Current WWE

[tim]

These guys can do no wrong, another fantastic match. Awesome ending too. Reigns is definitely my #1 ranking Shield member.

[KrisZ]

That was a fantastic main event segment right there

[Johnny Sorrow]

JBL making fun of the fact that we still actually observe Columbus Day was pretty fucking funny.

[Dylan Waco]

That was like one of those good Attitude Era segments, but with way better wrestling. Dustin Rhodes is the best guy in the promotion in the ring right this second. I actually don't even think it's all that close considering how Cesaro is booked and the fact that Bryan's match are not built around Brie Bella hope spots

[NintendoLogic]

JBL making fun of the fact that we still actually observe Columbus Day was pretty fucking funny.

The fact that it was JBL who was doing it just made it weird.

[Johnny Sorrow]

JBL making fun of the fact that we still actually observe Columbus Day was pretty fucking funny.

The fact that it was JBL who was doing it just made it weird.

 

He's really not the "uber-conservative/ xenophobic" guy his old character was. He's more or less one of those "Fiscal conservative/ socially liberal" types generally.

[sek69]

That main event was some god damned good professional wrestling. I'm in agreement that it's not even funny how Goldust is above like 90% or more of the roster in less than a month.

[Johnny Sorrow]

That whole main event was fucking awesome. I was cheering here in my room.

[The Chief]

I can't wait to see where Roman Reigns is in a year or two. For somebody so new to the business, it's amazing how good he is at the subtle little details. He is very good at placing himself in the right spots in these multi man matches without it looking contrived. The stuff with calling out Goldust for leaving a chair in the ring was great. The average wrestling message boards see him as the weakest member of the group because he wasn't an Indy sensation, but I think he's miles ahead of the other two.

[Exposer]

Reigns is a top twenty worker on earth this year in my opinion. He's put on too many great performances this year to say otherwise. There's still two and a half months left and with seemingly a Rhodes tag or two left among other things he could be looking into the top ten.

[anarchistxx]

Reigns has the look and aura of Batista along with being way better in the ring. No reason he shouldn't be main eventing in a couple of years time. He just has that it factor that is so sorely lacking in other guys they have pushed like Miz and Del Rio. He combines the visual coolness of a Kevin Nash with the intimidating aura of a Goldberg, and can go in the ring as well.

 

They should keep The Shield together though, far too often these groups are just broken up for the sake of a face turn and a short term feud. It would be nice if they had a group that stuck at it for a few years. They broke Ziggler/AJ/Big E up really soon, when they could have had them remain friends and played up a face/heel/tweener dynamic for a few months. Way more interesting than the mechanical, black and white face/heel feud they went for.

 

On a sidenote, Swagger/Cesaro/Colter are really over now, or their catchphrase is at the very least. They should move them up a card, they are a good distraction for higher level workers who aren't involved in the title picture.

[Strummer]

Everything about that main event was fantastic. Dustin was obviously the star but yeah Reigns wasn't that far behind. He was incredible. Even down to his trash talking.

 

Brie Bella being inserted into the main event program was inevitable. I know people will hate it but it was bound to happen. Her acting is pretty terrible but I don't think she has ruined the program or anything.

 

Stephanie has not been as good the last three weeks or so. Multiple segments and she's getting heat put on her in a big way. Time for her to be humiliated circa 2001 sometime pretty soon here. Hunter was pretty good tonight though

[Matt D]

Reigns is a top twenty worker on earth this year in my opinion. He's put on too many great performances this year to say otherwise. There's still two and a half months left and with seemingly a Rhodes tag or two left among other things he could be looking into the top ten.

The biggest complaint I have heard about Reigns is that he'll sell by getting taken out of a match for a minute or two and then just be up as if nothing happened.

