The WWE has assembled several villainous factions to date, but only a few have been as successful as the team of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose (now Jon Moxley in AEW), known as The Shield. From 2012 to 2019, the trio entertained WWE fans with several engaging segments and in-ring clashes before moving on to become individual stars.
Rollins, Reigns, and Moxley have currently established themselves as massive stars in the wrestling community. However, it seems like the WWE has also found the next Shield, as the NXT team, OTM (Out The Mud), is looking set to achieve similar heights.
So here’s more about this NXT faction, including a look at its members and its run in the WWE, to understand why they are being compared to The Shield.
OTM: Members, WWE History, and Similarities With the Shield
The OTM stable currently consists of four wrestlers: Lucien Prince, Bronco Nima, and Jaida Parker. However, only two of them, Prince and Nima, actively compete in matches. Parker has also taken to the ring as a part of the team on several occasions, but she mainly plays the sidekick of the faction.
The team’s origin dates back to 2023, with Prince and Nima being its original members. The former WWE star Scrypts also joined OTM in July 2023. However, he had to end his partnership with the team in less than a year, as the WWE released him in May 2024.
OTM has delivered a plethora of exciting showdowns, but they haven’t been able to win a title to date. The closest the faction came to winning a championship was when they took on Nathan Frazer and Axiom for the NXT Tag Team Championship in January 2025.
Prince and Nima locked horns twice with the then-champions, Axiom & Nathan Frazer, in January 2025. However, they lost both matches and haven’t received another title shot to date. Besides their in-ring matches, OTM also play the heels effectively by launching surprise attacks on NXT wrestlers, like The Shield did.
OTM went on a hiatus after their January 18 match against Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura. Their return to the ring during the October 14 episode of NXT reminded fans of The Shield as they attacked all three teams of the ongoing triple threat tag team match.
However, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it’s still early days for OTM. They need to continue delivering exciting segments like the one featuring their return.
How can OTM become an effective reincarnation of The Shield?
NXT fans have already witnessed how the OTM members, Prince and Nima, can play the heels effectively like The Shield did. Their pattern of launching sudden attacks on their adversaries also resembles The Shield’s working principle to a large extent.
However, several fans might find it hard to perceive OTM as the next Shield since it lacks a third member. Price and Nima’s combination may be as good as The Shield. Still, the massive current statures of The Shield members (Rollins, Reigns, and Moxley) are expected to highlight the difference in numbers between the two factions, reducing OTM’s credibility as the next Shield.
Fans remember The Shield as a wrecking force that could appear at any WWE event, regardless of the ongoing match or wrestler involved. Their unpredictability eliminated the association of a manager with the team.
OTM has also shown up at several unpredictable junctures to date. However, associating Parker with the team, as a sidekick, reduces the faction’s unpredictability and the ‘bad-guy’ aura. What OTM needs to become the next Shield is an actively wrestling third member, instead of Parker’s part-time involvement in the team’s in-ring clashes.
What else do you feel OTM needs to do better to establish themselves as the Next Shield? Let us know in the comments below.
