The Shield will undoubtedly go down as the greatest stable in the 2010s, even though their second go-around didn't go as hoped.

Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns all brought a fresh change to the PG Era when they debuted in 2012. Together, the trio of future WWE Champions took over the show and dropped the hammer on their opponents. In such short time, The Shield got over with the fans, and they would never look back.

But on June 2, 2014, Rollins shocked the WWE Universe when he betrayed Ambrose and Reigns -- attacking them both with a steel chair and opting to side with The Authority instead.

The rest, as they say, is history. But Rollins recently appeared on E&C's Pods of Awesomeness (h/t WrestlingInc.com), and revealed that there were completely different plans for The Shield's breakup.

Rollins explained that management wanted to break them up much sooner, but the trio convinced officials to give them more time together. He explained that the group wanted to have a babyface run, and that they were supposed to disband after losing a 3-on-1 handicap match to CM Punk at the 2013 TLC pay-per-view.

"We were gonna break up and Ambrose was gonna turn, and it was just gonna be, almost, thrown away. I remember we went to Hunter (Triple H), or Vince (McMahon), or somebody - we talked to somebody that makes decisions, and we were like, 'We can't do this, we're not ready for this right now...We need to pull back on this a little bit.'

"From there, we moved in to a bit of a babyface run.We worked with The Wyatt family in February...there was a never a plan to work with The Wyatts, it was never gonna happen. And they're like, 'Well, I don't know if we're gonna break 'em up, we should get this match in.'

And the electricity of the two factions that had been so beautifully built up over the last few years, coming together to go to war was - the electricity for that was insane..."

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via Cageside Seats

The Shield also engaged in a feud with Evolution, where Rollins and co. prevailed in every showdown. That cemented Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins as the best stable of the 2010s up to that point, and nobody has topped them ever since.

It's safe to say The Shield and all wrestling fans dodged a bullet when then officials decided to give them a longer run together. There's no telling how much the product would have suffered had The Shield not stayed together for another six months. That one babyface run helped the three stars launch their careers even further, becoming three of the biggest wrestlers in the world.

What This Means

It's always interesting to hear about major storylines and plans that never wound up happening. The decision to turn Rollins heel instead of Ambrose turned out to be the right call from the creative team, as The Architect continues to morph into one of the most prominent superstars to ever step foot in a WWE ring.

NEXT: CODY RHODES ADMITS TURNING AEW INTO THE NEW WCW HAS CROSSED HIS MIND