WWE Elimination Chamber 2014 The Shield Vs The Wyatt Family

They’ve never been stronger. There’s no dissension in the ranks, no confusion as to the nature of their mission. Everything is going according to plan. Reassurances like this are all the WWE Universe has heard from The Shield over the last few months. Even while the group seems to teeter on the edge of an internal blowup, even when Roman Reigns tosses his teammates in the Royal Rumble Match and even as Dean Ambrose touts himself as “The Baddest Man in The Shield,” the song has been the same: We are united.  For their sake, that had better be true, because at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, they’ll have to deal with The Wyatt Family.  The stories of WWE’s two three-man wrecking crews couldn’t be more opposite at this point. The Shield members, little more than a year removed from being ambitious, talented rookies, have each become stars in their own right. Ambrose is the longest-reigning titleholder in WWE, having clutched the U.S. Championship since last May. Rollins has made believers out of anyone who crosses his path. And Roman Reigns not only set a new Royal Rumble Match record for the most eliminations in a single melee, but he also came within a Hound’s hair of beating Batista to main event WrestleMania XXX.  With that success, though, comes the threat of inflating egos, and dissent — however quiet, and however much they’d deny it — has found its way into the Hounds’ doghouse. A miscue here, a minor spat there, and The Shield seems just a little bit more vulnerable than they’d care to admit. Even if they’re the odds-on favorite in every Six-Man Tag Team Match they enter, the men in black’s greatest threat has seemingly reared its head from within.  Which brings us to The Wyatts. Only on the scene six months, the depraved cultists have methodically massacred Superstars of all shapes and sizes. Kane was nearly sent to oblivion, Kofi Kingston destroyed, The Miz all but sacrificed and Daniel Bryan brutally dispatched after he dared to defy the Family by joining it (only to turn on them when the opportunity presented itself). Most recently, they cost John Cena the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, proving their ambitions know no bounds. There’s also no confusion as to the pecking order: Erick Rowan & Luke Harper act as a hive mind, marching under the orders of Bray Wyatt himself. No titles, no records to muddy the waters. There is Bray’s word, and everyone else is the enemy.  Now, the enemy is The Shield. The match was demanded by The Hounds of Justice after The Wyatts cost them a chance to compete for the WWE World Heavyweight Title inside the Elimination Chamber. The Wyatts likely see it as an opportunity to dismantle another dominant force. Given their record of late, it’s not out of the question.  The Shield, meanwhile, likely see it as the final piece of their plan: Take out the faction many in the WWE Universe predicted would cross their paths. Despite The Wyatts’ ascendancy, The Shield still, ostensibly, runs the roost in WWE. For the first time, they are the veterans, not the newcomers. Victory is within their grasp. All they have to do now is believe.