The Shield was one of the most successful factions in WWE history, but if CM Punk's ideas had played out, the group would have been different.

Even before his polarizing behavior leading up to and immediately after AEW All Out, CM Punk was a lightning rod for controversy, given his vocal temperament and strong will. Indeed, a solid decade before he wrestled for AEW, Punk was a WWE headliner that included an over-year-long run as world champion, which included a heel turn and pairing with Paul Heyman.

Related: 5 Best Title Reigns Of CM Punk's Career (& 5 Worst) Punk discussed this period along with plenty of other elements of his WWE tenure in a now-infamous visit to Colt Cabana’s podcast before their friendship had a falling out. One of the more interesting tidbits that emerged during that conversation was the original plans for The Shield, which would have made them more integrally involved with Punk than they were in practice, in addition to having a slightly different lineup.

The way things played out in reality for The Shield were that Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose debuted at Survivor Series 2012. They gave CM Punk a major assist in retaining the WWE Championship over John Cena and Ryback at that event. While they’d soon cut promos and work matches out on their own, they didn’t move too far from Punk’s orbit for a bit, as they also interfered on his behalf against The Rock at the Royal Rumble 2013 PPV. The narrative was that The Shield were mercenaries for hire whom Punk and Paul Heyman had paid to protect his title reign.

In time, Punk would turn face and wind up a rival to the young faction. He actually defeated them in a three-on-one handicap match at TLC 2013. That’s a particularly interesting bit of creative in hindsight as WWE wound up keeping The Shield together rather than delivering on a hinted-at breakup, including giving them a dominant win over Kane and The New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania 30 and having some of their best matches opposite The Wyatt Family and a reunited Evolution in the spring. Meanwhile, Punk wound up walking out on WWE a month and a half after single-handedly beating the three future world champions.

In contrast to how things played out, Punk discussed on The Art of Wrestling (h/t Pro Wrestling Stories) that he had actually pitched the idea of The Shield. He claimed WWE wanted to build a faction with him as the leader and The Big Show and Daniel Bryan in the group; the name Seth Rollins got thrown into the mix, too. Punk wanted a group more focused on fresh talent and pitched Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Kassius Ohno. The powers that be were amenable of the idea, but wanted Roman Reigns in the third spot over Ohno.

In Punk’s version of the story, the trio would sit under his learning tree backstage while helping his heel character on air, before ultimately becoming opponents for him. Plans changed without his input on it, though, and Punk suggested Triple H later took credit for the Shield concept.

It seems reasonably credible that CM Punk did set the wheels in motion for what became The Shield, though it’s difficult to tell where one idea starts and another ends and if WWE may have had an idea along the lines of this group and simply merged them into what Punk pitched. Regardless, this would be far from the only time plans changed around the faction.

Related: WWE: 10 Weird Shield Moments We Completely Forgot About In an interview with Steve Austin for the WWE Network, when Dean Ambrose was still a part of WWE, he shared that one early plan for the Shield gimmick was to include them carrying literal clear shields to the ring with them, in the style of what riot police might use. The gear was too awkward to really work, and mercifully the idea wound up abandoned. Additionally, as attested to earlier, a variety of accounts have suggested the group was intended to split up coming out of TLC 2013 only to stick together for the half-year to follow.

The first Shield reunion got undermined by real life issues for Roman Reigns that forced Kurt Angle to take his place at TLC 2017. Down the road, Ambrose was famously charged with saying some very disrespectful things about Roman Reigns while he was out battling leukemia, to fuel Ambrose’s heel run opposite Seth Rollins, but refused to go through with it.

All of these changes speak to the volatile nature of plans in pro wrestling, subject to company leadership, the talents themselves, and real life happenstance. The Shield still goes down as one of WWE’s best groups ever, but that doesn’t mean much went according to plan.

It’s interesting to imagine a different version of The Shield that functioned under CM Punk’s leadership and how that may have impacted the fates of everyone involved. In the end, the truest losing party from Punk not getting everything he wanted would have to be Kassius Ohno. He probably wouldn’t have achieved the same star status as the actual Shield members, but nonetheless likley would have enjoyed significant WWE career growth, in contrast to never making it out of the developmental system, onto the main roster.

Michael Chin is a writer based in Las Vegas, He writes about pro wrestling for The Sportster and has followed WWE and other promotions for over 30 years. He's the author of the wrestling book, The Long Way Home. Follow him on Twitter @miketchin.