Entertainment
WWE boss Vince McMahon was ‘furious’ over beloved part of The Shield’s iconic style
The group was a major force (Picture: WWE)
Jon Moxley has revealed WWE boss Vince McMahon wasn’t a fan of The Shield’s face masks.
The All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star, who is currently taking time away to visit inpatient alcohol treatment program, recently opened up getting photos for his autobiography and discussed how the company’s head honcho reacted to the gear.
Appearing on Talk Is Jericho, he said: ‘I found like my one old SWAT vest they had and a pair of boots a The Shield mask that we wore for big shows that Vince hated, even though we would have sold millions of them.
‘We had these cool Sub Zero ninja masks. We busted them out at WrestleMania, and we looked cool as f**k, I’m not gonna lie. The next night Vince was just furious.
‘He’s like, “They can’t see your faces! Get rid of the masks!” And the merchandise guys were mortified. They’re like, “They’re already coming up with designs. We’re gonna sell millions of these.”
‘Vince was like, “No, you can’t see their faces!” We did it in Australia again just to p**s him off, and we didn’t tell him, like years later, and boy, they got p***ed again. Vince just hated those masks.’
The group themselves were fans of the masks (Picture: WWE)
The Shield made waves in the industry when Moxley (as Dean Ambrose) – alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins – broke onto the scene at Survivor Series in 2012.
It was a different time for WWE with Florida Championship Wrestling – a precursor to NXT – acting as more of a developmental league where rising stars would hone their craft and character.
NXT 2.0 is shifting back in that direction, with the likes of Bron Breakker getting spots on TV each week as they improve their skills.
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Asked earlier this year whether they could still produce something like The Shield to make a splash on Raw or SmackDown, Moxley exclusively told Metro.co.uk: ‘The problem is – it doesn’t matter if they’re on NXT, if people know who they are or they don’t.
‘If somebody’s getting over, you’re giving them the opportunity to get over, you’ve gotta actually follow through on pushing a guy or girl.
‘It doesn’t really matter where they came from! That could definitely happen again, it’s just they gotta follow through with it all the way!’
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