Speaker 1: Hey guys, what is going on? And welcome back to
Speaker 1: WWE Rivalries on the WWE Podcast. It's Friday, October sixteenth.
Speaker 1: As we are just blazing through the fall here, you know,
Speaker 1: the NHL wrapped up, the NBA recently wrapped up, the
Speaker 1: MLB is well on its way to finish up the
Speaker 1: World Series, and pretty soon all we'll be left with
Speaker 1: is the NFL.
Speaker 2: Which is the machine that just keeps on turning. And
Speaker 2: it's just so.
Speaker 1: Crazy because I remember, and I guess around late July
Speaker 1: when all the sports started trickling its way back into
Speaker 1: the equation and we were kind of just overwhelmed. I
Speaker 1: believe there's one weekend in August where literally every single
Speaker 1: sport was on the TV, including golf and tennis and
Speaker 1: what have you. And pretty soon we're just gonna be
Speaker 1: left with the NFL. But I think the Masters are
Speaker 1: next week. I'm not very privy to what's going on
Speaker 1: in the world of golf, but I'm pretty sure that's
Speaker 1: going on. But if you're a huge sports fan, likes
Speaker 1: like myself, you kind of realized that we were spoiled
Speaker 1: for a good period there in the late summer after
Speaker 1: having nothing at all in terms of content for the
Speaker 1: better part of I would say four months when COVID
Speaker 1: first hit. But look, guys, I'm glad you're here to
Speaker 1: join us. I'm really excited to get into it this
Speaker 1: week because I'm gonna continue down the theme of faction rivalries,
Speaker 1: and this week we are gonna take a time travel
Speaker 1: back to twenty fourteen with the Shield versus Evolution. So yeah,
Speaker 1: a pretty way more recent rivalry than we've been in
Speaker 1: custom to through I guess the first eight weeks. I
Speaker 1: think we're eight weeks into this rivalries experiment together. And look,
Speaker 1: I gotta say, just to this point, I know it's
Speaker 1: still relatively new and we have a long way to
Speaker 1: go here, but I cannot express how grateful and thankful
Speaker 1: I am for you guys to tuning into this show
Speaker 1: each and every week. How grateful I am for Matt
Speaker 1: to have given me this opportunity and this platform to
Speaker 1: talk about the more nostalgic things and wrestling that is
Speaker 1: just my bread and butter when it comes to WWE.
Speaker 1: So really excited to get into WWE rivalries this week
Speaker 1: between the Shield and Evolution. But before we get there,
Speaker 1: as always, I want to give my thoughts on the
Speaker 1: current product, and I'll start, I guess with the draft,
Speaker 1: because that is the biggest news. I was pretty satisfied
Speaker 1: with what they did. It seemed like a lot of
Speaker 1: mid card guys swapped the brands, for instance, going to SmackDown.
Speaker 1: I said that I wanted this to happen, and it did.
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens going there, I think that is huge. They
Speaker 1: really needed a big time babyfase, and Kevin Owens is
Speaker 1: the guy to do it. You know, many people forget
Speaker 1: that for all intents and purposes, he was the first
Speaker 1: ever Universal champion. I know technically it was Finn Balor,
Speaker 1: but he relinquished it a night after winning it, and
Speaker 1: then Kevin Owens went on a I believe it was
Speaker 1: a four or five month run with it. He held
Speaker 1: it from August to late February, when he infamously dropped
Speaker 1: it to Goldberg. But look, I think there's still a
Speaker 1: lot of main event left in Kevin Owens and he
Speaker 1: hasn't really gotten back there since early twenty seventeen, and
Speaker 1: I really want to see him as a babyface. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that he has to win the title now
Speaker 1: or even in the near future, but I still would
Speaker 1: like to see him get back into that picture. And
Speaker 1: given the small amount of top babyfaces on SmackDown and
Speaker 1: challengers and potential challengers for Roman Rains' Universal Championship, he
Speaker 1: is a guy that I really want to see and
Speaker 1: I'm not expecting to.
Speaker 2: Be necessarily right away.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how far they're gonna drag out this
Speaker 1: j USO program with Roman Rains. One would have to
Speaker 1: imagine that it ends inside Hell in the Cell in
Speaker 1: a week's time, but you never know with WWE. But
Speaker 1: I think that now SmackDown has set themselves up with
Speaker 1: two on the raw baby faces and Kevin Owens and Biggie,
Speaker 1: and that's another thing I want to touch on.
Speaker 2: Really happy to see Biggie.
Speaker 1: Continue down the singles push because I think, as Madden mentioned,
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of you guys were thinking when
Speaker 1: you saw the return of Kofi Kingston and you saw
Speaker 1: the return of Xavier Woods, you automatically just thought like, well,
Speaker 1: that's the end of Biggie's push. But they are really
Speaker 1: going down full steam ahead with this big East singles push,
Speaker 1: and I really like it. Another thing coming over to
Speaker 1: SmackDown is Alistair Black and look I personally feel like
Speaker 1: his momentum has been just stopped dead in its tracks
Speaker 1: after a pretty solid start to the year. I remember
Speaker 1: when the year started, I guess, well, maybe not right
Speaker 1: when it started, but around April or May, I thought
Speaker 1: that he would have been a perfect contender for the
Speaker 1: ww Championship at next year's WrestleMania against Drew McIntyre with
Speaker 1: the way he was going down and the momentum he
Speaker 1: was gating, but now kind.
Speaker 2: Of stopped in its tracks.
Speaker 1: I hope that program with it Kevin Owens is done
Speaker 1: after taking the loss this past Monday Night, but again,
Speaker 1: you never know with WWE, and aside from Kevin Owens
Speaker 1: and Biggie, I guess you could throw Daniel Bryan into
Speaker 1: into that makes his potential challengers for Roman Reigns' Universal Championship.
