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Originally Posted by PWTorch
“As far as perceptions of Dean, I was there when the Shield came together and debuted, and Vince was not really familiar with the guys and what they had done in NXT, so he listened to a lot of what Hunter said and other people’s opinions. And the decision was made to have one guy be a singles guy - they’re gonna be a three-man operation and there would be a lot of six man matches, but we want to pick out a singles guy and a tag team. And everyone was in agreement that Roman is the greenest of the three, and Seth is the technician - they didn’t see a lot of personality in Seth at that point, so let’s put those two together as a tag team. Roman’s the power guy who’s green, so we can sort of cover his in-ring weaknesses while he’s learning. Dean was seen as the guy who was most ready at that point to assume a singles role. He was seen as the best promo, and I believe he had more in-ring experience at that point than Seth. He just seemed ready-made. But there was never any question of him being a long-term guy that we’re gonna build around. It was very, very clear and specific that Roman is the guy who has the most long-term potential. He’s everything we look for in a future champion. He’s got the look, he’s got the lineage, everything is there. So let’s protect him, not push him too much too soon, and when the time is right this could be the guy.
So that was the perception from the very beginning. I will say this though, there was talk at one point when the Shield was associated with the Authority, that Dean Ambrose could have gotten the Randy Orton spot to be the chosen one of the Authority. And there were actually some plans for that to happen, and I think as things went along everyone - and I agreed with this as well - kind of said “No, maybe Dean isn’t world championship material, at least not right now. He’s not ready for that spot.” And some of that could’ve been our fault from a creative standpoint, in that we didn’t really put him in a spot where he would be believable in that role, or that he was ready for it, or that the fans would accept him in that role at that point. So the decision was made to go to Randy Orton.
But again, he has always been seen as a valuable guy, but never necessarily the guy. And it’s funny because the perceptions of the Shield guys were always fluid, it was always changing. I know at one point there - the Shield rarely lost, but when they did it was usually that Seth would take the fall, and at one point Michael Hayes came in and said “You guys, we got to stop beating Seth so much. I’m telling you, he’s the guy.” So I feel like at one point Dean, who was like number one in the Shield pecking order, actually got moved down to three. Roman’s the guy, but man this guy Seth really surprised some people. He was a little better on the mic than they thought, and we knew he was good in the ring but he was actually great in the ring. So I saw Seth Rollins’ stock rise. It’s not necessarily that Dean’s really fell so much, it was more that Seth surprised some people.”
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