Seth Rollins talks about wrestling in the Shield gear, getting away from the original idea of turtlenecks, and the positive of not having to shave his legs.
Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), and Roman Reigns debuted in WWE as The Shield. They dominated the company for a year and a half as the "Hounds of Justice," wearing tactical gear.
Appearing on WWE Break It Down, Rollins explained how he felt wrestling in the gear and the urgency with which they wanted to switch to tactical gear to avoid wearing turtlenecks.
"Two first impressions when I put on the Shield gear. One, 'Oh, this is great. I don't have to shave my legs anymore.' Two, 'Hot. It's hot.' It was so warm because it was everything was tucked in, tied in. I was just sweating bullets every single night. So it was like an extra like, it was like a sauna suit you were wearing out there," he said. "We as performers. There's a certain scrutiny that comes with being in your underwear in front of millions of people all the time, and not having to deal with that scrutiny was kind of nice. Just iconic, just an iconic look. The mask was sick. We only got one or two of those uses, unfortunately.
"I mean, the turtleneck was iconic, but I remember immediately going, 'Why are we wearing turtlenecks?' That was the literal first thing is like, 'Okay, by Monday of the next week. We need a new look. We gotta go tactical. We gotta do something else.' I mean, all three of us, me, Roman, Dean, we were all in agreement: Turtlenecks back in the closet, and we gotta go full tactical," he adds. "So we went and kind of did our own reconnaissance, if you will, on new gear for The Shield. The boots were an adjustment, and we had to go through a series of boots to find which one was going to be the lightest. We had to buy, I want to say, like two or three different sets we had to go through because the first ones were given to us. We didn't even know the look when we came with the turtleneck. The first set of combat boots, they were just given to us. Those were heavy. Those were like you're trudging through some forests with those suckers, those you do not want to do anything athletic in those and so we had to find some alternatives that we're going to make moving around in the ring a little bit easier. "
The Shield gear remains an iconic piece of history for all three performers. Occasionally, Seth Rollins will put on the gear to play mind games with Roman Reigns.
Speaking of Seth Rollins' relationship with Roman Reigns, he recently went on record as saying that he believes in match between himself, Roman, and CM Punk has the name value that supersedes the need for special placement on the card at WrestleMania. Read his comments here.
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