The group was formed on November 18, 2012, at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, when Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns interfered in the main event, a triple threat match between champion CM Punk, John Cena and Ryback for the WWE Championship. They powerbombed Ryback through the announce table, allowing Punk to pin Cena to win the match and retain his title.
The group would reveal that it was called "The Shield" and vowed to rally against "injustice" in the WWE. Despite claiming that they were not working for CM Punk, over the next few weeks of Raw, they would continually attack Punk's adversaries, such as Ryback, The Miz and WWE Tag Team Champion Kane (as well as his partner, Daniel Bryan, who had attempted to save Kane). They also attacked Randy Orton after he defeated Brad Maddox; Maddox was the referee who helped Punk defeat Ryback by attacking Ryback during their Hell in a Cell match for the WWE Championship. This led to a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match being set up for the TLC PPV pitting the Shield against Ryback and Team Hell No (Kane and Bryan). They were victorious in this match.
After TLC, despite continuing to attack Punk's and Maddox's adversaries such as Ric Flair, Brodus Clay, and Sheamus, the Shield soon expanded their ambushes to other faces, such as Mick Foley and Ricardo Rodriguez. The Shield's attacks were also used to write off wrestlers from television via injury angles, such as Randy Orton and Sin Cara, who were already suffering from legitimate injuries.
During the January 2, 2013 NXT, which was taped on December 6, 2012, the Shield made their first appearance in NXT, though Reigns and Rollins had already wrestled there before and Rollins was the inaugural NXT Champion. Rollins defended his title against Corey Graves; as Graves was about to win the match, Ambrose and Reigns attacked him to cause a disqualification so that Rollins retained his title. The Shield then fended off the entire NXT locker room but retreated from Big E Langston. On the January 9 NXT taped on the same date as the previous episode, Rollins faced Langston in a no disqualification title match. The NXT locker room neutralized the other Shield members, and Langston defeated Rollins to win the title.
On the January 7 Raw, the Shield once again aided CM Punk by attacking Ryback during their Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the WWE Championship, which resulted in Punk retaining his title. On January 21, during the last Raw before the 2013 Royal Rumble, the Shield triple-powerbombed The Rock, Punk's WWE Championship contender at the event, resulting in Vince McMahon declaring that their interference in the title match would result in Punk being stripped of the title. Four days later on SmackDown, Punk denied an alliance with the Shield before calling them out and informing them that he did not want them to interfere in his upcoming title match. However, during Punk's title match at the Royal Rumble, a blackout occurred and The Rock was attacked by the Shield in the darkness, leading to Punk pinning The Rock and retaining his title. The match was later restarted by McMahon with The Rock winning the WWE Championship.
The following night on Raw, the Shield attacked John Cena; Sheamus and Ryback suffered the same fate when they attempted to save Cena. Later in the show, it was revealed through footage played by Vince McMahon that Punk's manager Paul Heyman had been paying the Shield and Brad Maddox to work for him all along. The next week on Raw, while calling out the Shield, Maddox revealed that he was the one who gave McMahon the footage. The Shield then attacked Maddox, but were forced to battle due to an attack by Cena, Ryback, and Sheamus. The Shield justified their feud with the trio due to a "decade of injustice" caused by Cena creating an environment where any wrestler would not face consequences for his actions, and whose mentality they felt had spread to other wrestlers like Ryback and Sheamus. This set up a six-man tag team match on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. The Shield had their first Raw match the following night, where they defeated Ryback, Sheamus, and Chris Jericho.
Sheamus then formed an alliance with Randy Orton to feud with the Shield. On the March 1 SmackDown, while attacking Orton during his match with Big Show, the Shield inadvertently provoked Show into attacking them; the Shield thus started a feud with Show as well. On the March 11 Raw, the Shield's first singles match occurred when Rollins faced Show; Show won via disqualification as the Shield interfered and beat him down. Despite twice helping Orton and Sheamus to fend off the Shield, Show would turn on the duo immediately after. The Shield then challenged Orton and Sheamus to find a partner and have a match with them at WrestleMania 29. Show volunteered, but Orton and Sheamus chose Ryback as their partner. Meanwhile, Mark Henry's distraction of Ryback resulted in the Shield conducting a successful assault on Ryback, resulting in Ryback being inserted into a WrestleMania match against Henry. Without a partner, Orton and Sheamus eventually accepted Show's offer to take on a common enemy despite their mistrust of him. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, the Shield took advantage of their opponents' inability to work together to win in their WrestleMania debut.
