All three certainly had the ability and tools necessary to succeed at the next level, but had they debuted on WWE television separately they likely would have gone the way of other competitors who got lost in the shuffle of talented, young midcarders.
When they debuted as The Shield, however, fans sat up and took notice. It was fresh and exciting. Here were three guys whose different styles meshed so well between the ropes and made for far better matches than anything the boring and tired tag teams of that time were doing.
When those teams made it onto television in any meaningful way, of course.
The Shield opened the eyes of fans and management to the wild, exciting and explosive nature of tag team wrestling. It reminded management that there was so much more that could be done in a tag team setting that simply could not be achieved in a basic singles match. The storytelling, the psychology and the action created more heat and led to better matches.
For months, WWE booked the Shield and other trios in Raw and SmackDown main events because they knew it was an easy way to produce a hot main event that the people would be talking about on their way out of the arenas.
The Wyatt Family would join the Hounds of Justice as a headlining trio on WWE television while the creative team began placing a greater emphasis on duos.
Goldust and Cody Rhodes, RybAxel, the Real Americans, Los Matadores, 3MB and the Usos all gained greater television exposure because not only could they be counted on to utilize the tag formula to deliver outstanding matches, it also gave those Superstars something to do.
Post a Comment