While The Shield had been together for about a year-and-a -half, there was still so much untapped potential left for them as babyfaces. They had only turned face in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania XXX to battle Kane and the New Age Outlaws. Then they moved into a feud with Evolution and were soon broken up. That was it? Blame WWEs inability to protect the tag division, and create other credible stars for them to face for that one. The problem is, Seth Rollins venture to the dark side didnt make any sense. There were a couple times in the past that WWE teased the trio breaking up, but then appeared to get cold feet. Their breakup had nothing to do with their earlier bickering. There were no signs, no clues, no nothing. In fact, just the night before, Rollins risked serious injury to battle Evolution. One day later he was on their side. Must have been some offer HHH gave him. WWEs ratings were sliding, and Vince McMahon wanted to shake things up. Well, the ratings are still sliding, so the whole execution of turning the group has been flawed. Instead of giving fans a satisfying story, McMahon rushed to the last chapter. While Ambrose and Rollins have both done fine on their own, it was Roman Reigns who management has the most hope for. He was the crown jewel of the trio. And Roman isnt ready as a singles act. While in The Shield, Roman only had to wrestle a couple of minutes each night. He got to tag in, hit some cool spots and tag out. His teammates could protect his weakness, and do most of the talking for him. With Roman out, Ambrose is now the No. 2 babyface. While he seems more ready, the crowd still isnt estatic over his placement on the card yet either. Rollins meanwhile has received a huge push, but hasnt developed the mic skills to justify the spot. Together, The Shield were cool. They appealed to a large segment of the crowd, most notably the adult male demographic who is sadly neglected in the babyface department. On their own, theyre fine, and eventually needed to be broken up. But more time was needed together to give their solo runs more momentum.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