Speaker 1: But I just don't know when Daniel Bryan will be
Speaker 1: back here. And that's the thing that kind of scares
Speaker 1: me a bit, is that, given the whole COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: and I believe you as a newborn child, I don't
Speaker 1: really know if and when he will be back by
Speaker 1: the end of this year or in time for WrestleMania season.
Speaker 1: So I'll hold out I'll reserve judgment until he comes
Speaker 1: back and we can go and get an exact timeline
Speaker 1: and when he will be back in the ring. Over
Speaker 1: on the raw side of things, well, look, they kept
Speaker 1: all of their big names. They kept Drew McIntyre, they
Speaker 1: kept Brandy Orton, they held on to Keith Lee, they
Speaker 1: held on to the Hurt business, which I'm really happy
Speaker 1: about retribution and meh, considering the way that they were
Speaker 1: going down and they have that ongoing rivalry with the
Speaker 1: Hurt business, I'm.
Speaker 2: Okay with it, I suppose.
Speaker 1: But they really knocked it out of the park on
Speaker 1: a couple of big name upper mid card guys that
Speaker 1: they brought over from SmackDown, and most notably it's Aj Styles,
Speaker 1: Jeff Hardy, and Seamus. Seamus is a guy to me
Speaker 1: that if Drew McIntyre somehow retains the championship against Randy Orton,
Speaker 1: which I wouldn't be opposed to, but I would like
Speaker 1: to see Randy Orton get it. I could see Seamus
Speaker 1: versus Drew McIntyre's a very very interesting program in the
Speaker 1: not so distant future. I think Seamus, much like Kevin Owens,
Speaker 1: is a guy who still has a main event run
Speaker 1: left in him. The difference is is that Seamus probably
Speaker 1: doesn't have nearly as much runway left as a guy
Speaker 1: that Kevin Owens does. Is Seamus has been around for
Speaker 1: over ten years and Kevin Owens has really only been
Speaker 1: on the main roster for five and a half.
Speaker 2: But that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Five and a half years Kevin Owens has been on
Speaker 1: the roster has really gone by in a flash. But
Speaker 1: getting back to Seamus, I thought he was kind of
Speaker 1: getting drowned on SmackDown because SmackDown had like an overbearing
Speaker 1: amount of heels and now you go over to Raw
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure if they're gonna turn him babyface.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind it. He hasn't been a babyface for
Speaker 1: I would say about six years now, and he's one
Speaker 1: of those guys that he can kind of play either
Speaker 1: role equally as well, so I wouldn't be opposed to it.
Speaker 1: But given that they've just gone down this new kind
Speaker 1: of direction with his character wearing like that old fashioned
Speaker 1: code and I don't know if it's a fedora but
Speaker 1: an old style hat, I think they're gonna continue down
Speaker 1: this path with him. But again, I would love to
Speaker 1: see him potentially go up against Drew McIntyre, and even
Speaker 1: if Randy Orton wins the ww Championship, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: opposed to see Drew McIntyre versus Shamus type of feud.
Speaker 1: I think that would be a very cool clash of styles,
Speaker 1: no pun intendas I'm gonna talk about aj styles in
Speaker 1: a second. And furthermore, one Scottish, one's Ireland Irish rather
Speaker 1: so just their respective nationalities would be something cool to
Speaker 1: pull off of. They also get Bronze Stroman, who he's
Speaker 1: just kind of being twisted in the wind since losing
Speaker 1: the Universal Championship. And you kind of knew it, right,
Speaker 1: like I said to myself when it happened, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure a lot of you guys were as well. When
Speaker 1: he won the Universal Championship at WrestleMania over Goldberg. You
Speaker 1: basically knew they were just treading water until Roman Reigns
Speaker 1: came back and then he was to get that belt
Speaker 1: quickly upon his return, and that's what happened. He showed
Speaker 1: up on a Sunday and the following Sunday he won
Speaker 1: the championship. So I feel bad for Bronz Strowman. I'm
Speaker 1: not really.
Speaker 2: Sure if he's a babyfac or a heel.
Speaker 1: He has that new look going on with like the
Speaker 1: dry fit shirt and the cargo pants bald head. I
Speaker 1: assume that he's gonna engage in a lengthy program with
Speaker 1: Keith Lee, which I'm all here for, which would make
Speaker 1: me draw a conclusion.
Speaker 2: That he's a heel.
Speaker 1: But then he's facing Roman Reigns on this SmackDown for
Speaker 1: the Universal Championship, and that's another thing that Matt has
Speaker 1: been touching on a lot. But I'll just give my
Speaker 1: two cents on it quickly. If you're gonna draft a
Speaker 1: guy to SmackDown, how can he fight a raw champion
Speaker 1: and vice versa, because in this case, it's a raw
Speaker 1: guy fighting a SmackDown champion. And it just comes back
Speaker 1: to the fact of that they really don't care about
Speaker 1: the rules of the brand split, which I took a
Speaker 1: deep dive on last week when I did the whole
Speaker 1: Raw versus SmackDown from five review. And look, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna reiterate a lot of what Matt said because my
Speaker 1: feelings almost front parallel with his, But this is one
Speaker 1: thing that they had in the Ruthless Aggression era that
Speaker 1: I think was really good as opposed to what they
Speaker 1: have now. Nowadays they have the SmackDown Tag Team Champions,
Speaker 1: the Raw Tag Team Champions, the Raw Women's Champion, the
Speaker 1: SmackDown Women's Champion, brand exclusive championships. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, Raw had its own Tag Team Championship,
Speaker 1: but it was the World Tag Team Champion. SmackDown had
Speaker 1: its own Tag Team Championship, but it was the WWE
Speaker 1: Championship or the WWE Tag Team Championship rather so if
Speaker 1: those titles were interchangeable amongst the brands. And it was
Speaker 1: the same thing with the world titles, because back then
Speaker 1: they still had the WWE title obviously, but instead of
Speaker 1: the Universal, they had the World Heavyweight which so I note,
Speaker 1: I wish they had just brought back instead of creating
Speaker 1: a brand new Universal Championship, but that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1: And when they debuted the Universal Championship four years ago
Speaker 1: and it had the red strap, I said to myself, well,
Speaker 1: this is dumb because maybe it doesn't have it in
Speaker 1: the name, but the strap itself almost makes it brand exclusive.
