By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

The following contains SPOILERS for Friday's Smackdown.

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At Tuesday night's Smackdown TV taping for Friday's episode, WWE ended The Shield's unpinned/unsubmitted streak in televised six-man tag matches.

The wrestler to end to the streak was Daniel Bryan, who submitted Seth Rollins to secure the victory in a match with Randy Orton and Kane as his tag partners. The idea was to set up Shield's titles in jeopardy at the Payback PPV on Sunday, as well as give Bryan another strong showcase moment during his hot-streak.

The following is Analysis of the potential ramifications of WWE's decision to end The Shield's streak this week on Smackdown.

Scenario #1 - WWE simply went with the Even-Steven formula booking of having the wrestlers holding second-tier titles lose on the TV show before a PPV, which seems beneath The Shield. The idea is to make it seem like the faces have a good shot of winning on Sunday and the heels are vulnerable. If this is the case, this was the concern when WWE put the U.S. Title and Tag Titles on The Shield, even if Shield are more protected than the likes of Wade Barrett and will likely win on Sunday.

Scenario #2 - The Shield's loss, coupled with two losses and one No Contest in singles matches on Monday's Raw, will lead to Shield becoming more vicious and ruthless than ever before. Perhaps WWE views this is as an opportunity to refresh Shield by getting the first loss out of the way to begin a new streak and return the group to their roots causing havoc.

Scenario #3 - WWE will slowly begin breaking away The Shield, which seems too pre-mature at this point when there is considerable equity built up in the group. This is the least desirable of the scenarios.

Scenario #4 - WWE is set to push Daniel Bryan to the top right now. After nine months of The Shield keeping a clean sheet in televised six-man tag matches, Bryan scoring a clean fall on The Shield is about as impressive of a victory as can be obtained on WWE television. A potential set of circumstances would be Ryback winning the WWE Title from John Cena at Payback, Cena losing a re-match, and Daniel Bryan winning the WWE Title from Ryback. This seems unlikely, but there's never been a better time to pull the trigger on Bryan as WWE champion right now.

Time will tell what WWE ends up doing spring-boarding off the Smackdown main event heading into Payback and the dog days of summer.

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