The following night on Raw, the group attempted to attack The Undertaker, but were ultimately forced to retreat by Team Hell No. On the April 22 Raw, the Shield faced and defeated the combination of The Brothers of Destruction and Team Hell No (Undertaker, Kane and Bryan). Four days later on SmackDown, Ambrose made his singles debut against Undertaker but lost via submission, after which the Shield attacked Undertaker and triple-powerbombed him through the announcer's table. Three days later on Raw, they defeated Team Hell No and WWE Champion John Cena in a six-man tag team match with Reigns pinning Cena for the win. Ambrose then started a feud with WWE United States Champion Kofi Kingston after pinning him in a six-man tag team match also involving the Usos. On the May 13 Raw, The Shield's undefeated streak in televised six man tag team matches ended in a disqualification loss in an elimination match against Cena, Kane and Bryan. With Kane and Bryan eliminated, Cena pinned Rollins and then Reigns was disqualified. Ambrose was disqualified when Reigns and Rollins attacked Cena.
On May 19 at Extreme Rules, Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston to become the new United States Champion. Later that night, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No to become the WWE Tag Team Champions. Ambrose faced Kingston on the May 24 SmackDown in a rematch for the title, and retained when Reigns and Rollins interfered causing a disqualification. Ambrose defeated Kingston in yet another rematch for the title three days later on Raw. That same night, Rollins and Reigns retained their tag titles in a rematch for the titles against Team Hell No. On the June 14 SmackDown, the Shield's unpinned/unsubmitted streak in televised six-man tag team matches came to an end at the hands of Team Hell No and Randy Orton, when Daniel Bryan submitted Rollins. Three days later at WWE Payback, Ambrose defeated Kane via count-out to retain the United States Championship while Reigns and Rollins defeated Bryan and Orton to retain their tag team titles. The following night on Raw, Ambrose had a title rematch against Kane and retained after the Reigns and Rollins got Ambrose disqualified.
After the Shield attacked Christian and the Usos became the number one contender to the WWE Tag Team Championships, the Shield were defeated by them on the June 28 SmackDown. On July 14, during the Money in the Bank pre-show, Reigns and Rollins defeated the Usos to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. Later on in the pay-per-view, they interfered in Ambrose's World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match, but the Usos in turn attacked Reigns and Rollins and Ambrose failed to win the match. The Shield then began a feud with Mark Henry, defeating Henry and the Usos in two six-man tag team matches, but losing to the team of Henry, Big Show and Rob Van Dam. Ambrose retained his championship via disqualification against Van Dam at SummerSlam.
The following night on Raw, the Shield began working for chief operating officer Triple H. They would aid WWE Champion and "the face of the WWE" Randy Orton against his number one contender, Daniel Bryan, while also attacking wrestlers like Big Show and Dolph Ziggler for speaking out against Triple H's regime. At Night of Champions, the Shield enjoyed successful title defenses when Ambrose defeated Ziggler while Reigns and Rollins defeated the Prime Time Players. At WWE Battleground, a fired Cody Rhodes and Goldust earned their jobs back by beating Rollins and Reigns in a non-title match. On the October 14 Raw, Rollins and Reigns faced the Rhodes brothers again with the tag titles on the line in a no disqualification match; the Shield lost the tag titles after an attack by Big Show. Two days later on Main Event, Ambrose successfully retained his title against Ziggler. At Hell in a Cell, Rollins and Reigns lost a three-way tag match for the tag titles against the Rhodes brothers and the Usos, while Ambrose retained his championship despite a count-out loss to Big E Langston.
The first seeds of dissension were sown in the Shield (especially between Ambrose and Reigns) with Ambrose's boasting of being the only member left with a championship, but from then on Ambrose was frequently pinned during the Shield's matches. At Survivor Series, the Shield teamed with The Real Americans (Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro) to beat the team of Rey Mysterio, the Rhodes brothers and the Usos; Ambrose was the first man eliminated, Rollins (with one elimination) was the fourth man eliminated for his team and Reigns was the Sole Survivor after eliminating four opponents.
