The Shield’s year and a half run was pretty incredible from my perspective. They were booked strong but to me, not in a way where it felt forced. They more than delivered in the ring, having stellar matches weekly, and delivering on big stages when it counted. It was always fun seeing which three man teams would come together trying to knock them off. They were carrying the company in that period along with Daniel Bryan upon their back as this perfect unbreakable thing. They all had individual personalities within their own collective.
They were the one thing the company couldn't ruin and didn't attempt to with a bad feud or shytty writing. It hid Roman's weaknesses and could have kept him actually over and hot through the Mania 31 build, which I think is something they’re trying to replicate now going into Mania 34 with this current reunion. It kept Ambrose safe in a WWE beloved act, so he could still be crazy without it becoming A WWE Thing (as in wacky Dean who squirts people with ketchup and mustard and electrocutes himself with TVs). And it saved Rollins from singles work as a heel, and from speaking for too long. The whole collective was much much greater than the sum of its parts.
The decision to split them when they did was wrong imo. It made no sense in kayfabe and it came way too soon. I remember at that time, people took WWE's side and said The Shield had run its course and that there was nothing else for them to do. Which was bullshyt, as there was plenty to do. They’re a whole company of bookers and writers, there is never nothing else for a talent to do, atleast in theory (and this applies to every talent really, not just these three). Make them singles guys with a loose allegiance like they are now kinda. Have them pursue the WWE title as a group which hasn’t really been done before. Hell, you can still give Rollins MITB and delay his turn for when it's even more impactful and even more of a betrayal. So maybe the heat can go 100% on him for timing it at Mania 31 and not be a thing to try and get some onto Orton and HHH because they really didn’t need the rub.
INSTEAD, we got a Rollins who existed seemingly to make The Authority relevant for another year or two despite their story ending at WrestleMania, Payback, and Survivor Series that year. As a heel, he was booked incredibly well, but regressed in the ring as a top level WWE main event heel from how far he'd came in the time before as a babyface. We had a Dean Ambrose, who once separated, eventually becomes WWE Crazy and gradually lost motivation till he became the current version of himself we see today. And while I'm not exactly going to say poor Roman Reigns, since he won the Rumble and main evented WrestleMania in the aftermath, he suffered more than anyone by being immediately exposed like he was in the following months.
You can ALMOST see where that decision to split them came from. On one level, it was an all-time memorable angle. With Rollins, it was an attempt to give him that big memorable backstabbing moment. It was the most memorable turn in a long long time, so it worked on that level, as it made the instant top new heel. It works because of how strongly supported The Shield was and how authentic their entire relationship felt and how likable they were as a group. So they traded in on that, and the heat on WWE for splitting up them up goes almost entirely on the head of the new top heel. Sort of. You can see where they were coming from, since there was a need for a new top heel. Then at the same time, fukk this company, because that need wouldn't exist if they handled Bray with care or kept Cesaro's momentum going or a million other things they could have done. It's them doing something drastic that ruined one of the few things left actually working right, and claiming a drastic measure was needed. Ignoring that the reason a drastic measure was needed is because they fukked every other thing up for years and had nothing left.
ANYWAY, I give them a high 8. Their work, particularly their matches with the Wyatt Family, the Rhodes brothers, and the Usos, was high quality. What hurt them overall was splitting too soon and this new reunion run feeling like an attempt to rectify that.
i'm saying, if they a 9 then New Day gotta be a 10 off rip
