WWE Raw: The Shield vs. The Dogs Of War Doing More Harm Than Good

The top storyline on WWE Raw since SummerSlam has been the struggle between The Shield and Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, and Drew McIntyre, a struggle that appears as it could never end.

WWE Raw has been centered around The Shield vs. The Dogs Of War since the developments at SummerSlam that saw Roman Reigns gain the Universal Championship and Seth Rollins capture the Intercontinental Championship.

The Shield reunited on the Raw after SummerSlam when Braun Strowman nearly cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on The Big Dog before his Shield brothers helped lay out The Monster Among Men.  Since then, Strowman has been a heel after aligning himself with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre.

Reigns and Strowman battled inside Hell in a Cell last month in Strowman’s cash-in match and after Brock Lesnar got involved and laid out both men, the match ended in a no contest.  It essentially wasted the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match this year and Strowman’s opportunity to become Universal Champion.

It will be Reigns vs. Strowman vs. Lesnar at Crown Jewel for the Universal Championship, but in the meantime, the WWE universe has had to sit through the same old same old in terms of The Shield vs. Strowman, Ziggler, and McIntyre.  The Shield is one of the greatest groups the WWE has produced in years, but right now it feels bland and that has to change.

The WWE has done a horrible job of booking this feud in the sense that the same thing happens almost weekly.  Fans get to see the same variety of singles matches involving the six men over and over and to top things off, every main men’s title on the red brand is being held hostage by this feud.

The Big Dog started out his Universal Championship reign with a bang, but since this feud has taken off, you almost forget he has the title.  He hasn’t had the chance to defend it and it has been nothing more than a prop in recent weeks, which is exactly what fans couldn’t stand about Lesnar’s title reign previously.

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The Intercontinental Championship was flourishing with Rollins as champion and when he won the title back at SummerSlam, fans were excited.  However, he has not been able to do anything with the title since being part of this feud.  The workhorse title of Monday nights in recent memory has been turned into a prop.

The same can be said for the Raw Tag Team Championship, held by Ziggler and McIntyre.  They won the titles from The B-Team shortly after SummerSlam and since then, it’s easy to forget they even have the titles.  And given how this feud is still the focal point every Monday night, the tag team titles will probably remain non-existent in terms of competition.

This feud is sucking the life out of the championships held by the individuals involved and something has to change.  The most recent development out of this feud has been the tension between Dean Ambrose and his Shield brothers.  The Lunatic Fringe has not been on the same page with Reigns and Rollins lately to the point where it looks like he might leave The Shield.

The story has been built up as The Shield needs Ambrose more than Ambrose needs The Shield and he is nothing more than someone to bail out Reigns and Rollins.  This would be interesting if the WWE knew how to book it and so far, not so good.  One minute Ambrose is totally unified with The Shield and the next minute he’s against them.

It’s getting to the point where it’s insulting fans’ intelligence due to the lack of consistency with this angle.  If Ambrose is going to turn on The Shield, just do it already.  And by the same token, if he’s going to stay with them through the good and bad, just stay with them.  This feud has hurt almost everyone involved creatively and it’s unacceptable.

Strowman was arguably the hottest babyface on the entire roster by SummerSlam, but since the WWE turned him heel and aligned him with Ziggler and McIntyre, he’s been a generic heel that doesn’t get anywhere close to the same reactions he got as a babyface.  He worked great as a heel last year, but this version is simply not working.

Reigns’ whole character was centered around finally capturing the Universal Championship and being a champion fans can be proud of.  However, now he’s just a guy with a red belt on his shoulder.  And then there’s The Architect, who was one of the best Intercontinental Champions in recent memory and a must-see superstar.

Now, he doesn’t feel special like he should and his Intercontinental Championship reign feels like a circa-2010 reign that has no meaning whatsoever.  There’s no other way around it, The Shield vs. The Dogs Of War has been some of the laziest booking the WWE has done in a long time.  If you hadn’t watched Raw in a few weeks, you could get caught up immediately involving this feud because the same thing happens seemingly every week.

It’s starting to feel like this feud has nothing left to offer and the WWE should just end it, but if creative stubbornly sticks with it, something has to change to reinvigorate this dilapidated feud that is doing more harm than good.