WWE Monday Night RAW 25th anniversary: Ranking the 25 biggest stars

13. The Shield

Sorry, folks, I’m copping out again. With The Shield only having been around for just over five years, it was extremely difficult to figure out where to put these guys. Do I put them in together? Do I put them in separately? To be honest, if I were to have gone the individual route, only two of the three would have been considered. It’s not that I don’t like Dean Ambrose or think he’s the weak link by any means, but a lot of his singles success has been on SmackDown and he really just hasn’t made as much of an impact as Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.

After debuting at Survivor Series in 2012, the trio became a main attraction on Monday nights. Coming in as mercenaries for then-WWE Champion CM Punk, The Shield dominated just about every major superstar the company had to offer. They didn’t have an official match for months, but in their RAW debut, they defeated Chris Jericho, Ryback and Sheamus. Their biggest early win came against Team Hell No and John Cena, a match in which Roman Reigns pinned Cena.

They all famously won gold on the same night at Extreme Rules as Dean Ambrose won the United States Championship (which he never seemed to defend) and Reigns and Rollins won the tag titles. Over the next year, The Shield got into storylines with numerous superstars, but their best matches came when they started feuding with The Wyatt Family, who had become a dominant trio in their own right.

Their next big program came against The Authority, which turned into a feud with Evolution. The Shield dominated the veterans every time they squared off, including the last match between the two factions, which saw The Shield triumph in an elimination match without losing one member in the process. The next night, in one of the bigger shocks in RAW history, Triple H revealed his “Plan B” and Rollins turned on Reigns and Ambrose and joined The Authority.

There’s too much to get into every single little thing here, but each has obviously found great success as singles competitors. They’ve all battled each other at one point or another and even competed in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship. Rollins became a huge part of RAW during his time with The Authority and got even bigger when he won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 31, a title he held for 220 days until getting injured, at which point Reigns and Ambrose battled for the vacant championship.

Reigns won and has since won two more titles and has essentially become “the chosen one” in WWE. Rollins won a second title but Dean Ambrose stole it from him the same night by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. Reigns has picked up huge wins against The Undertaker and John Cena while Rollins and Ambrose finally reunited in 2017 in yet another great RAW moment. Reigns joined them for a full reunification soon after.

Five years from now, I can almost guarantee that each of these men will have their own place on this list and one, two or all could be near the top of the list.