WWE Outlandish Theory: The Shield To Reunite As Heels In 2017
A Shield reunion could be on the cards in 2017, but not the way you think.
Ever since WWE finally booked the long-await Shield triple threat match back at Battleground 2016, the hints towards a full-time reunion of the trio have ramped up. Last month's Survivor Series saw the three roll back the clock to triple-powerbomb AJ Styles through the announce table, leading many to believe that the Hounds of Justice were back in business.
For the first time since the split in 2014, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns are all positioned as babyfaces. The WWE draft may have separated the three, but the swell of enthusiasm for a return to the glory days of The Shield may be too strong to avoid. If the trio were to reunite in 2017, nobody would be surprised.
The assumption is that they will reunite as babyfaces, but a closer look suggests that Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins would be much better placed coming back the way they came into the company. The Shield had a brief babyface run in 2014, but their real value lies as a dominant heel faction.
Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose are both getting closer to desperately needing heel turns. Seth Rollins may have just turned babyface this past autumn, but outside of chasing Triple H little has changed with his character. RAW in particular needs a dominant heel that isn't related to Vince McMahon, and in-canon The Shield have enough influence and power to control the show in an 'inmates running the asylum' sort of manner.
A return to the Hounds of Justice would be a boon for all three men, but none more so than Roman Reigns. The Big Dog clearly isn't working as a heroic babyface, and reuniting The Shield under the cloud of evil will allow Reigns to revert back to the ass-kicking silent enforcer that made him so popular in the first place.
A hard heel reset on The Shield would also reinvigorate Dean Ambrose, a man who is in danger of floundering in the wake of his first WWE World Championship run. James Ellsworth seemed like a great vehicle to turn Ambrose heel, but the turn went Ellsworth's way instead. Reluctantly getting back in bed with the man who betrayed him is Ambrose's ticket back to the top.
The Shield would undoubtedly be received as heroes initially, but once the goodwill runs out, the idea of a smiling, WWE babyface trio doesn't appeal in the slightest. We need Sierra-Hotel-India-Echo-Lima-Delta, a staccato riff, and The Shield coming through the crowd to wreck shop. If it does happen, it has to happen under the heel banner.