Speaker 1: And obviously it went to SmackDown last year and they
Speaker 1: simply just changed the strap to blue, which is fine,
Speaker 1: I guess, but to me it just devalues the meeting.
Speaker 2: Of that title.
Speaker 1: But even beyond the meaning of the championship, you have
Speaker 1: Roman reigns Now defending the Universal Championship against Bronze Strowman,
Speaker 1: who's a Raw guy, this coming Friday night.
Speaker 3: And I'm not.
Speaker 1: Against predictability, but this is just stupidity. And I don't
Speaker 1: get the point of this. Forget the fact that it's
Speaker 1: a world title match on SmackDown and not a pay
Speaker 1: per view, but we're just supposed to believe that Bronze
Speaker 1: Strowman has a chance to win the title and bring
Speaker 1: it back to Raw. It just makes no sense. I
Speaker 1: don't get it. I don't know why they do these things.
Speaker 1: They don't think very far ahead of themselves, and like,
Speaker 1: could anyone beyond the age of eight years old really
Speaker 1: believe that Broun Strowman has a snowballs chance in hell
Speaker 1: of winning this match? And again, I'm not always opposed
Speaker 1: to predict ability, but not when it coincides with stupidity.
Speaker 1: And look, I'm look. It was another thing in the
Speaker 1: draft that bothered me that when they split the New Day.
Speaker 1: I don't mind that they split the New Day I
Speaker 1: actually really like it, as I previously said, but it's
Speaker 1: how they did it because the rules of the draft
Speaker 1: said factions or tag teams can get taken unless USA
Speaker 1: or or Fox specifically picks a member or members. So
Speaker 1: Raw went first and picked KOFE and Xavier Woods, and
Speaker 1: then SmackDown went second and picked Biggie. Would it have
Speaker 1: not made more sense to Bit for Biggie to get
Speaker 1: picked first, honestly, because you're telling me that USA only
Speaker 1: wanted kofee and Xavier Woods and Biggie was like the
Speaker 1: leftover scraps here. Like again, I know they're not supposed
Speaker 1: to be like wrestling. Gms are very high and wrestling knowledge,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to watch the
Speaker 1: product over oh I don't know the last five months
Speaker 1: and say, well, Biggie's the hottest commodity right now and
Speaker 1: worth the most right now. It would have been it
Speaker 1: would have made more sense for SmackDown to take Biggie
Speaker 1: first and then Rob be like, okay, well we might
Speaker 1: as well take the New Day because the whole point
Speaker 1: of this split is to say, well, Xavier and KOFE
Speaker 1: are gonna continue down the tag team route and Biggie's
Speaker 1: gonna eventually get a mid card to main event push
Speaker 1: as a singles competitor, and it just didn't make sense
Speaker 1: to me that Xavier and KOFE went first, Because again,
Speaker 1: I know WWE doesn't think this much, but for a
Speaker 1: fan like me who's been watching for twenty years, it
Speaker 1: just it makes me feel that they don't value Biggie
Speaker 1: as much. And I know that's not the case, but
Speaker 1: if you're going with the true integrity of a sports
Speaker 1: draft and they're really trying to emulate how real life
Speaker 1: drafts take place in real life sports, the guy with
Speaker 1: more value and the guy who the company thinks more
Speaker 1: highly of will go first. It's just common sense. And
Speaker 1: again it's no big deal, but again, but it's just
Speaker 1: another thing and another example of WWE really not caring
Speaker 1: about the little details when trying to tell a story.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I want to touch on the
Speaker 1: draft before we get onto rivalries, which I know is
Speaker 1: the reason why you guys are here. And I'm sorry
Speaker 1: if I'm rambling a bit, but it's Aj Styles and
Speaker 1: aj Styles is a guy that for me has been
Speaker 1: kind of twisting away in obscurity for over a year now.
Speaker 1: And personally, I think he's the best wrestler they have
Speaker 1: right now, both in the ring and character wise. Although
Speaker 1: his character has gotten a bit stale, it seems that
Speaker 1: ever since that Undertaker program at WrestleMania, it has just
Speaker 1: been a whole lot of met for AJ Styles. And
Speaker 1: this is a guy that I know he's only been
Speaker 1: in WWE for I want to say five years now
Speaker 1: this coming January, but he isn't exactly young, and I
Speaker 1: think he did an interview that said that he only
Speaker 1: has about two or three years left here. And I
Speaker 1: don't think they're really utilizing AJ Styles to the maximization
Speaker 1: of his to the best of his capabilities. Rather, and
Speaker 1: here's what I would like to see with AJ Styles.
Speaker 1: I think he needs to go back babyface. While I
Speaker 1: like him as a heel and as a whole, I
Speaker 1: probably prefer him more as a heel type of character.
Speaker 1: I think WWE is really lacking in the top babyface department.
