The Shield: Greatest Hits

The Shield: Greatest Hits


I was re-watching the 2014 Royal Rumble match (don't know why to be honest) and The Shield looked friggin' awesome in that match and that inspired me to write this post.


Now this one's gonna be tricky because there's also going to be several matches from Raw, Smackdown and the Main Event. Instead of going in chronological order like I usually do, I'll just do it in colour coded sections (sorry if you're colour-blind but they'll be in italics so it won't be hard to spot)  starting with the PPV matches and moving on to the seperate TV shows.


Ok then here are the Greatest Hits of the Hounds of Justice.




PPV Matches



The Shield vs Ryback & Team Hell No : TLC Match
From TLC 2012. The only TLC match to only count pinfalls and submissions. Here we have the Shield's PPV debut. This was originally meant to be CM Punk vs Ryback for the WWE Title, but Punk was injured so it was changed to this match. His injury may have been a blessing in disguise as it gave the Shield a chance to show their stuff and that may have turned them into stars straight away. An amazing match that was fun all the way through and featured some brutal bumps. Rollins is lucky he wasn't injured. The Shield had arrived. ****1/2



John Cena / Sheamus / Ryback vs The Shield
From Elimination Chamber. I think this was only the Shield's second match in history, and they proved that they didn't need a gimmick match like TLC to have a great match. At the time I was sure that the face team would win since Cena was in the team, but surprisingly the Shield got the win, and they've done so well as a team ever since. One hell of a tag match here, so just the usual from the Shield then. The Shield looked awesome here, and the losing team still looked good. Great work from everyone here (Yes even Ryback). ***1/2



The Shield vs Randy Orton / Big Show / Sheamus
From Wrestlemania XXIX. I know that this match isn't quite up to the standard of their other matches, but I think it deserves to be here since it's The Shield's first Wrestlemania match, so it would've been huge for them. An energetic tag match that was pretty fun and featured The Shield's usual tag match formula. Shield got to look strong in the end as they defeated the star studded team. Good stuff. ***1/4



Kofi Kingston vs Dean Ambrose
From Extreme Rules 2013 and the US Title is on the line. It didn't seem likely that Kingston would get a clean win over Ambrose who was kept strong as a member of Shield, so Ambrose was definitely the favourite here. Ambrose has now held the Title for a year even though he's only defended it a few times. Ambrose pulling out a crossface chickenwing was a cool moment. A good match here as these guys showed chemistry and gave us some nice counters and nearfalls. Good stuff. **3/4



Team Hell No vs The Shield : Tornado Match
From Extreme Rules 2013 and the Tag Titles are on the line and all four guys are in the ring for this one. Team Hell No had held the Titles for around eight months at this point, so a Title change was in order and the Shield was the perfect team to give them to. The match was a lot of fun and felt very chaotic due to all four men being in the ring at once. It was a bit too short for my liking but there was non-stop action throughout and they used the time well. A good tag match. ***



Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Shield
From Battleground 2013. I never watched this PPV because it didn't look good (apparently I was right), but this is the one match I've really wanted to see from the show and I've been looking forward to it. This storyline is awesome as Cody and Goldust managed to get sympathy from the fans, so everyone was rooting for them to regain their jobs. This was an awesome tag match and there was so much emotion put into it thanks to the stipulation, and seeing all three Rhodes hugging at the end was a great moment. Such a great match here as Cody hits the crossrhodes to win the match and regain their jobs. ****



The Shield & The Real Americans vs Rey Mysterio / The Usos / The Rhodes Brothers
From Survivor Series 2013 and this is a traditional Survivor Series match. At this time, all tag team wrestling in the WWE was at its best and so this one had some high expectations and I'd say they delivered. The match was never boring and the eliminations were well done. Roman Reigns came out looking like a star as he was the sole survivor and took out almost every member of the opposing team. A great match overall. ***3/4



