10 Creative Triumphs Of WWE’s PG Era
1. The Shield
The best factions are a dominant force whose very presence elevates the product around them and gives aimless acts something meaningful to do. The greatest factions act as a vehicle to create new stars. The Shield triumvirate of Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins were the last great faction in wrestling.
The three of them arrived on the scene from out of nowhere at Survivor Series 2012. It was a stunning development - a masterstroke, really; by presenting these three perfect strangers as a unified force, WWE was able to book them, immediately, as equals to thrown-together singles stars. Their progress was born from a combination of flattering booking - shaped by their fluid quest for justice MO - and their own phenomenal performances. Those scintillating six-man tag matches are sadly missed. Ambrose was the rash, swarming his opponents with repressed trauma; Rollins divided opposing teams with his gorgeous aerial attacks; Reigns picked the bones with his brutal power game.
This system allowed all three men to get their own characters over within the context of the group. In that way, they weren't faceless drones, like the Nexus; they appeared as three veritable singles stars who happened to want to team together, adding layers of quality and authenticity to the whole.
WWE creative get a lot of sh*t. A lot. The Shield, however, was a flawless victory.
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