Speaker 1: Aside from Drew McIntyre. I know you have up and
Speaker 1: coming guys like Keith Lee and Biggie, and you still
Speaker 1: have Kevin Owen's waiting, but aside from Drew McIntyre, there's
Speaker 1: real no main, legitimate main event babyfaces they have on
Speaker 1: either Raw or SmackDown. You can make the case for
Speaker 1: Daniel Bryan, I guess, but he kind of seems to
Speaker 1: have one foot in one foot out right now. You
Speaker 1: look over on Raw. Jeff Hardy, I suppose, but I
Speaker 1: don't think he's gonna even sniff the World Championship scene.
Speaker 1: Maybe when Edge comes back, but again, he's more of
Speaker 1: a part time guy. I just look at aj Styles
Speaker 1: and I see a guy who, while I think as
Speaker 1: a whole he's a better heel, we know he's a
Speaker 1: good babyface, and they have a chance here with him
Speaker 1: going back to Raw, and I hope he stays on Raw,
Speaker 1: just for at least the whole year, because he started
Speaker 1: at the draft last year in October, he was on Raw,
Speaker 1: then they switched him to SmackDown, and then he went
Speaker 1: back to Raw. Now, so he's just kind of been
Speaker 1: going back and forth and back and forth. But and
Speaker 1: I know that had something to do with backstage heat
Speaker 1: with Paul Hammond, but I'm not gonna analyze things they
Speaker 1: don't have all the information to But I want them
Speaker 1: to really just find him a stable place on Raw,
Speaker 1: and that should be in the main events scene. And
Speaker 1: if you're asking me, and I'm not a guy who
Speaker 1: does this a lot that fantasy books, I'm picking Aj.
Speaker 2: Styles to win the Royal Rumble.
Speaker 1: And I know you guys may say, well, why that
Speaker 1: should be for an upcoming guy like big Ee or
Speaker 1: what have you. I wouldn't be opposed to Biggie or
Speaker 1: Kevin Owens winning the Royal Rumble and going on to
Speaker 1: face Roman Reigns. But this is why I want AJ
Speaker 1: Styles to win him because I think he's a guy
Speaker 1: that because he spent so much time in TNA and
Speaker 1: Impact Wrestling and only really came over in his late thirties,
Speaker 1: to we you don't really consider him one of the
Speaker 1: best wrestlers of the last generation, when in fact he
Speaker 1: is as a whole. Since twenty sixteen, I would say
Speaker 1: that aj Styles is the best wrestler w W has had,
Speaker 1: and I always just could not get over the amount
Speaker 1: of chemistry he had with John Cena, both in promos
Speaker 1: and in the ring, and after John Cena left, I
Speaker 1: almost felt like Aj Styles took on that role that
Speaker 1: John Cena had as the veteran may evank guy who
Speaker 1: can tag in from time to time as the World Champion,
Speaker 1: but mainly had a stay in the upper mid card,
Speaker 1: kind of like what John Cena was doing from let's
Speaker 1: say twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen in the final two
Speaker 1: years of him being a relatively full time competitor. And
Speaker 1: I would like to see ag Sells win the Royal
Speaker 1: Rubble to cement himself as a legitimate star of the
Speaker 1: last Generation because he is. And I'm not saying I
Speaker 1: would want him to go on and maybe win the
Speaker 1: w W Championship from Drew McIntyre because I do want
Speaker 1: to see McIntyre go into WrestleMania with the w W Championship.
Speaker 1: Even if he drops it to Randy Orton in a
Speaker 1: short period, I would still want Drew to get it
Speaker 1: back in time for WrestleMania season.
Speaker 2: But that would be a program I would really like
Speaker 2: to see.
Speaker 1: It's been a while since they did Babyface for Babyface
Speaker 1: going into a WrestleMania I think the last time they
Speaker 1: did it was Knackamore vers Aj Styles. Ironically enough, but
Speaker 1: I would love to see Aj Styles vers Drew McIntire
Speaker 1: main event WrestleMania this year. And I just think AJ
Speaker 1: Styles is a guy that would very much benefit from
Speaker 1: a royal Rumble victory in the final couple of years
Speaker 1: of his pro wrestling career and a guy who deserves it.
Speaker 2: I love aj.
Speaker 1: Styles, and I think for the last year or so
Speaker 1: they have been kind of wasting him.
Speaker 2: But enough of the current product.
Speaker 1: I know I went a bit longer this week than usual,
Speaker 1: but let's get into the reason why you guys are here,
Speaker 1: and that is rivalries. And we're gonna go back to
Speaker 1: start this in two thousand and twelve, late twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: when The Shield debuted at the Survivor Series pay per
Speaker 1: view and interfered in the triple threat match between Cmpunk,
Speaker 1: John Cena and Rye Back for the WWE Championship, and
Speaker 1: they interfered and they ended up costing Rye Back the
Speaker 1: WWE Championship. And The Shield went on for about a
Speaker 1: year of just running rough shot on WWE, and I
Speaker 1: gotta say they are one of the main things that
Speaker 1: pulled me back into really caring about the product again, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I really got drawn back in in
Speaker 1: twenty eleven when The Rock came back, but after his
Speaker 1: initial return and he was just kind of showing up
Speaker 1: every couple of months trying to build his program to
Speaker 1: John Cena at WrestleMania twenty eight in twenty twelve. Aside
Speaker 1: from that, I really wasn't all that interested because I felt,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people liked it, but that era,
Speaker 1: the early twenty tens was a really dark time for me,
Speaker 1: and I really just didn't care a whole lot about
Speaker 1: the product. But when the Shield showed up, it really
Speaker 1: gave me kind of a feeling from an Attitude era.