The Shield vs The Wyatt Family
From Elimination Chamber 2014. You know you've got a money match when the crowd is chanting 'this is awesome' before the bell has even rang. For months this had been a dream match for all wrestling fans, and it was finally given to us on this night. I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype, and I was right, it didn't. It totally exceeded the hype in every way possible. This probably should have been the main event and is still the Match of the Year for most fans including myself. There was never a dull moment and both teams looked awesome in the end. Once again Roman Reigns stood out on his team and even Luke Harper stood out on his. An absolute modern classic that needs to be experienced. *****


And that does it for the PPV portion. Time for the Raw matches and there's a few I can't wait to watch again.



Raw Matches




The Shield vs Sheamus / Chris Jericho / Ryback
From the February 18th 2013 edition. This was only the Shield's third match in the WWE and their first Raw match. I think this might have been the only time that Jericho had a match with any of them but I'm not completely sure. I thought that no one had kicked out of Reign's spear but Ryback did it here. A good TV debut for the Shield as they got another big win and had another good match. Fun match with an exciting finish. ***1/2



The Shield vs Team Hell No & The Undertaker
From the April 22nd edition. You know, if they had ended the Shield's undefeated streak with this match, I would have been fine with it, but WWE decided to be awesome and gave them their biggest win yet and the Undertaker lost a match for the first time in three years. It was awesome to see Taker in action too. One hell of a tag match that had a hot crowd and was entertaining all the way through. The Shield now looked unstoppable. ****


The Shield vs Kofi Kingston & Team Hell No
From the May 20th edition. This was the night after Extreme Rules, so all members of the Shield had gold around their waist. This is basically a rematch of Extreme Rules with both Title matches combined to make an even better match. Another fantastic match from the Shield in which everyone looked good, the crowd was hot, and the finish was amazingly fun with nearfalls and drama. Awesome stuff. ****



The Shield vs Randy Orton & Team Hell No
From the June 3rd edition. This was leading up to the Payback PPV where Orton and Bryan would be taking on Rollins and Reigns, and Kane would be fighting Ambrose. Orton's team was actually the first team to defeat the Shield in a match (we'll get to that later). Another terrific tag match as the Shield had pretty much perfected their tag formula by this point with a long beatdown section and an exciting finish. ***3/4


From my Daniel Bryan: Greatest Hits post:


Daniel Bryan vs Seth Rollins
From Raw June 9th 2013. Orton had just faced off against Roman Reigns, and now the two high-flyers are gonna go one on one. This is leading to the Tag Title match at Payback featuring these four guys. If you needed any proof that Rollins wasn't the weak link of the Shield, then this match proves it, as these guys put on a kick-ass TV match. A great back and forth encounter here, featuring nearfalls and big moves. It even earned a 'this is awesome' chant from the crowd. ***3/4



The Shield vs The Rhodes Brothers : No DQ
From the October 14th edition and the Tag Titles are on the line. It was gonna be hard for these four guys to top their emotional Battleground match, but I think they actually bettered themselves here. The ratings are the same, but this one gets the edge in my opinion. A fantastic tag match that was exciting all the way through and gave us a terrific ending with the Rhodes Brothers winning the Titles. The finish kept both teams strong as well. ****



Daniel Bryan vs Dean Ambrose
From the October 21st edition. This was leading to the disappointing Hell in a Cell event and this match showed that Bryan totally deserved to be in the main event and deserved to stay there, even if the higher ups in WWE didn't think so. These guys were given plenty of time and they used it to give us a great match and maybe Ambrose's best singles match. Bryan made Ambrose look good in defeat. ***1/2



CM Punk & Daniel Bryan vs The Shield
From the November 11th edition. That is a lot of talent for one match. Add in Cesaro to make it a six man tag and you've got a perfect match. Anyway this was a ton of fun as most Shield tag matches are and featured a hot finish until the Wyatt Family showed up and ruined it. Who am I kidding, the Wyatt family can't ruin anything. Great tag match. ***1/2



