on the september 3 episode of "raw", ziggler and mcintyre temporarily formed a stable with braun strowman known as "the dogs of war" to combat the newly-reunited the shield (roman reigns, seth rollins and dean ambrose). later that night, they won the raw tag team championship by defeating the b-team (bo dallas and curtis axel). they then successfully defended their titles at hell in a cell against rollins and ambrose. at the super show-down event, ziggler teamed with mcintyre and strowman in a losing effort to the shield in a six-man tag team match. over the next two weeks, the respective groups faced each other again on "raw", with the dogs of war winning the first match, but losing the latter after ziggler got pinned by ambrose. during both matches, tensions arose between ziggler, mcintyre and strowman, who felt he was carrying the group. after losing the last match, strowman turned on ziggler and attacked him, before being attacked by mcintyre.