The Shield first appeared at WWE a decade ago at WWE Series 2012. Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Jon Moxley debuted as mercenaries for CM Punk.
The trio became known as The Shield in WWE and was an incredibly popular faction. The Hounds of Justice dominated the company and battled with legends such as The Undertaker, John Cena, and more along the way.
All three members of The Shield, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, United States Champion Seth Rollins, and AEW World Champion Jon Moxley recently spoke with Justin Barasso of Sports Illustrated about the formation of The Shield.
Seth Rollins stated that he noticed he and Roman Reigns had a similar mindset during a training session.
Roman was on the offense, and I was on the defense, so I knew what was going to happen,” Rollins says. “Roman knew how to bring it, and he got us out of this drill.
Mox and I were already on the same wavelength, and that was the moment that showed the three of us were of one mind and one goal,” Rollins added. “That allowed us to be The Shield. Without that mindset, there is no Shield, and the last ten years look a lot different.
Roman Reigns said that WWE was training them like dogs and he beat the hell out Seth in the gym that day.
That was a time when no one knew who we were,” says Reigns, who has evolved into the industry’s single most compelling star. “They were training us like dogs, training us good, and I turned it up on Seth big time that day.
I remember it well, and I know Seth remembers it,” Reigns says. “I beat the hell out of him.
The Tribal Chief added that they knew early on that the company was going to rely on them and The Shield did everything in their power to put themselves in the right position.
Early on, we found out we were going to be the guys for the company that could pull the wagon as far as we wanted if we worked hard enough,” Reigns says. “If we didn’t step up, someone else would, so we’ve always done everything in our power to put ourselves in the right position.
AEW World Champion stated that the first few months of The Shield were very intense but before long everyone wanted to work with them.
Looking back, it was like we were kids,” Moxley says. “The first few months of The Shield were f—ing intense. It was a different time back then. We weren’t necessarily welcomed with open arms by everybody, but we didn’t give a f—. We were going to push the pace and have good f—ing matches. Before long, everybody wanted to start working with us.”
Moxley added that he still has the work ethic from his days with The Shield and it makes him who he is.
We created that ‘Shield work ethic,’” Moxley says. “The people we were around have that, too. Claudio [Castagnoli] is an old riding partner of The Shield. Hell, Bryan [Danielson] was our opponent in our first match.
I still have that. We all do. It makes us who we are.
H/T: Sports Illustrated
