In November 2012, Ambrose made his main roster debut at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, as they delivered a triple powerbomb through an announce table to Ryback during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, allowing CM Punk to pin John Cena and retain the title. The trio declared themselves The Shield and vowed to rally against "injustice", while they denied working for Punk, even though The Shield would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries, including Ryback and the WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane). This led to a six-man Tables, Ladders and Chairs match being set up for the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view event on December 16, where Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No and Ryback in their debut match. The Shield continued to aid Punk after TLC, both on Raw and at the Royal Rumble in January 2013. The night after the Royal Rumble it was revealed through footage that Punk and his manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for them all along. The Shield then quietly ended their association with Punk while a feud with John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus led to a six-man tag match on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. The Shield had their first match on Raw the following night, where they defeated Chris Jericho, Ryback and Sheamus. They continued to feud with Sheamus, who formed an alliance with Randy Orton and Big Show to face off The Shield at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, where The Shield defeated the trio in their first WrestleMania match. The following night on Raw, The Shield attempted to attack The Undertaker, but were stopped by Team Hell No. This set up a six-man tag team match on the April 22 episode of Raw, where The Shield emerged victorious. Four days later on SmackDown, Ambrose made his singles debut against The Undertaker and lost by submission, but immediately after which The Shield attacked Undertaker and performed a triple-powerbomb on him through the announce table. On the April 29 episode of Raw, The Shield defeated Team Hell No and WWE Champion John Cena in a six-man tag team match. Later that week, Ambrose picked up his first singles victory by defeating Kane on SmackDown.