History Awesome / TheShield

* Raw, 10/2/16 - To make a long story short, Reigns had been suffering throughout the night, being attacked by both Wrestling/TheMiz and his goons, as well as The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus), whom had been feuding with Rollins and Ambrose. At the end of the show, Reigns is seen in the locker room, being silently approached.... by Rollins and Ambrose. This leads to 10/9, where Miz and company open with a promo that Reigns interrupts. Miz calls out Reigns and the rumors that had been circulating throughout the week. Reigns quips [[WhamLine "Rumors? Who said anything about rumors?"]] Cue Ambrose. And then cue Rollins. And then cue a beatdown on Miz and company, complete with a Triple Powerbomb and the fistbump. This gets better: At the end of the night, Braun Strowman destroys Matt Hardy, only for Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose (whom had all been killed by Strowman individually prevously) to come out and perform a certified beatdown, complete with Triple Powerbomb through the table. The next week (10/16), Kurt Angle opens the show and gets interrupted... by "SIERRA-HOTEL-INDIA-ECHO-LIMA-DELTA-'''SHIELD.'''" Cue three guys in combat vests emerging through the crowd. All of this is to say one simple thing: '''''THE SHIELD IS BACK.'''''

* 2013's Money in the Bank PPV kicked off with Rollins and Reigns defending their tag team championship against the Usos on the pre-show. They went on to have arguably the best match of the night, with the very smarky Philly crowd on their feet and chanting "THIS IS AWESOME!" for most of the match. It outshone BOTH MITB gimmick matches, including one that included DanielBryan, CMPunk, and the returning Wrestling/RobVanDam.

** Not to mention, they took out their opponents in the most practical, GenreSavvy way possible: they attacked Jack Swagger after he'd lost a match and was defenceless, they took out 3MB backstage when no one else was around, they put Brad Maddox through a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown when he was alone, then they interrupted Fandango's dance routine before his match even began and threw him through two tables, and finally they took out Curtis Axel in the locker room. Bad. Ass.

* Despite that his "antics" backstage at Battleground initially cost him a match with Rollins, Ambrose won a pretty big moral victory, assaulting Rollins twice throughout the night; it ramped up Rollins' paranoia to the point that when watching out for Ambrose as he took his bags to his car, the [[GenreSavvy normally calm, collected]] Seth, in his haste, didn't think to check the one place a crazy man like Ambrose would hide: ''The trunk.'' Cue a third, one-sided beatdown that had Ambrose drilling Rollins with wild punches on the roof of a car and Seth scrambling to high-tail it out of the arena.

** And no less at the hands of the Feds, who effectively yanked the fiddle out of his hands and padlocked the dancing shoes onto his feet.

* The 4/14/14 RAW ended with the Shield getting beaten to a pulp. Why is it awesome? Well, for a couple of reasons. First off, TripleH had booked them in a match with a 'mystery opponent'. Turned out he meant "mystery ''opponents.''" '''ELEVEN OF THEM.''' (Also a bit of booking awesome - the exact number serves as a CallBack to a moment mentioned above where The Shield, as heels, took on 11 faces in a tag-team elimination match and nearly won.) Did the Shield run away? In the words of Dean Ambrose, "Nope." They stood their ground, even when the match devolved into a full-scale brawl. As the eleven heels laid waste to the faction, a blaring Motorhead guitar theme started up. But it wasn't Trips' solo theme - either of them. Instead, it was the strains of "Line In The Sand," which hadn't been heard in a WWE arena in seven years. Yes, the Shield ended that episode on their backs, but the fact that TripleH, in spite of his own ego and the intervening years of enmity between him and his two former proteges, had to resort to measures as extreme as '''re-forming Wrestling/{{Evolution}}''' to deal with them is awesome in its own way.

* Roman pulls a pretty damn good BatmanGambit, playing on Vickie's vanity and insecurities as Wrestling/TheAuthority's lackey, then spiking Stephanie's coffee, and all of it leading to [[VomitIndiscretionShot Vickie getting "doused"]] and TripleH having to take Steph to the hospital and leaving a enraged, puke-stained Vickie in charge. Cue Vickie being angry enough at the power couple to enter Roman in the MITB Battle Royal, [[spoiler: which he goes on to win]].

* Wrestling/Roadblock 2016 - [[spoiler: After Roman gets screwed out of the WWE Universal Championship by Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins comes out and the two proceed to blast both parts of Jeri-KO through announce tables. What makes this so awesome is it was preceded by Rollins and Reigns doing the old Shield fist-bump, and after they'd finished destroying Owens what gets played? Not Roman's theme or Rollins' but the original Shield theme.]]

* Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2016: Ambrose is up against Reigns and Rollins as part of the Smackdown vs. Raw Men's Traditional Elimination match. [[spoiler:Doesn't stop another Shield reunion from happening, as for the first time since the split, all three members are on the same side of the face/heel spectrum. After being eliminated from the match early on, no thanks due to AJ Styles' refusal to break the pin fall, Ambrose returns the favor and attacks Styles after the match's halfway point but is held back by security. Rollins and Reigns aid Ambrose and call for another Triple Powerbomb, putting Styles through the German announce table and giving Rollins the opening needed to eliminate Styles from the match.]]

** And of course, she started off Vic's series-ending Main/HumiliationConga by [[spoiler:reading him Shane's suicide letter, then making sure Vic saw Ronnie getting perp walked away after learning he's taking all the weight for the Strike Team's crimes]].

* 2013's Money in the Bank PPV kicked off with Rollins and Reigns defending their tag team championship against the Usos on the pre-show. They went on to have arguably the best match of the night, with the very smarky Philly crowd on their feet and chanting "THIS IS AWESOME!" for most of the match. It outshone BOTH MITB gimmick matches, including one that included DanielBryan, CMPunk, and the returning RobVanDam.

** Way, ''way'' back in 2012 or so, right as the Shield was being formed, the three members made a pact to make it to the top of the company together. Given the high failure rate in general in WWE as well as the tendency for [[BreakupBreakout one member to be elevated while the others are stuck beneath the glass ceiling]], the fact that the above managed to happen is insanely awesome in and of itself. And now, the natural consequence of the above: the three members of the Shield are going to be in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Title in the main event of Battleground 2016.

* "Family Meeting" (the series finale) qualifies as one for the show's cast and crew, as it's one of the best episodes in television history, one of the greatest series finales in television history, and a pitch-perfect sendoff to the show. Particularly since Vic got exactly what was coming to him.

* "Family Meeting" (the series finale) qualifies as one for the show's cast and crew, as it's one of the best episodes in television history, one of the greatest series finales in television history, and a pitch-perfect sendoff to the show.

* Money in the Bank 2016: Yes, even this far after their breakup, Dean, Seth and Roman are still finding ways to be awesome together. In this case, Seth defeated Roman, who started the night as champion, for the title. Dean then cashes in Money in the Bank (which he had won earlier in the evening) on Seth, in perhaps the most poetically ironic and genre savvy way he could. The awesome part for Shield as a whole? [[https://twitter.com/Hugo_703/status/744990700094263296 In one night, hell, in a span of about three minutes, all three members were world heavyweight champion.]]

* Money in the Bank 2016: Yes, even this far after their breakup, Dean, Seth and Roman are still finding ways to be awesome together. In this case, Seth defeated Roman, who started the night as champion, for the title. Dean then cashes in Money in the Bank (which he had won earlier in the evening) on Seth, in perhaps the most poetically ironic and genre savvy way he could. The awesome part for Shield as a whole? [[https://twitter.com/Hugo_703/status/744990700094263296 In one night, all three members were world heavyweight champion.]]

* Money in the Bank 2016: Yes, even this far after their breakup, Dean, Seth and Roman are still finding ways to be awesome together. In this case, Seth defeated Roman, who started the night as champion, for the title. Dean then cashes in Money in the Bank (which he had won earlier in the evening) on Seth, in perhaps the most poetically ironic and genre savvy way he could. The awesome part for Shield as a whole? In one night, all three members were world heavyweight champion.

* ''The TLC 2012'' match between The Shield and Team [[Wrestling/{{Kane}} Hell]] [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson No]] and {{Ryback}} was really a sight to behold. The match saw The Shield put Ryback through the Spanish Announcers Table, ''again''. Bury Kane under myriad of ladders to take him out of the game, and one sick bump through some tables off a ladder by Seth Rollins courtesy of Ryback. And The Shield winning by putting Bryan through a table and pinning him.[[note]]This match could only be won by pin or submission even though it was a Tables, Ladders, and. Chairs match[[/note]]

** In Season Seven, Aceveda mercilessly beats down a man named Pezuela in front of his boss, then pulls a gun on Mackey when he tries to intervene. When Aceveda finishes talking down to Pezuela for thinking of him as his "errand boy", he rubs in Mackey's face the fact that, by doing this, he has screwed up the last chance Mackey had for working in law enforcement ever again, with a smile on his face.

* They finally, finally, ''finally'' beat the Waytts on Main Event. For those following the Shield's storyline, here's the several ways in which that counts as awesome.

** The Blackout was a Crowning Moment for Rollins, as he's the FragileSpeedster of the group and doesn't get to score pinfalls that often.

** He gets a final one in his last appearance, as Vic confronts him in prison, accusing him of [[spoiler: having Lem killed.]] Mitchell mocks him for being desperate enough to bust in on him with no proof of anything, looking to scare a confession out of him. He tells Vic that he could've done it, but he didn't, because doing so would mess with the [[LuxuryPrisonCell sweet setup]] he has going. As he says this, a ''prison guard'' comes in with a message for him, calling him "Mr. Mitchell." He sends Vic away with his tail between his legs without even getting out of his chair.