History Wrestling / TheShield

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: They did this frequently after defeating nearly every 3 man team thrown together to face them. Especially in their early run when they were seen as young hot shot rookies who weren't household names.

* TheAce: Putting aside the fact that all three are former WWE Champions. Once The Shield was fully gone by 2019 and all three went their separate ways, they all ended up as wildly successful singles wrestlers. Wrestling/SethRollins became the first full-time wrestler to beat Wrestling/BrockLesnar cleanly since Wrestling/JohnCena in 2012 and remains a consistent main-eventer. Following his FaceHeelTurn, "The Tribal Chief" Wrestling/RomanReigns has become a full-on InvincibleVillain. Holding the Universal Championship for two years, becoming the longest world champion in history since Hulk Hogan. Last but not least, [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]] now known as Jon Moxley, has become the MVP of [[Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling AEW]] becoming it's first ever two-time world champion and having the company's longest singles winning streak. Even when separated, The Shield rules Professional Wrestling. Notably, from 2015 through to 2022, the #1 spot in the PWI 500 was occupied by either a member of The Shield[[note]]Rollins in 2015 & 2019, Roman in 2016 & 2022, Ambrose in 2020[[/note]] or by other notable wrestling aces, Kenny Omega[[note]] 2018, 2021[[/note]] & Kazuchika Okada [[note]]2017[[/note]].

At one point during the time the stable was active, each member held a WWE title: Ambrose was WWE United States Champion (and holds the record for longest reign of any United States champion since WWE acquired the title from WCW), and Reigns and Rollins were WWE Tag Team Champions together under the banner of the Shield. Rollins also was the first to hold the NXT Championship early on in the Shield's run. Each member would also eventually go on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (by pinning each other, no less).

At one point during the time the stable was active, each member held a WWE title: Ambrose was WWE United States Champion (and holds the record for longest reign of any United States champion since WWE acquired the title from WCW), and Reigns and Rollins were WWE Tag Team Champions together under the banner of the Shield. Rollins also held the NXT Championship early on in the Shield's run. Each member would also eventually go on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (by pinning one of the others, no less).

* TheAce: Putting aside the fact that all three are former WWE Champions. Once The Shield was fully gone by 2019 and all three went their separate ways, they all ended up as wildly successful singles wrestlers. Wrestling/SethRollins became the first full-time wrestler to beat Wrestling/BrockLesnar cleanly since Wrestling/JohnCena in 2012 and remains a consistent main-eventer. Following his FaceHeelTurn, "The Tribal Chief" Wrestling/RomanReigns has become a full-on InvincibleVillain. Holding the Universal Championship for two years, becoming the longest world champion in history since Hulk Hogan. Last but not least, [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]] now known as Jon Moxley, has become the MVP of [[Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling AEW]] becoming it's first ever two-time world champion and having the company's longest singles winning streak. Even when separated, The Shield rules Professional Wreslting. Notably, from 2015 through to 2022, the #1 spot in the PWI 500 was occupied by either a member of The Shield[[note]]Rollins in 2015 & 2019, Roman in 2016 & 2022, Ambrose in 2020[[/note]] or by other notable wrestling aces, Kenny Omega[[note]] 2018, 2021[[/note]] & Kazuchika Okada [[note]]2017[[/note]].

* CynicismCatalyst: The dissolution of the stable proved to be this for all three members. None of them were ever the same after the Shield broke up, and it ended up affecting the trajectories of all three of their careers. For elaboration:
** Ambrose ended up with a major chip on his shoulder (to accompany the one he already had ''before'' the Shield) that persisted throughout even the Shield's second run, while becoming disillusioned with the company altogether and leaving in 2019 to jump ship to AEW. Despite that, he was the only one to really make peace with what happened and overall it left him jaded, (more) violent, and, ironically, stabler than he was before.

** Reigns had the worst of it all, as he was ''never'' able to get over the end of the stable. The end of the Shield began his much reviled face run, where he was pushed to the moon as the next Wrestling/JohnCena in hopes of making him the company's next big star, only to instead become its most polarizing performer instead. This, combined with other outside factors, prevented him from having an extended world title reign. In addition, his best friend Ambrose ended up leaving the company, and he was never able to truly reconcile with Rollins. When the company started freezing him out at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic in retaliation for his decision to stay home in order to protect his family, Reigns finally snapped and became a dollar store sociopathic crime boss who regularly physically and emotionally abuses his family into doing his bidding.

** Rollins rode high off his betrayal by joining Wrestling/TheAuthority -- only for his first world title reign to end in disaster after he got injured towards the end of 2015. After that, he was never able to recapture his previous success and was eventually betrayed by his EvilMentor Wrestling/TripleH, at which point he was left on his own in the middle of a hostile locker room. He spent the next several years trying to redeem himself and reconcile with his two "brothers", but only managed that with Ambrose, and his big face run collapsed thanks to terrible booking and his own out-of-kayfabe behavior, forcing him to make a FaceHeelTurn just to save his character. These days he functions as a delusional PsychopathicManchild with a MessiahComplex who is one of the most hated and despicable wrestlers on the roster.

