The 2014 Extreme Rules was the sixth annual Extreme Rules professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on May 4, 2014, at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and was the first Extreme Rules event to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February. The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various hardcore-based matches. It was also the first major WWE event following the death of The Ultimate Warrior.

The Shield was a professional wrestling stable in WWE that consisted of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins. Their original characters were mercenaries for CM Punk; however, they quickly became mainstay main-event names. The group debuted on November 18, 2012 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The Shield was a dominant force in six-man tag team matches with an undefeated televised streak lasting from December 2012 to May 2013, during which they scored a victory at WrestleMania 29. In May 2013 at Extreme Rules, all three members of The Shield won a championship, with Ambrose winning the United States Championship while Rollins and Reigns captured the WWE Tag Team Championship. Rollins and Reigns were WWE Tag Team Champions until October 2013, and Ambrose was United States Champion until May 2014, which was a record reign for the WWE version of the championship. As a Shield member, Reigns gained prominence by setting and equaling elimination records at the 2013 Survivor Series and the 2014 Royal Rumble events.