WWE SummerSlam 2016: How The Shield is powering WWE’s New Era

Battleground is typically a secondary event for the WWE, but they treated this past July’s with the importance of a Royal Rumble or Survivor Series. Even the generic promo packages took a backseat in favor of stoic images featuring superstars holding flags. The matches on the card suddenly became high-profile grudge matches instead of entertaining exhibitions.

What was more surprising than the totality that accompanied all those matches was the main event itself. A Shield triple threat match — for the company’s biggest prize no less — was rumored to be the definitive ace up WWE creative’s sleeves. It was even rumored that this match was going to take place in Dallas’ WrestleMania, but the Seth Rollins injury — as well as the slew of other injuries that caused a domino effect for the woe-begotten card — prevented that. And even after this year’s WrestleMania card ended, the match was still seen as inevitable: It would simply have to be moved to WWE’s next biggest event of the year, SummerSlam.

So, when the bell rang during Battleground and all three members of The Shield were ready to face off for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, it signaled the end of what was once regarded as WWE’s most anticipated story arch.

But with the WWE brand extension recently announced and the draft having taken place just days before the event, it signaled less of an finality and more of a beginning for WWE. No longer having that in the back of their pockets, WWE essentially signaled to the fans that the company would be forced to top what was widely considered their apex feud.

And in reality, it set the precedent for what was to come. The Shield have been in WWE for a few years now, but we may look at the Battleground match as the launching point of whatever you’d like to call the New Era for WWE. Simply put, sorting the entire WWE roster into either RAW or SmackDown down created more opportunity for veterans looking for a new start, as well as up-and-comers from NXT. At the heart of this repackaging is The Shield, who are no longer the renegade, guerrilla alternatives to the status quo. They are the status quo, and the main events of both shows are a microcosm of this.

Seth Rollins, having done very little to earn his title shot save for being on the right side of history (kissing up to now-RAW commissioner Stephanie McMahon), is the heir apparent to RAW’s newest major championship, the WWE Universal Title. Rollins, basking in the villainous benefits of nepotism, just had to wait to see who his opponent would be.

That first RAW after Battleground featured various WWE superstars competing in a tournament for that spot that would conclude in the main event. Among the competitors were superstars like Kevin Owens who, as popular as almost anyone on the roster, had not had an opportunity for the top title. Already, the brand reboot seemed refreshing if not long overdue.

But in the midst of new opportunity was a familiar face, Roman Reigns, who had just taken the pin from Dean Ambrose at Battleground. And despite Reigns’ shortcomings resulting in RAW forging a new belt — he was pinned, allowing Ambrose and SmackDown to keep the WWE title — he was included in the tournament and even made it to the main event.

With Reigns in the main event of RAW, it seemed as though WWE would glean certain elements of The Shield story line from the night before. His opponent would be Finn Balor, a recent call-up from NXT who was drafted ahead of most superstars already on the main roster. WWE tried to play off the legitimacy of the pick, claiming that he wasn’t a reach and that he has more potential than most despite the limited experience with WWE’s largest audience.

This meta analysis of the former NXT champion instilled some hope that Balor would wind up the victor against Reigns. Still, that sort of hope can typically become the building to a fan’s eventual fall: Just the right amount of investment can keep fans locked in, but the outcome can still leave them jaded. It’s a feeling some fans know all too well, as wrestling is designed to break your heart before it mends it.

Here, though, the improbable actually happened. Finn Balor defeated Roman Reigns in an excellent main event. The result signaled a sense of optimism that had previously only been linked with NXT. What’s more, that optimism remained on the final RAW before SummerSlam, where Seth Rollins came face-to-face with Finn Balor’s alter-ego: a mythic transformation into the demon king of Irish legend, Balor.

Where the pre-draft narrative would have crowned Rollins the inaugural Universal Champion already, the post-draft world still has many wondering if the NXT mainstay can pull off a win at his first-ever major WWE live special.

On SmackDown is the other former Shield member, the one holding the WWE World Championship. Having won the title in a few seconds from Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank thanks to that event’s titular contract-opportunity match, Dean Ambrose’s run seemed like a fluke prior to the brand split. The very first episode of SmackDown Live, though, featured Ambrose as a champion that was finally starting to feel comfortable in his own skin leather jacket.

SmackDown’s tournament to determine their own No. 1 contender featured the same variety of superstars, a mix of old and new: Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin, recent NXT call-ups themselves, were in the mix. But rather than sticking to what RAW did the night before, the blue brand took a different route: Longtime WWE veteran Dolph Ziggler was made the No. 1 contender.

Ziggler has more than a decade of experience in WWE and is regarded as one of the best in-ring performers that the company has had. Despite a few injury concerns, he has been a constant in the WWE Universe, often competing for titles. However, his talent has been somewhat of a curse. He’s gotten the reputation of being a utility player in WWE, often to make someone else look more impressive. It’s a tag Ambrose himself was beginning to wear before becoming WWE Champion.

With constant exposure but very little success in comparison, Ziggler has been regarded as WWE’s poster boy for the previous generation of wrestlers that came before Dean Ambrose and The Shield. While superstars like Ziggler and Kofi Kingston could’ve had the gravitas of legendary wrestlers at this point in their careers, they often feel like remnants of a failed past that bridged between the company’s past successes and those to come. Yes, they can all claim championships, but the prestige is conspicuously missing, as though they were interim champions.

And in the spirit of channeling reality in their programming, Dolph Ziggler echoed that same frustration. In one of his first confrontations with Ambrose, Ziggler mentioned that WWE brass constantly overlooked him for the top spot.

His promo caught many by surprise, not because of what he was saying but because of how emotional he was when he said it. It’s not a unique sentiment either. Earlier this year, Cody Rhodes — who came up to WWE at roughly the same time as Ziggler — requested his release from WWE. This moment also conjured up that fog of reality that hardly ever fails to captivate wrestling fans.

Even with the perception that this could finally be Ziggler’s crowning moment, WWE is still hesitant to make either competitors in the title match a villain. Instead, Ambrose and Ziggler have started a mini-feud of sorts with Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. These shared foils are gradually elevating the importance of both performers while maintaining empathy from the fans — Ziggler fans can feel good about rooting for their guy, and Ambrose fans can feel good for the same.

Don’t be surprised if their SummerSlam championship match becomes a more grand exhibition of their respective wrestling abilities than a simple push of a narrative on either side.

No matter what the outcome of the respective title bouts will be, the matches themselves are nevertheless an indication that the perspective has shifted in WWE. Their constant reliance on part-timers, save for Brock Lesnar, is slowly eroding in favor of the three former Shield members, who have become the flag bearers of each weekly show — Roman Reigns is also in a title hunt for the United States Championship against Rusev at SummerSlam — competing against the best parts of WWE’s recent past and its future.

While WWE could be content with its current state of affairs, it’s going beyond that to introduce newer characters to a larger audience and rehabilitating the old guard that may have never had a proper chance at success. Balor immediately being made a big deal, Ziggler getting the chance to resuscitate his main event status, and The Shield’s involvement on both sides are proof that there are more stories to tell, even if the one we assumed was the story has already been told.