Speaker 1: They were a faction that I could have seen in
Speaker 1: the Attitude era or the Rutha's aggressionary. I liked their
Speaker 1: theme song, I liked their look, I like the tactical gear,
Speaker 1: I like coming down from the crowd. Everything about the
Speaker 1: Shield was something that I draw and it drew me
Speaker 1: back in. So for twenty thirteen they were pretty much
Speaker 1: a mid card Healed faction, and they even aligned themselves
Speaker 1: with the Authority for a short bit, as kind of
Speaker 1: like the Heavies for Triple H when Randy Orton had
Speaker 1: first aligned himself and you know, cashing him money in
Speaker 1: the bank on Daniel Bryan following his SummerSlam Championship win
Speaker 1: at SummerSlam twenty thirteen, and then you saw Roman reigns
Speaker 1: and seth Rawlins win the tag team championships, and then
Speaker 1: you saw Deeede Ambrose when the US titles, So they
Speaker 1: were really going full steam ahead with pushing these guys.
Speaker 1: Early twenty fourteen comes and they had mainly been heels,
Speaker 1: well actually entirely bin heels for they I would say
Speaker 1: fourteen months that they had been on the main roster,
Speaker 1: but WWE started dipping their toes into the prospect of
Speaker 1: potentially turning them babyface, and we saw them have a
Speaker 1: short run in with the Wyatt family, who obviously were
Speaker 1: full blow heels at the time, and then they had
Speaker 1: a WrestleMania match with Kane and the New Age out Laws,
Speaker 1: who were heels. So they hadn't done a complete babyface
Speaker 1: turn yet, but WWE was definitely dipping their toes in
Speaker 1: the water to see how the reaction from the fans
Speaker 1: would be. And you always knew with the Shield or
Speaker 1: shortly after their debut that if WWE ever decided to
Speaker 1: turn them babyface, the crowd would absolutely love them because
Speaker 1: they were guys who had perfect heel heat. All the
Speaker 1: NXD maniacs loved them because they were big NXT guys,
Speaker 1: especially seth rawlins, and they were just they had a
Speaker 1: really cool vibe about them. It was just something about
Speaker 1: the Shield when they first showed up that was almost
Speaker 1: as a blast on a pass, like something that we
Speaker 1: hadn't seen in quite some time in WWE, just an
Speaker 1: ulterior look. It was almost like what they're trying to
Speaker 1: do with Retribution now, except they knocked it out of
Speaker 1: the park with the with the Shield and they fallen
Speaker 1: flat on their face with w WE. And the one
Speaker 1: thing about the Shield and their one model was always justice.
Speaker 1: They were the hounds of justice. That's what they cared
Speaker 1: about and that's what they live by, and that's how
Speaker 1: they started slowly transitioning into the babyface side of the things.
Speaker 1: But while the Shield were slowly but surely starting to
Speaker 1: turn babyface very gradually. If you remember in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: that was the Yes movement, when you know, WWE single
Speaker 1: handedly got forced by the fans into changing the main
Speaker 1: event of WrestleMania thirty when it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: Batista versus Randy Orton, but it ended up being a
Speaker 1: triple threat match with Daniel Brian being in there and
Speaker 1: Daniel Brian's feud with the authority in Triple H more
Speaker 1: specifically was on fold display at this point. So WrestleMania
Speaker 1: comes and goes. He beats Triple A to get into
Speaker 1: that triple threat match to main event Wrestleming of thirty.
Speaker 1: He gets in there, and then despite interference from Triple
Speaker 1: H and Stephanie McMahon, despite Batista and Randy Orton teaming
Speaker 1: up on him during the match, Daniel Bryan finds a
Speaker 1: way to win and become the WWE undisputed World Champion
Speaker 1: because at this time they had just unified the world
Speaker 1: Heavyweight titles and the WWE Championship.
Speaker 2: So the following night on.
Speaker 1: Raw, Daniel Brian opens the show and he comes out
Speaker 1: to just an absolute chorus of cheers. They are going
Speaker 1: ballistic for Daniel Bryan, and Triple H comes out and
Speaker 1: pissed off his all hell says you're gonna face me
Speaker 1: tonight on Raw to for the World Heavyweight Championship, the
Speaker 1: WWE World Heavyweight Championship. So it was a pretty cool
Speaker 1: atmosphere and you think, like, Okay, they're gonna have a
Speaker 1: They're gonna knock this match out of the park, and
Speaker 1: Daniel Brown's gonna beat Triple Hi. Again and it's just
Speaker 1: gonna be yet another victory to cement Daniel Brian as
Speaker 1: a main event player after months being told he is
Speaker 1: a B plus player by the authority. But he comes
Speaker 1: to the ring and before the match could even start,
Speaker 1: you get Batista and Randy Jorton come out and beat
Speaker 1: the holy hell out of him. Then Caine comes out
Speaker 1: and if you remember at this time, Caine was the
Speaker 1: director of operations, so we had no mask on would
Speaker 1: come out in a suit and he comes out seemingly
Speaker 1: to regulate the situation, but then he choke slams Daniel Brian.
Speaker 1: So Daniel Brian is just getting destroyed by Batista, Randy
Speaker 1: Jorton and Kane and then lo and behold, Triple H
Speaker 1: makes his way out to the ring and forces the
Speaker 1: referee to ring the bell and start the match, despite
Speaker 1: Danielbrian being incapacitated. So the bell rings, Daniel Brian is
Speaker 1: lying motionless on the on the ring, Matt Triple H
Speaker 1: is mocking the crowd doing the yes chance is m man,
Speaker 1: you have Kine Batista ran you were looking on on
Speaker 1: the outside, and it seems that Triple H has this
Speaker 1: championship win in the bag. When this happens, We're not no.
Speaker 4: No, no contest to compete right here, replas that if
Speaker 4: you want your job ring the bill.
Speaker 5: Wait a minute, can you make four backs? Vanka Ryan?
Speaker 6: The House of.
