The League of Nations came together in 2015 with Sheamus, Rusev, Wade Barrett and Alberto Del Rio uniting to....do something.
The group formed around Sheamus, who was fresh off his WWE Title cash-in victory over Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. What could have been a dominant faction in WWE was nothing more than a vehicle to help top babyface acts.
"I just beat Roman for the World Title at Survivor Series, I didn't know I was cashing in until that night. The next day at Raw, they tell us 'we're putting League of Nations together.' This whole idea came from Jamie Noble. There was no idea or plan behind it. They just put the four of us together," recalled Sheamus in an appearance on Rusev's Twitch channel.
Rusev noted, "The idea was four foreigners. That was the exact plan. 'Hey, we have four foreigners, lets put them together.' Great idea."
The two continued, discussing the initial hopes for the group and how quickly they realized what was going to happen.
"The four of us individually were doing good and were successful. You had four strong heels put together to make a weak faction. People talk about The Shield being dominant. We could have been a successful and dominant group. In our first match together on SmackDown, we basically lost a four-on-one match against Roman," said Sheamus.
"When they pitched this idea, we legitimately thought, 'We have a shot. Look at us, we can dominate.' We have a four vs. one match and Roman beat us by countout. That's when we knew. It took us two days to find out 'Wow, we're not going to do good with this,'" Rusev said followed by a laugh.
Sheamus went on to say that they could have been a dominant faction like the Shield or the Wyatt Family, they just weren't booked to dominate. Rusev said that the only purpose of the group was to build Roman. Both men clarified that they love Roman and loved working with him, and that their complaints had nothing to do with him.
After being dispatched by Roman, League of Nations began a feud with New Day, who they also loved working with but the feud came with a new set of problems.
"At this point, it's not that we were done, we were like, 'why is nobody taking us seriously?' We're four dudes that can annihilate anybody, but we're doing these promos saying 'they're disrespecting us' and we can't do anything. All four of us, we get fed up, and we got in trouble because we weren't selling when they were insulting us. What are we supposed to sell? They're insulting us like we're kids, but we're grown-ass men. There are three of them and four of us. If we slide in the ring, we will destroy everything. We couldn't do that and our hands were tied. Okay, if they're going to tie our hands, we're going to act like we don't care. So, that's what we did. They turned it into a joke, so we turned it into a joke with them. We got in trouble for that. At least, I did," said Rusev.
Sheamus said that everyone got in trouble for not joking and that their purpose was to now heat up New Day.
New Day and League of Nations clashed at WrestleMania 32 with League of Nations picking up the victory, but the win was overshadowed by Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Mick Foley laying out all four members with their respective finishers.
Rusev said the meetings prior to WrestleMania 32 didn't go well but didn't elaborate. During an episode of New Day: Feel The Power, New Day discussed WrestleMania 32 with Xavier Woods saying there were arguments and almost a fight. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
The League of Nations split shortly after WrestleMania 32.
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