The Shield's Last Chapter Review - April 21, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor def. Elias

Elias did his usual shtick before the bout and Balor even joined in at one point. Their match wasn't anything out of the ordinary as a result of being only six minutes in length. The finish coming across as botched didn't help matters, either. This would have been the perfect time for Balor to drop to the Intercontinental Championship to a Raw wrestler, but since that didn't happen, I guess that all but confirms that Samoa Joe and the United States Championship are Raw bound.

Bayley and Ember Moon def. The Riott Squad

This marked The Riott Squad's final appearance as a unit on WWE TV with Liv Morgan being sent packing to SmackDown Live in the Superstar Shake-up, so it was weird that Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan were the ones who teamed up and Morgan wasn't involved at all. The match itself was perfectly fine but hardly worth writing home about. Bayley and Moon made for a good team, but I'd much rather see them showcased in singles competition on SmackDown.

The Shield def. Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley

Yes, WWE did advertise the return of The Shield at Fastlane as their last match together, but obviously, that was not the case. I don't blame WWE for wanting to air this on WWE Network to get the most out of Dean Ambrose before he leaves, but that Fastlane main event was way better than this and was far more exciting. Then again, I'm not sure what I expected considering this was a house show taped for television and it certainly felt that way. At least the group went out on a high note with their post-match promos. Goodbye, Dean (for now).

Overall Show

I thought this live special would solely consist of The Shield's swan song, but we ended up getting two more matches to boot. Unfortunately, neither of them were particularly memorable and, to be honest, did not need to happen (or at least be included on this WWE Network event). I would have been completely content with just the Shield match airing, and even that wasn't too special from an in-ring standpoint outside of it apparently being Ambrose's official farewell from WWE. Unless you're the world's biggest Shield fan, there's no reason to waste an hour watching this show. Maybe check out the highlights of what The Shield said afterward, but that's about it.