Was Chris Hero supposed to be the third member of The Shield over Roman Reigns?
Nope.
When discussing The Shield coming to the main roster, CM Punk has often stated that he wanted "fresh blood" beside him as part of the group. He's said in the past that he suggested Chris Hero be part of the group with Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose in WWE and Seth Rollins). Obviously, that did not happen and Roman Reigns was the third man in the group.
According to Chris Hero, he was never intended to be in The Shield because The Shield never existed when the idea was pitched.
"A little thing that annoys me about this is that people heard the podcast with [CM] Punk, and then they put that information out there, and it just kind of took a life of its own. When Punk pitched the trio of myself, [Dean] Ambrose and [Seth] Rollins, there was no ‘Shield’ concept. It was just, ‘Hey, let’s pair these three guys with me.’ Right? So, technically, I was never supposed to be a member of The Shield because The Shield didn’t exist when this was pitched," Hero told Inside The Ropes.
Hero continued by saying, "That’s a thing that I see on Twitter pretty much every other day. It gets a little annoying because it’s deviated so far from the original source of it. I found out just when everybody else found out – by listening to CM Punk on The Art of Wrestling podcast. I’d never had a conversation with him about this. These things happen all the time where you pitch ideas or you talk about things but the last thing you wanna do is get someone’s hopes up by saying, ‘Hey, man, I pitched this…’ or whatever, ‘I’m gonna do my best to get this to work’ -and then, if it doesn’t work, it’s just unnecessary bad feelings. Not BAD bad feelings – but you understand my point."
Hero went on to say that Reigns would have been a star with or without The Shield, but being paired with the group allowed him to gain experience in six-man bouts without potentially being exposed.
Hero, who was released by WWE in April 2020, now hosts his own podcast entitled Can Chris Hero Save Wrestling on AdFreeShows.com.
