I like The Shield. A lot.

[Tom Guycott]

Funny how everyone keeps bagging on Seth's lack of mic skills, but no one mentions (or even knows because they missed his short NXT stint) that Reigns is HORRIBLE on the stick. He makes Rollins sound like Ric Flair by comparison. However, the whole "I only speak when I need to" vibe has done the perfect job of hiding that well.

And that's one of the things that helps The Shield to work. They hide any flaw that would have hampered them individually AND ensured they all get the opportunity to work on that detriment. Where they were at the introduction of them as The Shield, if they were called up individually:

-Roman Reigns "looks the shit", and is okay in shorts bursts in the ring, since he was poised to have squash matches to make him look legit and intimidating. However, when you have so many other people doing that same "oh, look at me, I'm a big powerhouse!!!" thing right now (Ryback, Big E, Mark Henry, Big Show, Sheamus, then also potentially Mason Ryan, Bronson, what's left of Ascention, etc...) it would have been easy for him to be lost in the shuffle and fall off the planet like so much Zeke Jackson. On the mic, he seemed more uncomfortable than David Otunga was during the pre-Nexus NXT stint, which isn't good when you're supposed to be coming off as smug and overconfident. He would have needed a mouthpice, or at the very least, a very vocal tag team partner to gain any traction outside of the "me too" big man schtick.

-Seth Rollins, who again gets shit on because he isn't setting the world on fire with his promo ability, is actually pretty good considering where he is and how long he's been there. He doesn't quite have the ability to instantly hook you with charisma just by being there, but he can draw you in. He can go in the ring, but I'm convinced that if he didn't happen to look similar to CM Punk and kinda got a shot from striking while that iron was white hot, he would have been one of those guys who languished around jerking curtains and pulling Superstars duty on the main roster and been a tremendous waste of time and talent with no discernable direction.

-Dean Ambrose has the opposite charismatic ability of Rollins in that you can instantly see he's special. He has the indy cred of being a natural, but of course that would work serve to hamper him since that makes him a) and indy darling, and garners instant hatred from snobby fans who think that such hype should never ever happen because unapologetic fanboys who want to see the new guy in the WWE main event picture RIGHT NAO!!1! turn them off from even wanting their name brought up, and b) they weren't "home grown" by WWE, so they allow a lot of that buzz to dissapate instead of saying "hey, we got a good thing landing on our lap, let's roll with it and see what happens". With all the Youtube clips of very talented promos, a massive nod from Mick Foley AND William Regal for his talent, and the fact that he has a grasp on not just ringwork, but psychology to boot... WWE would have likely saw fit to repackage this guy as something goofy (for him) and not allow him to show much of that. People seeing him for the first time would think he's a boring asshole who can wrestle good, but has the personality of a shoe through no fault of his own. He might have lucked up on something (injury, accident, Diva's poll) to capitalise on it one day, but that day wouldn't have come soon enough.

Collectively, however, they all fill in the gaps. The gimmick of them being "as a cohesive unit whose egos aren't bigger than the collective group" is actually better personified as them being one perfect superstar. Reigns brings the brutal power move muscle; Rollins flys around the ring, Ambrose takes opponents to the mat. Their "jump in" promos give Ambrose the opportunity to showcase what he can do, and allows Rollins and especially Reigns to work on talking. Reigns brings the intimidation that the other two wouldn't neccessarily garner alone. Ambrose has the "it" factor the other two don't, and Rollins is somewhere between the two- briding the gap by looking more fearsome than Dean, but exuding more charisma than Roman. It's a good balance and a unique way for them to grow into legit singles competetors down the road by compensating for and overcoming their weaknesses with time and effort and being afforded that time and effort because of their unique position within the company right now.