Speaker 5: Justice taking away today, right?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 7: Trust tell me your mother. Hey, no, this is not happen.
Speaker 6: Juice nothing.
Speaker 7: Don't trust that I got I'm gons I gonna grow
Speaker 7: for it.
Speaker 6: Trust out, man, I trust some, trust some.
Speaker 5: No, this is not happening. It's not this is not happening.
Speaker 6: I'm cluding you're not breaking this down into a god.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is not happening. Come on, how's t try spy?
Speaker 2: How the taste?
Speaker 7: Don't to tell you? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Too.
Speaker 6: The Hounds of Justice. Em kids can bring.
Speaker 7: The least two three kill whatever be not gonna be
Speaker 7: wrong of doing, Champion.
Speaker 6: He's gonna be worse than that.
Speaker 8: The Hounds of Chunk is stuck in the past. Remember, guys,
Speaker 8: can't implicated to place. They that attack a couple of
Speaker 8: weeks ago. Better back to this for the guys.
Speaker 7: Guys, it's too late.
Speaker 6: Out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: So as you guys heard, the Shield comes out to
Speaker 1: make the save on Daniel Bryan, and it was a
Speaker 1: really cool visual this entire time, because the Shield comes
Speaker 1: out to the ring and they get on one side
Speaker 1: of the ring on the ring, Apron and Caine, Ran
Speaker 1: Orton and Batista get on the other side and they're
Speaker 1: having a stare down with Triple A's trying to mediate
Speaker 1: in the middle. And you may ask, well, why is
Speaker 1: Triple A trying to mediate? Why would he bother wasting.
Speaker 2: Time with the Shield.
Speaker 1: Well, earlier on in that night, he had actually informed
Speaker 1: the Shield that if anything were to go sideways, you
Speaker 1: guys were going to come in and be the difference
Speaker 1: makers and help me get what needs to be done. Because,
Speaker 1: like I said, they were kind of babyfaces, but they
Speaker 1: still had not fully turned and ultimately were still heels.
Speaker 1: And in the past, just five or six months prior,
Speaker 1: they had been pretty much Lackey's and henchmen for the Authority,
Speaker 1: So it made sense that Triple H was trying to
Speaker 1: reason with them. You heard him saying to telling them
Speaker 1: to you know, stand down, and then he's telling Kane like,
Speaker 1: we're not breaking this down into a war because obviously
Speaker 1: Kane had had his run ends in with the Shield
Speaker 1: in the weeks leading up to it, but Ultimately, Triple
Speaker 1: H turns around, eats a spear from Roman, reigns, and
Speaker 1: the Shield clear the ring with the and Daniel Bryan
Speaker 1: ends up getting up nailing Triple H with the flying
Speaker 1: knee and thus completing the baby.
Speaker 2: Face turn of the Shield.
Speaker 1: So the Shield go on to you know, pretty much
Speaker 1: keep on standing up to the authority and doing what
Speaker 1: they have to do, and eventually they get put in
Speaker 1: a match against pretty much the entire raw roster, well
Speaker 1: not the entire roster, but all of the heels in
Speaker 1: w W, all the mid card heels get put up
Speaker 1: against the Shield, and they get beaten down in an
Speaker 1: eleven on three handicap match. And at the end of
Speaker 1: this handicap match that I don't think even had an
Speaker 1: official end to it, and they're just being beaten down
Speaker 1: by all these guys. Next thing, you know of very
Speaker 1: familiar music hits that we hadn't heard in about ten years.
Speaker 6: Stuff.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I didn't think any worse but.
Speaker 3: Bits back together. Yet remember.
Speaker 5: What one of the strongest factions he's history.
Speaker 6: Now, this can only big trouble. The Shield can only
Speaker 6: think themselves and Harry his teams of all the time
Speaker 6: is about to leish.
Speaker 5: Hell yeah, apparently evolutionary giant horses for a common goal.
Speaker 8: And became.
Speaker 3: All Brian He's Ben's problems have evolution.
Speaker 6: Tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The dogs haven't been has been done, so evolution makes
Speaker 1: its return. The first time you ever you had seen Batista,
Speaker 1: Triple H and randyart and standing side by side in
Speaker 1: ten years. So think about what on on in ten
Speaker 1: years between these three guys. You know, Batista and Triple
Speaker 1: H had had just a crazy rivalry in two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, Randy Orton attacked the entire McMahon family in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. He broke Batista's arm in that
Speaker 1: same year, but there was no love loss between any
Speaker 1: of these three individuals. And you heard one of the
Speaker 1: contiers said, I believe it was JBL saying all coming
Speaker 1: together for a common goal. And like I said earlier
Speaker 1: in the podcast, is that the shield kind of gave
Speaker 1: me a throwback to a feeling I had had and
Speaker 1: that I hadn't had rather in close to a decade
Speaker 1: since the ruthless Aggression era. And when I saw Evolution
Speaker 1: walk out and just basically take advantage of a beaten
Speaker 1: down shield, I realized that the Shield really reminded me
Speaker 1: of Evolution, and it wasn't for the fact of how
Speaker 1: they looked esthetically or their common goal or how they
Speaker 1: came out to the ring or any of that, or
Speaker 1: their styles of wrestling, none of that, but it was
Speaker 1: just it was in the sense that it was a
Speaker 1: faction that felt like a main event player. And that's
Speaker 1: how Evolution felt in the Ruthless Aggression era that even
Speaker 1: though at times that aside from Triple H they were
Speaker 1: mainly just a mid card faction that would you know,
Speaker 1: contend for the tag team titles in the Interconnal Championship
Speaker 1: if they got put in the main event scene, it
Speaker 1: felt that like they belonged, and that's how I felt
Speaker 1: about The Shield. They felt that from the get go
Speaker 1: that they had main event potential. It didn't take me
Speaker 1: long to get behind Rawlins, Reigns and Ambrose and say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I really think that WWE could build the future behind
Speaker 1: these three guys. And that's the same way I felt
Speaker 1: about Batista and Randy Orton back in two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: And it didn't take me long to feel that way
Speaker 1: about them either, much like I did about The Shield.
