The Shield's Final Chapter: Full Report from Moline, Illinois

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/21/the-shields-final-chapter-full-report-from-moline-illinois/

The WWE presented The Shield’s Final Chapter on the WWE Network on Sunday night from Moline, Illinois at the Raw house show from the TaxSlayer Center.

The show featured two matches from the show, headlined by The Shield’s farewell match involving the departing Dean Ambrose.

Michael Cole, Renee Young, and Corey Graves are ringside to call the matches. Young was wearing a custom made Dean Ambrose jean jacket.

Elias was in the ring. He ran down The Shield and is happy Ambrose is leaving but Seth Rollins will continue to run Raw into the ground. He started playing and was interrupted by Finn Balor, who said he wanted to “walk with Elias”. They did a bit where Elias tried to get Balor to sing and Balor sang that Elias sucked and got the audience to participate.

Finn Balor vs. Elias for the Intercontinental title

Elias snapped Balor’s arm on the edge of the apron and attacked it. Elias ran the left shoulder into the turnbuckle. Balor reversed and did the same to Elias. Balor escaped a Fujiwara armbar but was cut off as he started his comeback.

Balor stopped Elias from the apron and executed a sunset flip, it was supposed to be the finish, but Elias’ shoulders must not have been down as the referee wouldn’t count (the camera angle didn’t show the shoulders). Balor improvised with La Magistral cradle and pinned Elias in 6:32.

Elias got his guitar after the loss, he said Balor got lucky and is going to finish his song but was interrupted by The Riott Squad. They said they respect Elias and don’t want a problem they just want to sing along. Liv Morgan suggested they be “The Elias Squad” tonight. They sang terribly and were booed until Bayley’s music played.

Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan vs. Bayley and Ember Moon

They mentioned this is the Riott Squad’s final night together with Liv Morgan moving to SmackDown. Unlike SmackDown on Tuesday, the audience cheered Bayley.

They got the advantage on Bayley, including Morgan striking her from the floor. Logan applied the inverted cloverleaf and Bayley rolled out. Moon received the hot tag and fired up until she was kicked in the face. Morgan tried to assist Riott with a cover and was ejected. Riott was pleading with the referee and turned around and was hit with the Eclipse as Moon pinned Riott at 7:10.

The Shield did an old-style promo with a handheld camera. They discussed creating a legacy and creating a new culture in this place. Tonight, they go out on their terms.

Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose vs. Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley & Baron Corbin

Corbin cut a promo asking if people are expecting a fairy tale ending for The Shield and brought up what he did to Kurt Angle in his final chapter.

Cole explained that Ambrose has chosen not to re-sign with WWE and Young said she wants him to be happy. Seth Rollins is wearing the same vest he wore when the group debuted at the Survivor Series in November 2012.

McIntyre was sent to the floor by Ambrose and hit with a suicide dive. Corbin and Lashley jumped Ambrose on the floor and stomped him. They got the heat on Ambrose in their corner. Ambrose temporarily applied a figure-four onto Corbin and McIntyre came in and raked Ambrose’s eyes to break the hold.

Rollins received the hot tag and attacked Corbin inside the ring as the crowd came alive. He sent McIntyre off the apron and was hit from behind by Corbin to stop his momentum. Reigns tagged in, he dropped Corbin off the apron with a superman punch, hit one to Lashley in the ring and then tagged Ambrose.

Ambrose hit a lunatic lariat and Rollins hit a superkick simultaneously, Reigns speared Lashley, Rollins hit McIntyre with the stomp and Ambrose hit Dirty Deeds to Corbin. The Shield hit the triple powerbomb to Corbin and Rollins pinned him for the win at 14:25 and a strong pop for the finish and was a good house show main event.

The audience chanted, “thank you, Ambrose” and “please don’t go”. Rollins said they tried that one already. Rollins said winning the Universal title was the culmination of 15 years in the industry and thanked his family in the crowd and the people. He said this title would not be possible without Reigns and Ambrose, he said he loved them, and The Shield and they hugged.

Ambrose took the microphone. He told the people if they work hard, they can do whatever they want just like Seth Rollins. He said Roman Reigns overcame something no one can imagine. He gave a motivational speech about giving the middle finger to those that say you can’t do something and that’s what The Shield is all about. They ended the show with one final fist.

Nice of wwe to give ambrose one last proper send off before he leave wwe. If the reports are true, this might be the last we see of ambrose for a while since he want to retire from wrestling and just relax for a while.

If that’s true, the guy deserves a break after all the hard work he put in during is career. He was the workhorse of wwe for so many years and never took time off outside of when he got injured and the few weeks he took off for filming his movie. So more then anybody else, he deserve to rest and do nothing in wrestling for a whiele.

I doubt this is the end of ambrose in wwe and he will return when he’s good and ready.

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I like the concept of televising bits and pieces from house shows on the Network every once in a while. A lot of these smaller towns like Moline probably don’t get TV tapings regularly, and it helps a smaller town house show feel a little more special.

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Really? Seems different from your take on Ambrose earlier this year - PWTorch - Dean Ambrose Leaving WWE in April - #4 by Deezy

and i still believe that the way he was booked was partly his fault as he was a high enough star that he could have had more input into his character instead of just coasting and be the good little company guy.

The fact that i think that doesn’T change the fact that he still was the workhorse of the company and i respect the hell out of him for all he did for WWE and i truly believe that if somebody needed to take a well deserve break from Wrestling it’s Dean Ambrose.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I’ve thought the WWE Network should be doing all along. Wrestling matches (not Ride Along or whatever other show) that really are EXTRA for the subscribers. Nothing too heavy in storyline (though I think they should do actual “important” stuff on shows like this every so often), just extra wrestling to watch at your leisure. I assume it’s not too much added expense (relatively) to do this at an already-booked live event, so why not?

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