There have been plenty of “what if?” situations in pro wrestling and a seasoned vet like Chris Hero is very familiar with such a story, including one that got blown out of proportion.
CM Punk conducted his now-infamous interview with Colt Cabana on The Art Of Wrestling over six years ago after leaving WWE, and one big takeaway for fans was Punk revealing plans of a potential alliance between himself and the trio of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Chris Hero. The story has been adapted to refer to that group as ‘The Shield’ and fans assumed Roman Reigns ‘replaced’ Hero in the group, but Hero says that’s not exactly how it went down. Hero spoke with Inside The Ropes to dismiss the notion that The Shield was any sort of concept at the time, noting that while he was in talks for a stable with those names, “The Shield” was never part of the plan.
“A little thing that annoys me about this is that people heard the podcast with [CM] Punk, and then they put that information out there, and it just kind of took a life of its own. When Punk pitched the trio of myself, [Dean] Ambrose and [Seth] Rollins, there was no ‘Shield’ concept. It was just, ‘Hey, let’s pair these three guys with me.’ Right? So, technically, I was never supposed to be a member of The Shield,” Hero explained, “because The Shield didn’t exist when this was pitched.”
“That’s a thing that I see on Twitter pretty much every other day. It gets a little annoying because it’s deviated so far from the original source of it. I found out just when everybody else found out – by listening to CM Punk on The Art of Wrestling podcast. I’d never had a conversation with him about this,” Hero makes clear.
Hero is not currently a member of a wrestling promotion right now, but has found himself keeping busy with his new show “Can Chris Hero Save Wrestling?” on AdFreeShows.com.
