Roman Reigns wasn't in the original line-up that WWE has planned out for The Shield.

Roman, alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, debuted as The Shield at Survivor Series in November 2012.

The group has gone down as one of the best in WWE history, but things nearly turned out very differently as Reigns wasn't included in the original pitch.

What were WWE's original plans for The Shield?

It's widely known at this stage that CM Punk pitched the idea for The Shield during his time as WWE Champion in 2012.

The idea was that a group of three NXT stars would help him retain his WWE Championship, but Punk's plans didn't include Reigns.

Speaking on Colt Cabana's podcast in 2014, Punk shared that he pitched for Ambrose and Rollins to be joined by former WWE star Kassius Ohno, but Triple H shot that down immediately.

I took the idea to Hunter, I took it to Vince, they agreed. Vince was immediately like ‘who do you have in mind?’ And I said ‘Ambrose, Rollins, Chris Hero, or Kassius Ohno.’ Hunter shot down Hero.

Punk explained during the interview that Triple H wanted Roman to be part of the group, given that WWE had already earmarked him to become one of their top guys, which he has gone on to become.

They wanted Roman Reigns. They came to me and they were like ‘what about Leakee?’ I didn’t… it wasn’t my hill to die on. I said ‘sure’ because it made sense to me. Oh, they want their guy in, he’s the pretty guy, but that’s good because this guy can learn from working under me.

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Roman Reigns during his first year in WWE in 2013

How does Roman feel about being left out of the plans for The Shield?

In interviews since the debut of The Shield, Roman has confirmed that he was fully aware he wasn't in CM Punk's original plans for the faction.

During an appearance on Chris Jericho's podcast in 2018, Reigns confirmed that Triple H and Vince McMahon are the ones who wanted him in the group.

CM Punk had a group of guys, I believe were in there, but I wasn’t one of those guys. No, I was picked by Triple H and Vince [McMahon], of course.

WWE's attempts to celebrate The Shield's ten-year anniversary at Survivor Series this year will almost definitely be impacted by the fact that Dean Ambrose has now joined AEW.

Roman has 'The Game' to thank for his rise in WWE, as who knows what would have happened to his career trajectory if Reigns wasn't included in The Shield.