Speaker 2: And let's say.
Speaker 1: Early twenty thirteen. So when Evolution made their return here,
Speaker 1: it really made me realize, like, man, there are so
Speaker 1: many parallels between these two groups, and it's almost like
Speaker 1: timelines are clashing here, generations are clashing, because who would
Speaker 1: have ever thought we would have seen Evolution back together
Speaker 1: and to go up against the Shield. And I'll just
Speaker 1: say it now that in the last fifty in the
Speaker 1: last twenty years, these are probably the two best factions
Speaker 1: WWE has had to offer. You can make the case
Speaker 1: for the new incarnation of Degeneration X, I guess in
Speaker 1: the early two thousands with the McMahon Helmley regime, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't match up against the original DX. And these two,
Speaker 1: the Shield and Evolution, are the two best the WWE
Speaker 1: has had in the last two decades. And maybe that's
Speaker 1: why I like the Hurt business so much, is that
Speaker 1: it's made me feel like a similar admiration towards a
Speaker 1: faction that I haven't felt, let's say, since the Shield.
Speaker 1: And I think factions are something that has gone by
Speaker 1: the wayside of b WWE, and I think they should
Speaker 1: go back to. More so Evolution reforms and thus kicks
Speaker 1: officially kicks off the rivalry between the two teams, and
Speaker 1: the first encounter that they would have would be at
Speaker 1: Extreme Rules twenty fourteen, where the Shield would go over
Speaker 1: on Evolution, beating them in a six.
Speaker 2: Man tag team match.
Speaker 1: But then it set the stage for their second match
Speaker 1: at Payback at the beginning of June, and this one
Speaker 1: was the one that everyone remembers because it not only
Speaker 1: Maine evented the show, but it also wasn't no holds
Speaker 1: barred match and an elimination match. And if you guys
Speaker 1: don't remember, this is where the famous Blue Teasta thing
Speaker 1: came from, when Batista came out in full blue gear
Speaker 1: for whatever reason and just the crowds are chanting Blue Teast,
Speaker 1: and I think social media had it trending and whatnot.
Speaker 1: But once again, the Shield goes over on Evolution and
Speaker 1: just sweeping them in back to back matches. And this
Speaker 1: really solidified the Shield as a true top faction in
Speaker 1: I would say the history of WWE, and I'm confident
Speaker 1: in saying that because it solidified them against probably the
Speaker 1: best faction in WWE history, or at least of the
Speaker 1: last two decades, in Evolution.
Speaker 2: So the next night on Raw, Evolution.
Speaker 1: Comes out and Triple h says We're not done with
Speaker 1: the Shield until it is no more, and that results
Speaker 1: with Batista saying, this is not what I signed up for,
Speaker 1: This is not what I wanted when I returned to
Speaker 1: WWE earlier this year, and blow and behold, he walks
Speaker 1: out on WWE and quits just six months after returning
Speaker 1: to the company. But Triple H was adamant that the
Speaker 1: only way that this rivalry would end is when the
Speaker 1: Shield was no more, and that's what resulted in the
Speaker 1: closing segment of that Monday Night Raw You I haven't
Speaker 1: figured it out yet.
Speaker 3: What I do better than anybody is adapt last night
Speaker 3: was planned. A tonight plan B. There's always a plan by.
Speaker 7: Oh my god, what.
Speaker 6: Is a Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Rollins down?
Speaker 6: Here's something Ambrows, Rowlands are something?
Speaker 3: Ambros?
Speaker 2: How do I tuk out?
Speaker 7: Raise us looking out here?
Speaker 5: Gusual on top of the world.
Speaker 3: Why the Romans set Rowans do this? God? Robins to destroyed?
Speaker 5: Ambros broke that chair over, broke that chair over, Ambros.
Speaker 3: Shock, God, I gotta know you. It clars a chair.
Speaker 1: So I don't have to tell you guys what happened.
Speaker 1: I'm sure all of you guys have watched it time
Speaker 1: and time again. Seth Rawlins turns his back on the
Speaker 1: Shield and completes the most one of the most infamous
Speaker 1: heel turns in quite some time, thus imploding the Shield.
Speaker 1: Then he beat the hell of them with chairs, gave
Speaker 1: Dean Ambrose the stomp onto a steel chair than Randy
Speaker 1: Whorton got in the ring, had his own little fun
Speaker 1: with a chair at the expense of Ambros and Rains.
Speaker 1: And this then thus completed the rivalry between Evolution and
Speaker 1: the Shield. And I think that this rivalry is very
Speaker 1: important for numerous reasons. Number one, it solidified the Shield
Speaker 1: as main event players and one of the best factions
Speaker 1: of all time. They beat the arguably the best faction
Speaker 1: of all time in Evolution in two matches and did
Speaker 1: so in quite convincing ways. And getting wittings over the
Speaker 1: names such as Triple A, Randy Orton, and Bautista is
Speaker 1: something very very substantial in WWE, especially when you guys
Speaker 1: have never been main event players in your own right.
Speaker 1: Like It's one thing if you've been being pushed as
Speaker 1: a single star for a couple months and then you
Speaker 1: finally go over on a big name in the company.
