The Shield was a professional wrestling stable in WWE that consisted of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. The group debuted as heels on November 18, 2012, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29. In May 2013 at Extreme Rules, all three members of The Shield won a championship, with Ambrose winning the United States Championship while Rollins and Reigns captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. Rollins and Reigns were WWE Tag Team Champions until October 2013, and Ambrose was United States Champion until May 2014, which was a record reign for the WWE version of the championship. As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.

The Shield at various points served as hired guns for CM Punk and The Authority while later going on to face their former employers in separate feuds. They wrestled in the main event of numerous Raw and SmackDown television shows and headlined one pay-per-view, the 2014 Payback event, which was their final match as a trio until 2017. Rollins left the group on June 2, when he attacked Ambrose and Reigns with a chair and sided with The Authority. Ambrose and Reigns went on their own ways as singles wrestlers later that month, marking the end of The Shield.

Following the group's dissolution, each member of The Shield went on to become a world champion. All three reigned as WWE World Heavyweight Champion within a three-minute span at the end of the 2016 Money in the Bank event: Rollins defeated Reigns for the championship and then Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase (which he won earlier that night) on Rollins to win the title.

In the lead-up to the 2017 SummerSlam event, Ambrose and Rollins reunited and captured the Raw Tag Team Championship from Cesaro and Sheamus. Then on the October 9 episode of Raw, the trio reunited to feud with The Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus. In December 2017, the team dissolved once again after Ambrose suffered an injury. Following Ambrose's return from injury the previous week, The Shield reunited once again on August 20, 2018, episode of Raw to prevent Braun Strowman from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Reigns. However, in October that same year, The Shield disbanded following Reigns' hiatus over his leukemia rediagnosis and Ambrose's betrayal towards Rollins. After Reigns returned in February 2019 and announced that his leukemia was in remission, the trio reunited and won the main event match of Fastlane that same month. Although this was promoted as The Shield's final match together, they reunited at the special event The Shield's Final Chapter, Ambrose's final WWE match due to not renewing his contract. History Original run (2012–2014) Mercenaries for CM Punk

Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins were part of the NXT developmental system in 2012, where Rollins was the NXT Champion. The trio made their main roster debut on November 18 at Survivor Series, ambushing Ryback during the triple threat main event to help CM Punk pin John Cena and retain the WWE Championship. On the November 26 episode of Raw, they introduced themselves as a group fighting against "injustices". Although they denied working for Punk or his manager Paul Heyman, The Shield repeatedly targeted Punk's rivals in the weeks that followed. Their actions led to their in-ring debut at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 16, where they defeated Ryback and Team Hell No in a six-man TLC match.

In the weeks after, The Shield continued targeting top performers such as Ric Flair, Sheamus, and Randy Orton. Around the same time, they also appeared in NXT, with Ambrose and Reigns supporting Rollins during his NXT Championship defenses.

On the January 7 episode of Raw, The Shield again assisted Punk by attacking Ryback during a WWE Championship TLC match. Two weeks later, they attacked The Rock, prompting Mr. McMahon to warn that any interference in Punk's upcoming title defense at the Royal Rumble would cost him the championship. Despite Punk publicly distancing himself from the group, The Shield attacked The Rock during a blackout at the Royal Rumble, allowing Punk to retain. However, McMahon restarted the match, and The Rock ultimately won the title. The next night on Raw, it was revealed that The Shield had been secretly working under the direction of Paul Heyman all along.

Undefeated streak

On the January 28 episode of Raw, The Shield attacked John Cena, along with Sheamus and Ryback when they tried to intervene. This led to a six-man tag team match at Elimination Chamber on February 17, where The Shield secured the win. Their rivalry with Sheamus continued, culminating in a match at WrestleMania 29, where they defeated Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Big Show.

In the weeks that followed, The Shield began targeting The Undertaker. After an attempted ambush on the April 8 episode of Raw was thwarted by Team Hell No, the two groups faced off in a six-man tag match on the April 22 episode of Raw, which The Shield won. They attacked The Undertaker again on the April 26 episode of SmackDown following his match with Ambrose. At Extreme Rules, Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston for the United States Championship, while Reigns and Rollins captured the Tag Team Championship from Team Hell No. Their dominance was briefly halted on the June 14 episode of SmackDown, where their undefeated streak in televised six-man tag matches ended against Team Hell No and Randy Orton.