Next, CM Punk's criticism of Triple H earned him an attack by the Shield, but Punk tasted revenge at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chair when he overcame the Shield in a handicap match after Ambrose received a Reigns spear aimed for Punk. Going into 2014, Punk's taunts increased tension between the Shield members, and Reigns emerged as the only Shield member to defeat Punk in a singles match, albeit with Ambrose's interference. All three members of the Shield competed in the 2014 Royal Rumble Match. Late in the match, Ambrose tried to eliminate Reigns, who retaliated by eliminating both Ambrose and Rollins. Reigns eventually finished as runner-up in the match while setting a new record for most eliminations in a single Rumble with 12; Ambrose and Rollins scored three eliminations each, and Rollins spent the second longest amount of time in the match.
On the next Raw on 27 January 2014, the Shield faced Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and John Cena for the chance to enter the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and were denied that opportunity when the Wyatt Family attacked their opponents, causing the Shield to lose via disqualification. The Shield vowed revenge, so a match was set up between them and the Wyatt Family at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. On the 10 February episode of Raw, Ambrose's open challenge for his title was answered by Mark Henry, in which Ambrose only retained his title upon disqualification due to the Shield's interference; Reigns continued his tension with Ambrose by defeating Henry without interference on the next Raw. With both the Shield and the Wyatt Family being heel (villainous) teams, WWE positioned the Shield as the team the audience should root for when the Shield was willing to engage in a confrontation with the Wyatt Family, which retreated instead. At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, the Shield lost to the Wyatt Family; during the match, Ambrose and Bray Wyatt brawled into the crowd, but Wyatt returned to the ring with no sign of Ambrose, which caused Rollins and Reigns to be outnumbered and overwhelmed. On the March 3 Raw, the Shield lost a rematch with the Wyatt Family when the Shield's poor teamwork led to Rollins walking out during the match; Rollins claimed that he had enough of being the glue holding the group together.
On the March 7 SmackDown, the members of the Shield met in the ring to clear the air on their disharmony. Rollins said that his actions achieved his purpose of getting Ambrose and Reigns to finally see eye-to-eye. After Ambrose and Rollins hit each other, the trio reconciled.
The Shield's next feud was against Kane, who was now acting as 'Director of Operations' for the Authority. Kane had ordered the Shield to attack commentator Jerry Lawler on the March 17 episode of Raw, however the Shield attacked Kane instead, thus turning face (assuming heroic characters). In retaliation, Kane and the New Age Outlaws attacked the Shield on the March 21 episode of SmackDown while the group was already being double-teamed by RybAxel (Ryback and Curtis Axel) and the Real Americans after an inconclusive fatal-four-way match meant to determine the contenders for the WWE Tag Team Championship. This set up a match pitting the Shield against Kane and the Outlaws at WrestleMania XXX, which the Shield won quickly and decisively.
The next night on the post-WrestleMania Raw, Kane inadvertently revealed that Triple H masterminded the attack on the Shield on the previous month's SmackDown. As a result, when Triple H faced WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan in a title match after Bryan was attacked by Kane, Randy Orton and Batista, the Shield interrupted the match to turn on Triple H, chasing the other wrestlers away to protect Bryan. The Shield finally defeated The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag match on the April 8 episode of Main Event. On the April 14 episode of Raw, Triple H forced the Shield to wrestle an 11-on-3 handicap match which ended in a no contest and left the Shield outnumbered and beaten down. The Shield were then further attacked by Triple H, Orton and Batista, who reformed the group Evolution. Due to wrestle another 11-on-3 main event on April 25, the Shield attacked six of their opponents throughout SmackDown before the match and defeated the remaining five in the handicap match. On the next SmackDown, Ambrose retained his title in a four-way match against Alberto Del Rio, Curtis Axel and Ryback.
At the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, the Shield defeated Evolution. The next night on Raw, Ambrose was forced to defend his title in a 20-man battle royal with Rollins and Reigns were not part of the match. Ambrose survived until the final two but lost to Sheamus, ending Ambrose's record reign of the WWE United States Championship at 351 days. A rematch between the Shield and Evolution was arranged for Payback, in which The Shield won yet again. However, Seth Rollins turned on the group the next night on Raw, leaving the Shield and turning heel in the process. On the following Raw, Rollins described his heel turn as severing a business relationship and that he had destroyed "his own creation" to further his own interests.[104] Later that night, Ambrose and Reigns (still labelled as the Shield) teamed up with John Cena to defeat the Wyatt Family. Later in the week on SmackDown, Reigns fought Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett to a no-contest due to interference from 3MB, and Ambrose fought Bray Wyatt for a spot in the 2014 Money in the Bank ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but lost after being distracted by Rollins.