** Subverted during the feud between The Shield and The Wyatts, as The Shield has been collateral damage to some of the Family's sporadic actions. For reasons they attacked the team of John Cena, Sheamus, and Daniel Bryan during a 6-man tag match with the Shield where all 3 winning members qualified for the Elimination Chamber WWE World Heavyweight Title match, giving the face team the DQ win and thus disqualifying The Shield from a chance at the title through no fault of The Shield. This pissed the group off to such an extent that they went directly against Wrestling/TripleH's orders to pick a fight with the Family.

* EvilVersusEvil: Teased at one point with an in-ring confrontation with Wrestling/TheWyattFamily that stopped before it went anywhere. Now out in full force as the Family's decision to target Wrestling/JohnCena had the side effect of screwing the Shield out of a championship opportunity, resulting in the Shield challenging the Family to a match set to happen at the ''Elimination Chamber'' pay-per-view.

*** Wrestling/TheNexus, who, coincidentally, also made their debut in a match involving Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/CMPunk. That's only the tip of the iceberg. Both debuts involved Ryan Reeves in some way. As Skip Sheffield, he was one of the eight members of the Nexus involved in the attack on the WWE Raw set, while as Ryback, he was the main target of the Shield's first attack.) Even more ironic is the fact that both stables had a former [[Wrestling/RingOfHonor ROH]] [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/roh/roh-h.html World Heavyweight Champion]] as a member. In the Nexus's case, Daniel Bryan (although he was gone in a week), while in the Shield's case, Seth Rollins, known in ROH as Tyler Black. All of this, of course, wasn't lost on Ambrose, who promptly rebuked those comparisons.
*** The Nexus splinter group, The Corre. Both stables focus(ed) on unity over solidarity, the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, and teamwork above all else. Although, they seem to be more of a foil, as they've lasted much longer and established a much greater presence than the Corre ever did due to no member being entirely hypocritical about these claims.

* FinishingMove: For the group, the Triple Powerbomb. Check out each member's trope pages for individual {{Finishing Move}}s.

*** [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]] and Wrestling/RandyOrton. Orton's ousting from Evolution was his StartOfDarkness, and it was only after he was driven to complete insanity five years later that he was finally able to get his revenge on Wrestling/TripleH for what happened, by wreaking havoc on his life and terrorizing his family. By contrast, Ambrose's snapping point was not being ousted from his stable, but rather a fellow member betraying him and Reigns -- Rollins. Unlike Orton, Ambrose's insanity and out-of-control behavior proved to be a detriment, and as time went on the stable's break up actually caused him to gradually develop into a more collected (if still certifiably insane) individual. Ambrose only achieved his goal to get revenge on Rollins by waiting for an opportune moment and allowing Rollins to dismiss and underestimate him.

** In the long run, ''Ambrose'' (as Jon Moxley) turned out to be the most stable member of the Shield. After he left WWE, both Rollins and Reigns made heel turns that saw a sharp decrease in their mental health. Rollins became a PracticallyJoker-like PsychopathicManChild with a seriously messed up messiah complex, while Reigns became a sociopathic mob boss who for all intents and purposes gaslighted and pressganged his own cousins into becoming his lackeys. Meanwhile, Moxley is a violent individual with a general "I do what I want" attitude, but is still relatively saner by comparison to his two former teammates. It's even by implied that his departure is part of the reason why the other two became such a mess in the first place.

*** Wrestling/RomanReigns and Wrestling/{{Batista}}. Batista betrayed the remaining members of Evolution once it became clear he'd never have the spotlight as long as he stayed with them. Reigns was forced to focus on singles career after Rollins betrayed him, and him and Ambrose still remained on good terms. Batista was also always an egotistical jerkass at his core, even as a face, and when he was denied the spotlight one too many times, snapped and allowed his true colors to be shown to the crowd. Reigns, despite the Shield's beginnings, was ultimately an honorable and genuinely good person from the start, and his descent into cocky, asshole-ish behavior was a result of the crowd's vitriol combined with being constantly screwed out of the world title, all of which eventually culminated in him becoming a sociopathic, MafiaBoss-like heel years later.

*** Wrestling/RomanReigns and Wrestling/{{Batista}}. Batista betrayed the remaining members of Evolution once it became clear he'd never have the spotlight as long as he stayed with them. Reigns was forced to focus on singles career after Rollins betrayed him, and him and Ambrose still remained on good terms. Batista was also always an egotistical jerkass at his core, even as a face, and when he was denied the spotlight one too many times, snapped and allowed his true colors to be shown to the crowd. Reigns, despite the Shield's beginnings, was ultimately an honorable and genuinely good person from the start, and his descent into cocky, asshole-ish behavior was a result of the crowd's vitriol combined with being constantly screwed out of the world title.