CM Punk has taken credit for the idea of The Shield.
The trio of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose first made their mark on WWE TV helping CM Punk during his historic 434-days-long WWE Championship reign. More than a decade after his first encounter with them, the Straight Edge Star has found himself in the crosshairs of two-thirds of the group again, heading into WrestleMania 41.
The former WWE Champion recently had an interview with Rich Eisen to promote his appearance on ESPN+ series Stephanie’s Places. He talked about things such as returning to the company, their ongoing European tour and more.
When the topic of his feud with Reigns and Rollins was brought up, CM Punk claimed that he conceptualized the group because he knew that he would need guys to work with in the future:
“I was always looking towards the future. Yeah, there’s the now, there’s me, and there’s Cena. But outside of that, I would look at the landscape and be like, ‘What do we need to do to get money-talent in the position that I’m in now? How do I bring guys up? How do we elevate Superstars?’”
They Were Picked For A Reason: CM Punk
CM Punk was part of an explosive contract signing segment on this week’s episode of SmackDown with both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, where they all made their WrestleMania 41 triple threat match official. The notable thing about this segment was Paul Heyman’s declaration that the bout will main event the show of shows, a goal Punk never achieved in his first run with the company.
Now that his dream is finally set to become a reality, the former AEW star is not letting anyone else take credit for it. Punk was not shy claiming that he was the one who brought Rollins and Reigns to this level:
“So the idea with The Shield was that simple. I need guys to work with, for good or for bad, whether I like them, whether I hate them, whether I’m going to wind up having personal problems with them. I need talented individuals to work with, or I have nobody to work with in the future.
Lo and behold, who am I working with at WrestleMania? So, life’s pretty funny the way things kind of work out. I just don’t want those two guys to forget that they were picked for a reason. I brought them into this and at WrestleMania. I get the chance to take them out.”
