the be all,
end all in regards to how angles and storylines get over. But there are a few
times when the fans are just flat out right and that the creative is straight up
wrong. Two instances I can think of would be with Daniel Bryan and Cody Rhodes.
In the case of Daniel Bryan, WWE was able to catch that mistake, (reluctantly),
and create a great WrestleMania moment for him. But in the case of Cody Rhodes,
they simply dropped the ball when Dusty passed and fans wanted him to come back
as Cody, simply because they enjoyed him more than Stardust.
Personally, I think that
this is no different from either of those times. WWE, simply out of panic,
pulled the trigger on the Shield and it really hasn't yielded the fullest of its
potential just yet. And to be quite honest, the creative team didn't seem to
know what they were doing with those guys in the first place; (and in the case
of Roman and Seth, they still don't). Some would ask what would could the Shield
have become if they weren't split up? Could they have been all-time great or
could they have gone the NWO route as something that started great, but ended up
watered down and abused. If you take out the creative team that is WWE, (and
their infinite mistakes), I think that the Shield could have been something very
huge for the WWE when they needed them most. You don't add a whole bunch of
members, you don't tease new members joining and when you did add one or two
members, let them not be someone already established within WWE. You keep them
small and as a tight knit unit; that's where their effectiveness came from.
As a unit, they succeed
because they fed off each other, that's what made them great.
I mean Dean was the
architect, Roman kept them level headed when need be and Dean provided the
aggression when it was time to pull it out; but their effectiveness and cohesion
came because no one was the leader and they all moved as one. That's why we
loved the Shield, because they came together as one and moved as a unit rather
than having a "leader" dictating their every move. The same can be said about
the Bullet Club, I mean yea they've had leaders during the course of their
existence, but it's not an overbearing leader barking out orders, it's a just a
figure head that's there, but for the most part these guys just do what they
want, together. So, in the essence of having that kind of teamwork, something
never really seen on WWE television, you essentially took away one of the
freshest storylines that fans could remember in a long time.
Now of course there was
plenty of criticism with the decision to break them up beyond us not being
ready, like Roman still being "green" and Dean being left out of the main event
picture then; but at the end of the day these guys are doing quite well for
themselves at the moment and that's all we really care for. But at the end of
the day, if Survivor Series was any initiation, there's still plenty of love for
the Shield and plenty of people who want them back. And that's a great thing
considering that a lot of fans get tired of things within the realm of WWE
pretty quickly, but is it the right time to bring them back together. For the
sake of arguing, (because that's why I'm here), I'm going to say yes, it is. The
time to bring these guys back is never too soon and won't be too late for a very
long time simply because it just has that unfinished business vibe to it.
So how would the Shield
reform if WWE decided to pull that trigger?
Well to me it would be a
three-phase process, starting with Dean. Since Dean is the only one on SmackDown
at the current moment, his jump to the Raw brand, (there's a reason for this),
would have to be either highly publicized in a trade of sorts or an injury that
keeps him off TV for a while. Personally, I wouldn't want to see him get traded
for the simple fact that it would take a lot more to get him over back to his
friends, (one that makes sense logically and storyline wise), in the end. If you
trade him over, then he would have to start another feud and then figure out a
way to get him back with them without damaging his character even more.
Personally, for Phase One I would have him
fake an injury and just keep him off TV for a couple of months. This is so he
could pop up at any time to help his brethren in a tight spot or when they need
to call upon him.
Which leads me to
Phase Two, Seth Rollins turn back to the heel
side of things. If the rumors are true that Seth is going up against Triple H at
WrestleMania, then this would make this part of the angle just that more
perfect. I know folks are tired of Stephanie McMahon as an authority figure
simply because she degrades the talents a lot, but in this case that would work
perfectly. Whether he beats Trips or not, you could have the WrestleMania
fallout come in the form of Stephanie punishing Seth for having the balls to go
up against the McMahon family. He can spend a couple of months being beaten down
and worn out, or screwed over time and time again, all because of Stephanie.
This would give him a reason to turn to his brothers again and just start
wreaking havoc upon the roster instead of taking his beatings like a champ.
Of course, all of that
brings me to Phrase Three, Roman's heel
turn.
This is something that we
all want to see anyways for the simple fact that we like Roman, but we don't
want to see him become a John Cena 2.0 for the new generation. While that topic
is for another column, the fact that Roman would be better suited for the heel
version, or even the tweener version of his character that he has now, the
Shield reforming would present the best opportunity for that. This is the tricky
part here since Seth and Roman are on the same roster and creative loves teaming
these guys up every chance that they get. I would separate them and either have
one in the main event getting the short stick of things and the other in the mid
card or random feud business until it's time for them to cross paths. That way
it doesn't feel like it was already coming and expected eventually. I know it's
hard to keep them apart due to a lack of babyfaces on the main roster, but there
are plenty of other wrestler's that could fill those shoes until that time came.
I would do all of that and
have it come to a head at Survivor Series where Stephanie could setup one last
potential screw job and would have just Roman and Seth, (by that point their
storylines would cross paths), against SmackDown's five guys. Now they wouldn't
just run through SmackDown, of course they would have their own internal
problems and would explode versus getting their asses kicked. I would have them
eliminate two guys and then have the final three eliminated in quick succession
after Dean shows up and helps out. At the end of the match Roman and Seth would
hand him a Raw shirt and he would throw it on the ground instead of picking it
up, teasing he's going back to Raw. But instead Roman would take off his shirt
and so would Seth and they would then stand there in the middle of the ring and
do their trademark pose; sending the fans into a frenzy.
Thus, creating a moment
at one of your big four Pay-Per-Views for the year.
I also thought about having
them bring back Halloween Havoc and then Roman and Seth would be in a handicap
match that would basically end the same way. I would prefer that happening
there, then at Survivor Series to avoid SmackDown looking like the weak ones.
But then again you could just do like they did this year with the Raw's team and
have them implode like that to lose the match, rather than losing straight up.
Also by doing that at a Halloween Havoc Pay-Per-View you could set it up as
Halloween Havoc having a purpose and a major event happening there than just it
being another gimmick show. But we all know how WWE is very selective about
using something that WCW created, but I feel this would be a really great reason
to bring it back.
In the end, (to me at
least), this would be a really great reason to bring them back and create some
buzz outside of the WWE realm. This way you could build you a strong stable that
would either combat the Club's eventual formation, (hopefully on SmackDown), or
the reemergence of the Wyatt Family. Having a group like the Shield run
roughshod over the roster for a couple of months, while winning championships,
isn't a bad thing at all. Just figuring out who is going to be with what belts
is the hard part. Finding out who would join the group down the line would be
the other hard part as well. But all of that will come later, just reforming
them is the thing here and I really like this idea. Personally, I hope they
bring them back for something awesome like this to inject a little something to
the brand.
Because at the end of the
day having too much Shield is never a problem.
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