[5] The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29.

[11][12] As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.

[19] In the lead-up to the 2017 SummerSlam event, Ambrose and Rollins reunited and captured the Raw Tag Team Championship from Cesaro and Sheamus.

Following Ambrose's return from injury the previous week, The Shield reunited once again on August 20, 2018 episode of Raw to prevent Braun Strowman from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Reigns.

After Reigns returned in February 2019 and announced that his leukemia was in remission, the trio reunited and won the main event match of Fastlane that same month.

[25] They were a group which possessed teamwork and a willingness to sacrifice themselves as an individual for the good of the team,[26][27] which achieved victories by overwhelming opponents with superior numbers after incapacitating their teammates.

[39] CM Punk later said he come up with the idea of The Shield, which he proposed were to be his storyline protectors and consisting of Ambrose, Rollins and Kassius Ohno—Punk described "their guy", Reigns, replacing Ohno, who had been rejected by Triple H.[40] WWE Spanish announcer Marcelo Rodríguez named the group for Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins "The Shield" on November 19, 2012, one day after the Survivor Series event.

[45][46] After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair,[47] Brodus Clay[48] and Sheamus,[49] The Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other wrestlers, such as Mick Foley,[25] Tommy Dreamer and Ricardo Rodriguez.

[62] The following night on Raw, it was revealed through footage played by McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along.

[71] This led to a match where The Shield defeated the combination of The Brothers of Destruction and Team Hell No (Undertaker, Kane and Bryan) on the April 22 episode of Raw.

[85] At Battleground on October 6, after being kayfabe fired, Cody Rhodes and Goldust earned their jobs back by beating Rollins and Reigns in a non-title match.

[87] On the October 14 episode of Raw, Reigns and Rollins lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to the Rhodes brothers in a No Disqualification match after interference from Big Show.

[96] WWE originally planned to break up The Shield after the match, but they asked to remain together due to their lack of experience as singles wrestlers.

[106] On the March 7 episode of SmackDown, the members of The Shield met in the ring to clear the air on their disharmony, and Rollins explained that his actions achieved his purpose of getting Ambrose and Reigns to finally see eye-to-eye, which led to the trio ultimately reconciling.

The feud also involved The Authority's The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) after they sided with Kane, culminating in a match at WrestleMania XXX, which The Shield would win.

[111] The following night on Raw, Triple H forced Ambrose to defend the United States Championship in a 20-man battle royal without Reigns and Rollins being involved.

[128][129] On the August 14 episode of Raw, an argument in the ring culminated in Ambrose and Rollins brawling with each other only to fight off Cesaro and Sheamus and performing a fist bump to a loud ovation.

[133] On the October 9 episode of Raw, Miz opened the show with Cesaro and Sheamus, but they were interrupted by the reunited Shield, who attacked the trio, leading to a six-man tag team Tables, Ladders and Chairs match between The Shield and the team of Cesaro, The Miz and Sheamus at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.

[138] Ambrose and Rollins lost the titles back to Cesaro and Sheamus after SmackDown's The New Day appeared and caused a distraction on the November 6 episode of Raw.

On the August 13, 2018 episode of Raw, Ambrose returned from his injury and reunited with Rollins during his feud with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre.

On the August 20 episode of Raw, Reigns retained the Universal Championship against Finn Bálor, with Braun Strowman watching from the entrance ramp.

After the match, Strowman attempted to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract, however, Rollins and Ambrose made the save, preventing him from cashing in and putting him through the announce table with a triple powerbomb.

Reigns would be involved in various rivalries throughout the following months, feuding with the likes of Shane McMahon, Drew McIntyre, Elias and Erick Rowan.

[157][158] In addition, Rollins won the 2014 Money in the Bank ladder match[159] and subsequently cashed in his contract to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion during the main event of WrestleMania 31,[160] while Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble match[161] and competed for the world title in the same main event of Rollins' cash in.

[162] Despite no longer formally operating as a team, Ambrose and Reigns continued to infrequently work together and maintained an on-screen friendship following The Shield's split.

[167] During the match, Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins briefly worked together to perform their signature triple powerbomb on Orton through the announce table.

[170] After Rollins legitimately suffered multiple injuries to his right knee (he tore the ACL, MCL and medial meniscus while attempting to execute a sunset flip powerbomb) at a live event in Dublin, Ireland on November 4, a tournament was set up to crown a new champion.

[181] At the event on June 19, Ambrose won the Money in the Bank ladder match, and Rollins regained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Reigns in the main event, only to lose the title to Ambrose immediately afterwards when he successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase, making all of the former Shield members WWE Champion on the same night.

[182] All three members of The Shield competed in a triple threat match for the renamed WWE Championship at Battleground on July 24,[183][184] where Ambrose was victorious after pinning Reigns.

[186] In December 2016, they appeared together at Tribute to the Troops during a backstage segment with The Club (AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) and The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods).