20 Best WWE Matches Of 2014 - 7

7. The S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Evolution (Extreme Rules)

Funny, if you were watching the first Raw after WrestleMania, you might have thought that the night was going to end with merely a backstage appearance from Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns.  Daniel Bryan was set to defend the WWE Championship with odds horribly stacked against him in the night’s main-event.  Just when it seemed bleakest for the new titleholder….Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta: The SHIELD.  The destructive trio proceeded to decimate Trips, Randy Orton, and Dave Batista (among others), igniting an unexpected clash between titanic stables from two eras and allowing the WrestleMania momentum to continue for a little while longer.

The match itself was a classic showdown that added depth to the list of 2014’s finest outings.  Though wrestled in a different style than many of the Shield’s other critically acclaimed six-man tag matches, it was certainly of no lesser quality.  Oddly, it devolved into an Attitude Era-style scrap, the pinnacle moment of which took place right outside one of the tunnels to usher general ticket holders into the lower bowl of arena seats.  Seth Rollins ascended to the top of the tunnel, ala Jeff Hardy at Royal Rumble 2000, and death-defyingly leaped to wipe out two-thirds of the match participants.  Reigns finished off Batista to earn the Shield the victory.

For Rollins, Reigns, and Ambrose, it was a legacy-solidifying match.  JBL had, as far back as the previous fall, referred to them as the greatest faction of all-time.  Back then, that was laughable.  By the time they had been the catalysts for Evolution to reform for a series of matches against them, it was no longer out of the question to consider them in higher historical regard.