The Shield remains a popular topic to wrestling fans since all three wrestlers are thriving. An argument can be made that Roman Reigns, Jon Moxley aka Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are the three top performers in the industry today. However, that would have never panned out if not for their time as The Shield together.
All three wrestlers were on the same page to become the hottest WWE act in years organically getting over. Great matches and character progression made Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose among the biggest stars made in recent memory. Feuds were a bit different for the group with some coming against singles stars and others against team. Each rivalry for The Shield will be ranked to find out the worst to the best.
10 Kane & New Age Outlaws
The worst rivalry for The Shield came heading into WrestleMania 30 when WWE didn’t have a great list of opponents for them. Corporate Kane started to develop friction with The Shield when they started leaning into the face roles and didn’t just follow the orders of The Authority.
WWE added the New Age Outlaws due to their association with The Authority as well to deliver their attacks on The Shield with Kane. These three even having a match with The Shield felt like a waste of time that ruined their final WM team match.
9 The Miz
The Shield reuniting in 2017 led to WWE trying to find the right story to place them together. It was an odd move to pick The Miz as the main reason when he rallied some other heels behind him to deliver various attacks on Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
The Bar, Kane and Braun Strowman ended up uniting with Miz to force The Shield to reunite against them. However, it felt so strange to see Miz in the role of being the only heel powerful enough to reunite the most beloved faces for the first time in over three years.
8 CM Punk
WWE booking CM Punk to feud with The Shield should have been a great program, but it didn’t lead to much success. Punk was now a face after Paul Heyman betrayed him and the audience just loved cheering him too much.
Two problems existed in this feud as Punk never discussed his past moments of The Shield helping him and didn’t have tag partners to give us great matches. WWE had a weird handicap match pay it off with Punk somehow defeating all three protected stars on his own.
7 Randy Orton
The Shield targeting most of the top singles face stars made them different to other trio units. WWE usually had those groups feud with each other, but The Shield forced the wrestlers to pair up with unlikely partners to get revenge.
Randy Orton became a main rival to The Shield throughout the year of 2013. WWE placed Orton with partners like Daniel Bryan, Kane, Sheamus and Big Show to see if he could get revenge. Orton had some outstanding matches with Shield members and made them look great to have a legend putting them over.
6 Ryback
WWE fans view Ryback as a joke today due to how his career turned out and the wild things he does today. However, it is easy to forget that Ryback was once quite over when debuting with an undefeated streak and having the fans behind him.
The Shield targeting Ryback to cost him the WWE Championship against CM Punk started their first feud. Ryback teaming with various wrestlers against The Shield allowed them to break out in high-impact matches right away.
5 New Day
The Shield’s various reunions led to them working with any new established groups. New Day broke out as WWE’s top new trio after The Shield ended and they formed their own act. Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and Big E would be right up there with the greatest trios in WWE history.
Survivor Series 2017 featured a huge showdown between the two using the Raw vs Smackdown story. Both teams delivered a fun match, but this could have been so much more without the confines of the brand split angle being the bigger factor.
4 The Rhodes Family
WWE adding The Shield to The Authority actually helped them finding new programs that worked to perfection. Cody Rhodes losing his job due to The Authority, and Dustin Rhodes returning as Goldust set up the perfect tag team feud.
Even the promo work of Dusty Rhodes with his sons added to the build of the match in great fashion. The matches between the two teams were must-watch at the time. Cody and Goldust ending The Shield’s tag title reign was a beautiful moment for wrestling storytelling.
3 Evolution
The reunion of Evolution was the ideal final feud for The Shield in their original run. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose all turned face by refusing to follow the orders of Triple H. Randy Orton and Batista also having issues with them inspired the idea of reuniting the legendary group.
WWE fans were hyped for a true dream match between the current top faction and the Ruthless Aggression Era’s top group. Two epic matches cemented The Shield as an all-time great stable with the wins, but Rollins betrayed his brothers at the end of this feud to disband them.
2 Team Hell No
The Shield first attacked Ryback, but the tag team of Daniel Bryan and Kane were also in the mix. WWE had to find an ideal trio of faces to have some debut matches for The Shield to truly get over. Bryan and Kane were the most over face team of the time as Team Hell No.
TLC 2011 featured the epic match of The Shield beating Kane, Bryan and Ryback. WWE found various wrestlers to team with Bryan and Kane, but these trio matches established The Shield to help get them over from the jump. Bryan also moved into a great singles push during this feud to start his ascension to the top.
1 The Wyatt Family
WWE found lightning in a bottle when the Wyatt Family got over as a great trio right after The Shield. Fans badly wanted to see a huge match between the two top tier trio acts and got just that in the early months of 2014.
The Shield teasing a breakup saw them becoming stronger in defeat against the Wyatt Family. Elimination Chamber 2014 featured an all-time great match between the two groups. A couple of rematches showed how exciting it was to give the audience exactly what they wanted.