3. Befriending Other Wrestlers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwSM1FEi3cs Similarly, one of the things that has made the Shield so effective is that they haven't really befriended anyone in WWE. Even when they were doing the Authority's bidding and working with Randy Orton weekly, there still was tension between them. They clearly didn't like working with/for him, and they let Orton know that. Same goes for when they teamed with the Wyatts. That's an easy dynamic to pull off with heels working together: they put aside their differences to defeat a common enemy. But babyfaces tend to drift a little more into the "friend zone" when they team up. Bailing Jerry "The King" Lawler out of a beatdown is one thing. But can anyone honestly picture the Shield teaming with Los Matadores or Santino? Or standing tall with John Cena to fight off the Wyatts (which could actually happen given histories) and then shake hands, smile and do a four-corner pose? The Shield needs to remain loners of sorts. They can help wrestlers in need, but if they're seen at the Smackdown Thanksgiving dinner, we've got real problems.
Scott Carlson
Contributor
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
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