The Shield & The Wyatt Family vs CM Punk / Daniel Bryan / The Usos / The Rhodes Brothers
From the November 18th edition. At the time I was expecting this to become a traditional Survivor Series elimination match and that would have been awesome, but unfortunately we didn't get that, so at least we got to see it on Raw even if it is one fall to a finish. The Shield and The Wyatts showed some animosity to each other and that would only get better as time went on. A great match that turned into utter chaos at the end with everyone flying all over the place. ***1/2



CM Punk vs Roman Reigns
From the January 6th 2014 edition. This was the Old School episode. Reigns didn't get many chances to go solo in the ring but he got his chance here and he looked great with a victory over Punk which is no small feat. This one started off slowly but got better as it went on and especially when Punk got his comeback. A  good match overall with some nice nearfalls towards the finish as Reigns hits the spear to win. ***



Smackdown Matches



The Undertaker vs Dean Ambrose
From the April 26th 2013 edition. This was Ambrose's first singles match as part of the main roster. Big moment for Ambrose. This would end up being Taker's last TV appearance until the build-up for Wrestlemania XXX. The match didn't last that long but Taker made Ambrose look pretty good, even in defeat. It's worth a watch for the novelty alone. Entertaining match while it lasted. **1/2. After the match, The Shield gives Taker a triple powerbomb through the announce table to send him off TV for a while.



The Shield vs Randy Orton & Team Hell No
From the June 14th edition. Well here it is, the Shield's first proper loss in the WWE. I don't know why on earth they would choose to do it on Smackdown instead of a PPV or even Raw. That being said this was a fantastic match that was exciting all the way through and it had the crowd going nuts most of the time. Those last five minutes were spectacular with The Shield finally being outsmarted by the face team and taking their own medicine. Fantastic stuff. ****



The Shield vs Dolph Ziggler / Kofi Kingston / Rob Van Dam
From the September 27th edition. Ziggler vs Ambrose came before this match but it only lasted two minutes and ended in a DQ and a brawl, so naturally a six man tag match had to be made. Nice to see some different opponents for the Shield. Yet another great tag match for the Shield as they worked the crowd up so that when the faces got their comeback they went nuts. The finishing sequence was a lot of fun as well. Good stuff. ***1/2



The Shield vs The Rhodes Brothers
From the November 29th edition and the Tag Titles are on the line. Can these two teams ever have a bad match together? I don't think so. It was also nice to have Dean Ambrose on commentary. These guys were given over twenty minutes to work and they used that time to build-up an entertaining match to an fun finishing sequence, even it ended in a DQ. Great match overall, even if the crowd was surprisingly quiet. ***1/2



Seth Rollins vs John Cena
From the December 27th edition. The other two members of the Shield had already been in matches earlier in the night, and now Rollins had to take on his toughest opponent yet. I know that Cena is known for burying talent, but he made Rollins look like a million bucks and gave him his best singles match yet in an awesome back and forth encounter. Check this one out. ****



I think that'll do it for the Smackdown portion.



Main Event Matches



The Shield vs Sin Cara & Los Matadores
From the February 19th 2014 edition. I never thought I'd put the words 'great match' in the same sentence with Sin Cara and Los Matadores, but that's exactly what the Shield gave them here. The masked team had taken on the Wyatt Family a week before this, so now it was the Shield's turn. A great tag match with an exciting finish that made everyone look good. ***1/2



The Shield vs The Wyatt Family
From the April 8th edition. I'm kinda pissed off that I can't have the full trilogy here as that edition of Raw isn't up yet, but two out of three ain't bad. This was never gonna live up to the classic that they had at Elimination Chamber, but they still went out there and put on a potential Match of the Year candidate. Hopefully this isn't the last time we see these teams collide as they put on a classic everytime they do. An awesome tag match that was exciting all the way through. ****1/4