Former Impact Wrestling Star Claims The Shield Ripped Off Aces & Eights Gimmick

Over the past five years, The Shield has been one of the most dominant gimmicks in WWE. Making an impressive debut at the 2012 Survivor Series pay-per-view during the main event WWE Championship triple threat match, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose introduced themselves to the WWE Universe by delivering a triple powerbomb to Ryback through the table. After that, they would commence a dominant winning streak, even winning the Tag Team and United States Championships.

The team would break up when Rollins joined the Authority and became heel. However, they would recently reunite after over three years apart, and compete at Survivor Series in one of the best matches of the night against the New Day. The duo would win even more championships this time around, as Rollins and Ambrose became the Raw Tag Team Champions, while Roman Reigns became the Intercontinental Champion.

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The group has been so successful as both a faction and singles competitors, each of them have won the WWE Championship, as well as the United States Championship.

Despite this success, a former Impact Wrestling star claimed that the idea of the group was not original.

I had the opportunity of interviewing Wes Brisco recently on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show. During the interview, Brisco made the bold claim that the faction he was a member of, Aces & Eights, originated the gimmick that the Shield allegedly ripped.

“All those guys that we were together with, we stuck together, we hung out together, we were together. I mean, we took this [seriously]. We wanted to be very successful. We wanted to treat it like it was our baby, our opportunity to set an example and create something totally different.

“Because if you look at it, that’s what started The Shield because of us. If you really look at it, we started before The Shield even came through the crowd, we had the mask on. Basically, [they did] the exact same thing.”

Brisco, who was released from Impact Wrestling in early 2014, also discussed why he is no longer with the company.

You can hear the full interview here.