[Stiva]

So, it's pretty obvious that The Shield are the best group in WWE on a pure match quality level for years and years, maybe ever at this point? Certainly, their first year has been at a ridiculous standard, Reigns has improved to the point where he's a standout guy in the entire company, they (along with Bryan) gave us Kane's best work in forever and their tag/multi-man matches are regularly the high point of every show.

 

I assume WWE know what they have here and won't rush to break them up, especially since they're still so hot but how's this for a hypothetical "Shield Year One Comp"?

 

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Ryback and Kane - WWE TLC 2012

The Shield vs. John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus - WWE Elimination Chamber 2013

The Shield vs. Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show - Wrestlemania 29

The Shield vs. The Undertaker, Daniel Bryan and Kane - Raw 4/22/13

The Shield vs. John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Kane - Raw 4/29/13

Dean Ambrose vs. Kane - Smackdown 5/3/13

The Shield vs. John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Kane - 5/13/13

Dean Ambrose vs. Kofi Kingston - Extreme Rules 2013

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan and Kane - Extreme Rules 2013

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Kofi Kingston - Raw 5/20/13

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan and Kane - Raw 5/27/13

Dean Ambrose vs. Randy Orton - Smackdown 5/31/13

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Kane and Randy Orton - Raw 6/3/13

Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton - Raw 6/10/13

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan - Payback 2013

The Shield vs. Christian and The Usos - Smackdown 6/28/13

The Shield vs. Christian and The Usos - Raw 7/1/13

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. The Usos - Money in the Bank 2013

The Shield vs. Mark Henry and The Usos - Raw 7/29/13

The Shield vs. Mark and The Usos - Main Event 8/7/13

Dean Ambrose vs. Rob Van Dam - Summerslam 2013

The Shield vs. Kofi Kingston and The Usos - Main Event 8/21/13

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan - Raw 8/26/13

Seth Rollins vs. Daniel Bryan - Smackdown 9/6/13

Dean Ambrose vs. Daniel Bryan - Raw 9/9/13

Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler - Raw 9/16/13

Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan - Raw 9/16/13

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan and The Usos - Smackdown 9/20/13

The Shield vs. 11 babyfaces - Raw 9/23/13

The Shield vs. Dolph Ziggler and The Usos - Raw 9/30/13

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust - Battleground 2013

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and Goldust - Raw 10/7/13

Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust Raw 10/14/13

 

 

A lot of those have blended together for me (the series with The Usos) but those are what I've cherry picked from History of WWE that I remember enjoying at the time. Throw in those early Ambrose promos, their angles with Taker, Bryan, Christian etc and that's a pretty great set, and a pretty incredible start to life in WWE. And there's time for more matches with Dustin, a 5 on 5 match at Survivor Series and possibly another wild brawl at TLC.

 

How was Adrian Neville vs. Dean Ambrose and The Shield vs. Xavier Woods, Corey Graves and Adrian Neville from NXT?

[anarchistxx]

Are you missing that awesome Smackdown tag where Daniel Bryan got the victory and the place exploded?

[Grimmas]

Here is a question: which tag match was the better, the one from Battleground or from Raw?

 

They were both really awesome for different reasons. I find it really hard to pick between the two.

[Stiva]

Are you missing that awesome Smackdown tag where Daniel Bryan got the victory and the place exploded?

ah yeah, I think I am. HoW isn't fully updated in places for Smackdown.

[Sean Liska]

I haven't gotten that excited about a list of 6-mans since the Misawa-Jumbo days. Quite the special run they've been on.

[tim]

Rewatched the Shield/Rhodes match from last night and dear lord is it a great match. I may be overrating these Rhodes/Shield tags but I think they're both in my top 10 matches of the year right now honestly. What WWE tag matches have been better?

[MikeCampbell]

Hey Will, when you're doing your 2013 MOTY comp, you may as well just earmark a certain number of discs for various Shield matches.

[cm funk]

I can't wait to see where Roman Reigns is in a year or two. For somebody so new to the business, it's amazing how good he is at the subtle little details. He is very good at placing himself in the right spots in these multi man matches without it looking contrived. The stuff with calling out Goldust for leaving a chair in the ring was great. The average wrestling message boards see him as the weakest member of the group because he wasn't an Indy sensation, but I think he's miles ahead of the other two.

Whoa whoa whoa slow your roll. Clearly the sky is the limit with Reigns, and he's been exceptional in his role, but "miles ahead of the other two"? He's been ultra protected in matches, and he's grown a lot in a short time and does more in matches than he did initially, but there's a reason they don't put him in singles matches or really any situation where his weaknesses would be exposed. I recall a singles match against Orton that was really awkward and clunky. The only good singles match I can recall was with Bryan, who has good matches with everyone. Rollins and Ambrose are both excellent well rounded performers. Rollins can go out and have a good singles match with most of the roster. Reigns can't do that yet. I don't think Ambrose has had a real standout singles match yet, but he hasn't had any that I thought were bad, and he hasn't been put into a real mano a mano singles program yet which is where I think he'd shine.

 

I'd rank them Rollins, Ambrose, Reigns in terms of in ring. And I say that as a big fan of Reigns and the work he's been doing.

[tim]

I can't really recall any Reigns singles match but the Bryan match, and indeed one match with Daniel Bryan is an exceptionally poor sample set, but if Reigns is the guy in the Shield with the biggest flaws (which I'm not willing to accept on its face), he's also the guy with the most striking positives. His offense is great and he's quickly becoming a master at theatrical delivery and owning his character. Just little things like how leaped through the air theatrically to cut off Goldust's tag to Cody last night is the sign of an exceptional performer, not to mention his trash talk, buckets of charisma, roaring through monster shoulder blocks, etc.

 

I like them all but Reigns is my clear number one right now. Reigns > Rollins > Ambrose for me.

[Rock_Of_Jericho]

I loved that tag match on RAW and for the first time in years, during a live broadcast, I found myself openly cheering for the Rhodes boys.

 

As for The Shield, I seriously hope they don't mess up a good thing and break them up just yet. Eventually, that's unavoidable, but they're hot right now and I hope they don't ruin it. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed WWE programming and they still work to do with the undercard, but I'm loving the Corporation 2.0.

 

While I think Rollins is probably the best wrestler of the group, I think Reigns will be a bigger star in the long run because he has that "it" factor and is not a bad wrestler himself, not to mention his family roots. He's got a bright future in the company as long as he doesn't mess things up.

[cm funk]

Reigns has "future world champion" written all over him, for sure. But he's nowhere near ready for that yet. Not even close, and I'm glad they brought him in the way they did and have protected him so much, because nothing is worse than when they bring in someone with a lot of potential and try to push him into a spot he's not ready for.

 

Ambrose could be a world champion if they wanted to go that route, but it's no sure thing. Whatever happens, I see him being a heel mainstay for years to come. He's a great character and I look forward to seeing him in some prolonged grudge feuds. A CM Punk-Dean Ambrose program? Where do I sign up?

 

Rollins, sad to say, will struggle the most when The Shield is broken up. He's perfect as the workhorse of the 3 man group and tag team with Reigns, and he'll always have a good spot as a utility guy with flashy offense who bumps his ass off for people, but they'll use him to get other guys over. He's not a great promo, which hurts him the most.

[Exposer]

Reigns is a top twenty worker on earth this year in my opinion. He's put on too many great performances this year to say otherwise. There's still two and a half months left and with seemingly a Rhodes tag or two left among other things he could be looking into the top ten.

The biggest complaint I have heard about Reigns is that he'll sell by getting taken out of a match for a minute or two and then just be up as if nothing happened.

 

I've heard that too. I honestly can't point to a match where he's done that but I won't go saying it doesn't happen. I think he's been incredible as the imposing force of his team all year. He's totally believable as an asskicker and on initial impact he's a good bumper and sells well. I think he's perfect in the role that was made for him.