All champions and Triple H's enforcers

In August, The Shield began working as enforcers for Triple H and aligned themselves with The Authority. At Battleground in October, Cody Rhodes and Goldust defeated Reigns and Rollins in a non-title match, earning (in storyline) reinstatement to WWE. On the October 14 episode of Raw, Rollins and Reigns lost the Tag Team Championship to Rhodes and Goldust following interference from Big Show.

Cracks in The Shield

The first seeds of dissension were sown in The Shield (especially between Ambrose and Reigns) with Ambrose's boasting of being the only member left with a championship, but from then on Ambrose was frequently pinned during The Shield's matches. At Survivor Series on November 24, The Shield teamed with The Real Americans (Antonio Cesaro and Jack Swagger) to defeat the team of Rey Mysterio, the Rhodes Brothers and The Usos in a Survivor Series elimination tag team match, with Ambrose being the first man eliminated.

In late November, they started a feud with CM Punk, leading to a handicap match between Punk and The Shield at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 15, which Punk won after capitalizing on The Shield's lack of co-ordination after Ambrose was accidentally speared by Reigns. WWE originally planned to break up The Shield after the match, but they asked to remain together due to their lack of experience as singles wrestlers.

Going into 2014, Punk's taunts increased tension between The Shield members, and Reigns emerged as the only Shield member to defeat Punk in a singles match on the January 6 episode of Raw, albeit with a distraction from Ambrose. All three members of The Shield competed in the 2014 Royal Rumble match, during which Ambrose tried to eliminate Reigns, who retaliated by eliminating both Ambrose and Rollins.

On the January 27 episode of Raw, The Shield faced Daniel Bryan, John Cena, and Sheamus in a qualifying match for the Elimination Chamber, but lost by disqualification following interference from The Wyatt Family. At the Elimination Chamber event on February 23, The Shield were defeated by The Wyatt Family. Tension within the group increased when, on the March 3 episode of Raw, they lost a rematch after poor teamwork led Rollins to walk out during the match.

Rebellion against The Authority

On the March 7 episode of SmackDown, the members of The Shield met in the ring to clear the air on their disharmony, and Rollins explained that his actions achieved his purpose of getting Ambrose and Reigns to finally see eye-to-eye, which led to the trio ultimately reconciling.

On the March 17 episode of Raw, The Shield turned to babyfaces and feuded with Kane after refusing to assault Jerry Lawler. The feud also involved The Authority's The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) after they sided with Kane, culminating in a match at WrestleMania XXX, which The Shield would win. Authority leader Triple H then reunited his previous stable Evolution with Orton and Batista, and at Extreme Rules, The Shield defeated Evolution. The following night on Raw, Triple H forced Ambrose to defend the United States Championship in a 20-man battle royal without Reigns and Rollins being involved. (Though they were both outside the ring during the match, they could not physically interfere.) Ambrose would end up losing the title after he was the last wrestler eliminated in the match by Sheamus. At Payback, they defeated Evolution in a No Holds Barred elimination match, in which no Shield member was eliminated.

Rollins' betrayal and separation

The following night on Raw, Triple H announced his intention to continue Evolution's feud with The Shield, but Batista quit WWE and left Evolution. Later that night with The Shield in the ring, Triple H's "plan B" for destroying The Shield turned out to be Rollins suddenly attacking Ambrose and Reigns with a steel chair, signalling Rollins re-alignment with The Authority. On the June 9 episode of Raw, Rollins described his betrayal as severing a business relationship and that he had destroyed "his own creation" to further his own interests, while Ambrose and Reigns (still labelled as The Shield) addressed Rollins' betrayal with Ambrose describing Rollins as a "cancer" in The Shield, while Reigns claimed that Rollins "committed the most unforgivable sin". Later that night, Ambrose and Reigns had their final match as The Shield, teaming up with John Cena to defeat The Wyatt Family.

While Ambrose and Reigns did not fall out with each other, they did begin to take separate paths as Ambrose declared his intention to take revenge on Rollins, while Reigns set his sights on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. While the duo were still referred to as The Shield on the June 13 episode of SmackDown, Ambrose debuted new theme music, ring attire, and entrance on the June 16 episode of Raw. Reigns, however, largely retained The Shield's ring attire, theme music, and continued to enter the ring through the live audience. On the June 24 episode of Main Event, Reigns confirmed that he was on his own and no longer with The Shield, thus confirming that The Shield had dissolved.

Subsequent reunions (2017–2019) 2017

Throughout July 2017, Ambrose, who was drafted to the Raw brand via the Superstar Shake-up, and Rollins teased a potential reunion between the two, but Ambrose continuously declined Rollins's offer to reunite, primarily due to trust issues from Rollins' betrayal three years prior.