‘WWE Destruction of the Shield’ Blu-ray Review
For the first time ever, Destruction of The Shield highlights “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose, “The Juggernaut” Roman Reigns, and “The Architect” Seth Rollins as they join forces to lay down the law and dish out their own brand of personal justice in WWE. From The Shield’s days as rookies in NXT, to their shocking debut, to the eventual destruction of The Shield, this set covers the entire journey of the most dominant trio in recent memory. With never before seen interviews and hard-hitting matchups from The Shield’s illustrious run, you will bear witness to what happens when the Hounds of Justice are off their leash!
WWE fans will be very aware of the faction known as The Shield. In the last few years, you would be hard-pressed to find a group of young wrestlers who have been as dominant and successful in the world of professional wrestling and sports entertainment. Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, three very different wrestlers with three very unique things to offer, and because of that they created something really special with The Shield. Known by many as “The Hounds of Justice”, The Shield had a great run in WWE until their eventual split in 2014. Once they split, Rollins went heel and became a sneaky and cocky villain who sided with The Authority faction lead by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Dean Ambrose embraced his chaotic-side and became the lone wolf of WWE, a popular babyface with elements of heel mannerisms, not unlike guys in the past like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Roman Reigns became a babyface and the chosen one in WWE’s current landscape, a guy who bigwigs in WWE have seen big things in, and we can expect to see him in main events going forward. Three guys whose careers took off because of a brilliant idea and excellent execution. The Shield are one of the best wrestling stables of all time, and this DVD and Blu-ray set from WWE takes a look at their path to WWE, their run in The Shield, and the split and aftermath of that fantastic run.
The documentary portion of this set is very interesting and entertaining. For fans who want to relive The Shields run and take a closer look at Rollins, Ambrose and Reigns, this is great viewing, and for those who don’t watch the current product, then I urge you to take a glimpse of one of the best things to occur in WWE in the past decade. There are sit down interview clips with names like Paul Heyman, Triple H, Sami Zayn, Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Michael Hayes, Mick Foley, and of course Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. There are clips of what the three men did before WWE, whether it be work in independent wrestling promotions like ROH, Dragongate USA or CZW, or college football. We see their road through the WWE developmental system and NXT and hear thoughts from the wrestlers and management about their feelings about them while they were there. We see their explosive debut on the main roster and their subsequent run, and we see the break-up of the group. There are clips of the guys backstage, and at home, and in the gym, and we get a glimpse behind the curtain, something that is always enjoyable to see in these WWE releases.
Well put together and with a top-notch selection of talking heads, the documentary is a nice look at The Shield and a good introduction to three men whose futures in WWE will hopefully be rich, long and exciting.
Other than the documentary, there is plenty more to sink your teeth into with “The Destruction of the Shield”. There is a decent selection of matches from FCW, NXT and WWE’s main roster featuring the three guys. The matches are all worth watching and I liked the fact that WWE included some of the FCW work, something that most of us have never had a chance to really see before. I will mention that the actual documentary portion of this release is on the WWE Network in full, and I had seen it there before watching this release. I thought there may have been a little more to the DVD/Blu-ray release, but there wasn’t. Still, it’s a very good snapshot of three current top workers in the company.
Another classy release from WWE and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Let’s hope more current workers with passion for the wrestling business will be given similar DVD and/or Blu-ray treatment soon, because this was a fresh and interesting set.
WWE Destruction of The Shield is released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 2nd.