Speaker 1: But this was different in the sense that these guys were,
Speaker 1: by all intents and purposes, just a mid card faction,
Speaker 1: a mid card heel faction to boot and seeing the
Speaker 1: fact that Creative was able to book them in two
Speaker 1: victories over the likes of Evolution was very telling on
Speaker 1: how WWE management felt about them. And furthermore, it ended
Speaker 1: this rivalry, ended the Shield, and I know we've had
Speaker 1: reincarnations of it over the past few years leading up
Speaker 1: to the departure of Diana Ambrose, but it never really
Speaker 1: quite felt the same, And to be honest, I felt
Speaker 1: that they just did very like too fast. It had
Speaker 1: only been three years when they did the initial reunion
Speaker 1: in the fall of two thousand and seven, and I
Speaker 1: just felt it was too much, too quick, and they
Speaker 1: should have let it breathe a bit. But I guess
Speaker 1: in hindsight it's probably a good thing that they did it,
Speaker 1: because Dean Ambrose ended up leaving and is now John
Speaker 1: Moxley in AW so they wouldn't have had the chance
Speaker 1: to now.
Speaker 2: But Evolution ended the Shield, so it's.
Speaker 1: Very important in the sense that they solidified them as
Speaker 1: main event players, but at the same time they ended
Speaker 1: the faction. As we knew it, and it's very it's
Speaker 1: a very weird dynamic because you're saying, well, if they're
Speaker 1: solidifying them as main event players, but they also ended them,
Speaker 1: how could both be true? But it's because we knew
Speaker 1: at this point, maybe subconsciously, that Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns,
Speaker 1: and seth Rawlins were all ready for prime time, at
Speaker 1: least in my opinion. And it was weird because seth
Speaker 1: Rawlins was the one who right out of the gate,
Speaker 1: got the biggest push, and before this happened, I would
Speaker 1: have argued that he was kind of the odd man out.
Speaker 1: He was kind of the third wheel to this group,
Speaker 1: because if I think back to the Shield in twenty
Speaker 1: thirteen and early twenty fourteen, I looked at it and
Speaker 1: I said, well, Roman Reigns is clearly the guy that
Speaker 1: WWE likes and will likely be a baby phase. Dean
Speaker 1: Ambrose has the lunatic psycho thing going on, so he's
Speaker 1: going to be a full blown heel, and seth Rawlins
Speaker 1: is just the acrobatic guy who's excellent in the ring.
Speaker 1: And that's just my opinion on it. Maybe you guys
Speaker 1: have a differing one, but I always thought that Seth
Speaker 1: Rawlins would be the least likely to have main event
Speaker 1: potential when they all broke, so when they decided to
Speaker 1: have seth Rawlins be the guy to turn on the
Speaker 1: Shield and have the most significant character development right off
Speaker 1: the bat, and win the money in the bank briefcase
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter, and get Jay and J's security and all
Speaker 1: these things. I just found it very very intriguing and
Speaker 1: a brilliant part on creative because look, lo and behold.
Speaker 1: Since then, seth Rawlins has become one of the most
Speaker 1: prominent wrestlers in the company, and it just really set
Speaker 1: the stage and the landscape for w WE for the
Speaker 1: following what is it now six years since this happened,
Speaker 1: and lo and behold, these guys have in large part
Speaker 1: been the faces of the company. The one thing that
Speaker 1: I am kind of sad about looking back on the
Speaker 1: Shield and the dissolution of this shield is that I
Speaker 1: really wish they would have had at least one one
Speaker 1: on one match between any of the two of the
Speaker 1: three because at a WrestleMania I would have liked to
Speaker 1: see two of the three go head to head at
Speaker 1: a WrestleMania that we haven't been able to see to
Speaker 1: this point. I really thought at WrestleMania thirty two, when
Speaker 1: seth Rawlins was out with injury and John Ceno was
Speaker 1: out with injury and Randy Orton was out with injury
Speaker 1: that Roman Reigns versus Dean Ambrose would have been a
Speaker 1: perfect main event and you know, two Shield members, maybe
Speaker 1: two baby faces going one on one, But they elected
Speaker 1: to go with Roman Reigns versus Triple h which was
Speaker 1: one of the worst WrestleMania main events of all time
Speaker 1: in my opinion. But maybe we'll get to see it
Speaker 1: with seth Rawlins and Roman Reigns somewhere down the line.
Speaker 1: They're both on SmackDown now, so maybe, but they're both
Speaker 1: newly turned heels, so who knows if that is anything
Speaker 1: in the cards in the near future. But this feud
Speaker 1: between Evolution and the Shield was big in so many
Speaker 1: ways by main event by solidifying them as main event
Speaker 1: players and breaking them up to send them on their
Speaker 1: separate ways as single stars. So look, guys, that's about
Speaker 1: all I got for this week. In terms of rivalries.
Speaker 1: It was more of a recent rivalry that I hope
Speaker 1: you guys are good with. I know usually I do
Speaker 1: fifteen plus years ago, but This was just something I'd
Speaker 1: been thinking about for a while, and I'm kind of
Speaker 1: on this kick of faction versus faction rivalries, so I
Speaker 1: hope you guys are good with that too, as opposed
Speaker 1: to the traditional one on one rivalries. Just trying to
Speaker 1: think about a bit outside the box. So as always,
Speaker 1: you can at me on Twitter at A to Marco
Speaker 1: twenty five. You can email Matt at REALWWE Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com if you want to leave him questions
Speaker 1: for me I'd be happy to answer them, or at
Speaker 1: me on Twitter or dm me on Twitter.
Speaker 2: Some of you have to dm me on Instagram. That's
Speaker 2: cool too.
Speaker 1: My handle is also A to Marco twenty five. Or
Speaker 1: you could leave a voicemail for Matt and he would
Speaker 1: be and he would be glad to relay that for me. Anyway, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I got for you this week, and I
Speaker 1: will talk to you next time.