The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Jon Moxley, aka Dean Ambrose) made their main roster debut at WWE Survivor Series 2012 and became one of the most successful factions in WWE history.

All group members went on to become top stars and world champions. They broke up in 2014 although The Shield reunited on multiple occasionsAmbrose left WWE in 2019 after the trio had one final run together.

While speaking with Graham “GSM” Matthews of Bleacher Report, Rollins reflected on the group’s run together and acknowledged the criticism of the trio’s split.

“You can look back at the breakup and say I wish we would’ve done that and be more prepared, but being forced to swim in the deep water as individuals was what helped us. We had to learn and grow and just figure it out. That learning process was important in its own way.”

WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle temporarily joined the group at WWE TLC 2017. Rollins noted that he wishes the multiple reunions of The Shield had been handled better but knows there wasn’t much they could do about it, including Angle’s brief association with the group that he wasn’t a fan of.

“I guess one regret would’ve been managing some of the reunions a little bit better and some of that was out of our control and there was nothing we could do,” he said. “It’s not ideal to have Kurt Angle in a Shield costume, but desperate times call for desperate measures, so we made the best of it and there’s something to be said for putting people in that role and being able to have the equity to do that,” Rollins said.

Rollins has previously said that he thinks the next time fans see The Shield together will be at their WWE Hall of Fame induction.