"Gave the rub to The Shield" - Legendary commentator credits AEW star for development of popular WWE stable

Current AEW commentator Jim Ross has looked back on a moment in CM Punk's career that often gets forgotten about - the debut and push of The Shield.

Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns made their main roster debuts at Survivor Series 2012 as henchmen for The Straight Edge Superstar and were initially used to ensure that Punk was safe as the WWE Champion.

Since then, all four men have become some of the most successful wrestlers in the business today. While Punk and Ambrose (aka Jon Moxley) are both multi-time AEW World Champions, Rollins and Reigns are two of the top stars of WWE.

Ad Free Shows recently released a retrospective of CM Punk's career done by Conrad Thompson and AEW commentator Jim Ross on Grilling JR. During the show, Ross recalled The Straight Edge Superstar's role in the success of the popular trio.

“[CM] Punk basically gave the endorsement so all those fans that love—were loving Punk and his act and the music, the presentation, the whole nine yards, now they get to—he can give the rub, the rub very important, CM Punk gave the rub to The Shield.” [2:12:38 - 2:12:53]

Ross further highlighted that The Shield benefitted immensely from sharing the screen with Punk:

“If you don’t go back and research it folks, you forget some of these little nuances, and this is not little it’s a big nuance. So The Shield got brought into the game by CM Punk, and they have made the most of their opportunities without a doubt. So I hope those guys don’t forget where they came from in that regard because Punk was instrumental in giving them credibility.” [2:13:43 - 2:14:05]

CM Punk defeated a former member of The Shield at AEW All Out 2022

The more things change, the more things stay the same in professional wrestling. Nearly a decade after debuting as CM Punk's henchman, Jon Moxley recently fought him for the richest prize in All Elite Wrestling.

Punk and Moxley main-evented last Sunday's All Out pay-per-view for the AEW World Championship. The show took place in Punk's hometown of Chicago and ended up being a very hard-hitting affair.

Punk emerged victorious and became the new AEW World Champion. However, it looks like he won't be wrestling anytime soon as he sustained an injury during the match, potentially sidelining him for around eight months.

On top of this, he also stirred up a lot of controversy with his post-show actions, getting into a fight with The Elite and being suspended for his actions. Fans will have to wait and see if and when he returns to the promotion following the incident.

Do you think CM Punk will return to the main event of an AEW pay-per-view? Let us know in the comments section down below.

Please credit "Grilling JR" and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.