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| Believe in The Shield, Kane. BELIEVE Photo Credit: WWE.com |
The Shield vs. Corporate Kane and the New Age Outlaws
How: The match was announced on RAW last week.
The Story: Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose, the mercenary collective fighting under a dubious guise of gaining justice, had fallen into a bit of a funk in the summer of '13. Their clientele had dried up – Paul Heyman didn't really feel like paying them to watchdog CM Punk anymore – and their grips on their respective belts had started to grow a bit tenuous. Then, at some point before the RAW after SummerSlam, a new suitor came forward for their services, one with seemingly unlimited resources, one that wanted them as his secret police force.
Around the same time, Kane, who had recently had a cold breakup with his former partner Daniel Bryan, was lured into a struggle that he didn't know at the time that he could not win. The Wyatt Family had finally appeared on the main roster, and the demonic leader, Bray, decided that since he was the new guy in the prison yard, he was going to step to the most evil, twisted, and demented soul there. Sure, Kane's edge may have been dulled by Dr. Shelby's anger management courses, but a tamer Kane is still more dastardly than most of the rest of the roster.
After the Inferno match at SummerSlam between Kane and Wyatt, the Family abducted Kane and took him to parts unknown, presumably the group's swamp compound where they practice their cultish rituals. When he returned to active duty, he oddly gave up his mask and his services to the wife of the man who bought up The Shield. When he came back the next week, he was clad in a suit and given a new title, Director of Operations.
The Authority of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon assembled quite the backing force for their reign of tyranny, and things proceeded without so much as a hitch until Kane started to overreach in his own (excuse the pun) authority. He started demanding The Shield do his bidding, even in ops that they didn't necessarily agree to performing. As happens in wrestling parlance, the enmity developed into crossed-wires, and Kane and The Shield began attacking each other in friendly fire.
Despite the ending of the prior episode of Smackdown, when The Shield seemed declaratively to have turned their friendly fire towards Kane into intentional assault, the Director of Operations still demanded The Shield come down to the ring on the RAW after Bryan flooded the ring with fans in Memphis in an attempt to gain his deserved ends at WrestleMania. Kane placed the blame squarely on Jerry Lawler, whom he accused of using hometown connections to let those fans into the building. Instead of doing what Kane wanted, The Shield did Kane in, culminating in a symmetric role reversal from TLC '12 with Reigns putting him through the timekeeper's guard barrier with a monstrous spear.
In retaliation, Kane set up a four-way tag match where Ambrose and Rollins would fight for the number one contendership to the Tag Team Championship against the Real Americans, Rybaxel, and 3MB. The match was a setup all along, as the three teams were promised favors from Kane to start an assault that would be capped off with salvos from the New Age Outlaws. The Outlaws had returned at Old School RAW to help CM Punk in his fight against The Shield, but soon they turned on him, showing their true colors in allegiance to The Authority. From that point, the match was set. The Shield, who had asked where they stood with Triple H and got a vote of confidence – their beef was with Kane, said Trips – would go against Kane and the Outlaws in an implosion of the head group's big muscled acquisitions.
Analysis: A lot of people with whom I interact on Twitter are down on this match. It's hard to get up for a Shield match against Kane and two fuddy-duds from the Attitude Era when they just got off an amazing couplet of trios matches against the Wyatts. If I were in charge of booking WrestleMania, I would probably have fired the Outlaws into the Sun rather than have them anywhere near New Orleans on April 6.
However, I'm actually not all too worried because if The Shield is engaged in a trios match with anyone, that match is probably going to be good. The trio has reinvented the six-man tag match within WWE's parameters, and the way they work as a unit is so seamless and interlocking that they elevate their opponents in any scenario. Of course, I won't pretend that the Outlaws and Kane are Daniel Bryan and the Usos, but they're not the Bolsheviks and Ted Arcidi either. Kane is in the best shape of his life, and he's always been a solid hand, while the Outlaws, while never flashy, have always been capable of putting on a good match with superior competition.
The main problem I see with this match is that I don't think it will get a whole lot of time. Even though Mania is four hours, the card always seems to feel cramped, especially since I see Bryan/Trips, the three-way that will follow that match, Lesnar/Taker, the Andre battle royale, and even Cena/Wyatt getting a bunch of time. With entrances, puff pieces, and recaps, I don't know if this trios match is going to get more than six minutes.
Who Should Win: Believe…
Who Will Win: …in The Shield.
