10 Last Minute Changes That Saved Wrestling Stables
9. The Shield
The WWE Universe was introduced to The Shield during CM Punk’s 2012 world title reign where they would routinely attack the Straightedge Superstar’s opponents. Months went by with CM Punk denying that he was affiliated with them. We as an audience could never quite tell if he was telling the truth or making barefaced lies, and the closest we got to confirmation was that Heyman had been paying the group off himself.
With this story in the rear-view mirror, The Shield could go on to bigger, better and more importantly their own things.
In CM Punk’s infamous tell-all appearance on the Art of Wrestling Podcast with Colt Cabana, he said that the plan was indeed to bring The Shield in as “his guys”. On-screen they certainly played that idea from a distance rather than spelling it out, which thankfully made the group more ambiguous and harder to predict because of it.
Punk additionally revealed the original line-up that was pitched to him for a new stable did contain Seth Rollins but he was to be joined by Daniel Bryan and The Big Show. Punk argued for a full set of younger stars which, thankfully, was granted. Established wrestlers, especially those with tenure like Big Show, should never be your first port of call for a group that’s going upset the status quo quite the way that The Shield did.