AEW superstar and former world champion Jon Moxley recently spoke with Metro UK about The Shield’s WWE debut back in 2012, and how he, Rollins, and Reigns felt a great deal of relief after finally making it to the main roster. The Purveyor of Violence also discusses the importance of a company continuing to follow through on a push after a star gains some momentum. Highlights are below.
How The Shield’s debut worked so well because they were a total mystery:
“Anything could work. I mean, it’s different because you’re a known commodity on NXT now, whereas when we came in we were complete nobodies. So, there’s a benefit to that. On the one hand, nobody knows who you are, but on the other hand, you have a completely fresh slate, you’re a complete mystery. You can come right in and starting whooping whoever’s ass you want! The Shield might be the last big act that came from that old way of doing things before NXT really. You can do anything with anybody if you commit to them.”
Talks how important it is to follow through on giving a talent a push:
“The problem is – it doesn’t matter if they’re on NXT, if people know who they are or they don’t. If somebody’s getting over, you’re giving them the opportunity to get over, you’ve gotta actually follow through on pushing a guy or girl. It doesn’t really matter where they came from! That could definitely happen again, it’s just they gotta follow through with it all the way!”
Says all The Shield members felt a relief after being called-up:
“It was a lot harder to get called up. We were this island of misfit toys, and very occasionally somebody might get plucked out like a little toy from Toy Story, picking up the alien guy and he gets to go to this promised land of the main roster. You always have this fear that you’ve never going to get called up, so this adds a lot of stress. You can’t just relax. Every day that passes down there before you get called up, you’re like, “Is this ever gonna happen? Am I gonna get fired today?’”
