Rollins says the original Shield break-up was a complete surprise

“It was thrust upon us very quickly. I don’t know if that story (has) been told or not, but we were not prepared so well for the break up – ‘Yeah, you’re going this way, you’re going this way, you’re going that way’ sort of thing. Well, no, (they did not want to break up) we weren’t ready for it. We thought we had a big babyface run in us, which is what we just started. We had two months with Evolution, having a couple of six-mans. We were like, ‘Alright, let’s go! This is the idea we have to kind of push ourselves in that direction’ and they were like, ‘No! We need three single’s stars and we need them right now.’ And I was like, ‘Well, if it’s going to be anybody, (there is) no better time than when we were on top of the world, so it worked really well and I was hesitant at first because I didn’t really see it that way, myself as the bad guy of the group. But once it was kind of laid out and the ball started rolling in my head, I was like, ‘Okay, this is definitely something I can slide into’ and it worked out quite well.”

Source: Sam Roberts’ Wrestling Podcast