June 19th 2016 at the T-Mobile Arena in the fighting capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada was a historic night for the world of sports entertainment. For the briefest of moments all three former members of the iconic group the Shield held the WWE Championship.
‘The Guy’ Roman Reigns headed into the event as the reigning three time Champion defending against former Champion Seth Rollins. Rollins, the Architect, won his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 31 in Santa Clara, California. Rollins shocked the world as he wasn’t even supposed to be in the match and therefore wasn’t listed when betting on WWE WrestleMania fights. Rollins was almost eight months into his first title reign when a freak injury forced him to vacate the title. He tore his ACL, MCL and medical meniscus while on the WWE European tour in Dublin, Ireland. After a grueling period of surgery a rehab, Rollins returned in May and was granted a match against Reigns for the championship he never lost.
Money In The Bank was Rollins’ first match in over seven months but he looked like he’d barely been absent for seven minutes as he batted the Samoan Reigns for 26 minutes and eventually defeated him with his finishing move, the Pedigree, and won his second WWE Championship. However, his celebration was short lived when once friend, recent long-time enemy, the Lunatic Fringe, Dean Ambrose blind-sided the Architect.
Ambrose had won the Money in the Bank ladder match which gave him a contract that he could cash in anytime he liked for a match for the WWE Championship. Barely a minute after Rollins had beat Reigns, Ambrose chose his moment to challenge Rollins and won the Championship in 9 seconds, his first.
The following night on Raw, Seth Rollins faced Roman Reigns to decide who would get the next title shot against Ambrose. The match ended in a count-out meaning there was no clear winner. Ambrose said he’d be happy to face both men so a triple-threat match was arranged for Battleground, the next WWE Network event. Roman Reigns was then suspended for 30 days following a failed drugs test, this is his first violation of the WWE’s Wellness Policy and after his 30 days are served he will return just before Battleground on July 24th.
The WWE horizon was shaken up dramatically following the WWE draft on the first ever edition of Smackdown Live on Tuesday 19th July. Seth Rollins was the number 1 draft pick by Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and Raw General Manager Mick Foley for the red brand while reining WWE Champion Dean Ambrose was picked by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan, Smackdown’s respective Commissioner and General Manager. Roman Reigns was also drafted to Raw as their fourth pick, so while Rollins and Reigns may continue their feud for the next coming months, Battleground will be the last time that all three former Shield members will be in the same ring at the same time.
This means that Raw has a 2/3 chance of making the WWE Championship their exclusive property while the Lunatic Fringe will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders as Shane and Bryan hope to keep the belt exclusively on the blue brand. WWE fans can pick their own fantasy draft now and see how their picks compare to Tuesday nights outcome.
