Was Dean Ambrose’s Heel Turn In Poor Taste?

Dean Ambrose’s heel turn was WWE’s golden egg that they had sat on for a very long time. Since his return, most fans have been anticipating Dean to suddenly turn heel on his Shield bros, with WWE hinting towards the event every chance they got. It was almost as if Dean couldn’t be seen standing behind anyone without Michael Cole having an aneurysm.

Nevertheless, here we are, it’s finally happened. The Lunatic Fringe is now a full-fledged villain.

After capturing the Raw Tag Team Championship from Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre on Raw this week, Dean viciously attacked Seth after what was a pretty heart-wrenching night for The Shield. For those of you who haven’t heard, Roman Reigns has officially relinquished the Universal Championship and temporarily taken a step away from WWE to fight leukaemia, a fight that we wish him all the best in. Seth and Dean winning the tag titles in honour of Roman was a nice little pick-me-up for fans of the trio, however, that was of course short-lived.

As with everything in professional wrestling, fans are split on whether this was ultimately a good decision or not. Despite lusting over the idea of Ambrose turning on Seth for almost a year now, the audience has been quick to form both positive and negative opinions on the turn, was it poorly timed or was it one of the best heel turns we’ve seen since our lord and saviour, Tommaso Ciampa?

Nuclear heat is rare these days, with very few heels managing to master the art of causing a semi-scale riot. The aforementioned NXT Champion has come the closest in recent memory, however that feat may soon be surpassed by Dean Ambrose. Dean’s character is notorious for pushing the boundaries of pro wrestling, and been a downright despicable heel in the past. WWE has yet to really tap into the potential of his sadistic side, so having him start his journey as an antagonist on the same episode as Roman’s departure is a fantastic start.

Naturally, fans are on the side of The Shield after the devastating news, so seeing Dean purposefully implode his friendship with Seth so soon after Roman’s announcement was a massive slap in the face to their fans.

Roman’s swift exit may indeed be the perfect catalyst for Dean’s heel character. Now that Reigns is out of the picture, and with a space available for a new face of the company, Ambrose isn’t going to take a back seat to the likes of Seth Rollins. Perhaps the emotional trauma of Roman’s news has left Dean tapping into that ‘lunacy’ that WWE keep pushing.

However they choose to spin this, I think this is going to get Dean over massively, but they need to be careful that he doesn’t fall into a role that fans can relate to. Ambrose needs to maintain that nuclear heat that he managed to achieve in the closing moments of this week’s episode. WWE programming is sorely missing a heel that the crowd genuinely hate, as much as I love(d) Dean prior to this turn, I want to learn to hate his guts. It makes wrestling more fun when you can pick a side and feel a sense of justification when the babyface defeats them.

Ideally, both Dean and Seth could hold down the fort with a subtle, ongoing rivalry until Reigns’ return. Having Ambrose constantly take jabs at The Shield and how he exploited Roman’s moment to get him to the top would keep him hot enough for when Reigns eventually does return down the line. The story told between all three of these men from this point on could be one of the greatest of all time if played out correctly. For Roman to eventually return, silence Ambrose, and reclaim his spot would be one of the most heartwarming journeys.

There is of course the flip-side to this argument, that perhaps WWE were a little too hasty with this turn and that it’s come across as distasteful. Roman’s battle with cancer is something that nobody saw coming, a rare case of news managing to be kept under wraps. For Roman Reigns to address the news and the crowd out of character is something that shouldn’t be warped into kayfabe. It almost makes a mockery of what he’s having to go through, as if it’s a means to an end for WWE.

Granted, WWE need to make the best of a very unfortunate situation. At the end of the day, Roman is an integral part of Monday Night Raw, and without him in the picture, many of creative’s plans and narratives are going to fall to pieces. Therefore, they need something huge to help move on from this. Braun Strowman is set to battle Brock Lesnar for the vacant Universal Championship and The Shield are being forced to disband once again. Both are ideal scenarios for Raw, phasing out Reigns and putting the focus on other names a little sooner than they anticipated.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel like this is all a little forced. Perhaps Dean and Seth could have lasted another week or two riding on the high of winning the tag titles. This would allow Reigns fans to have their time to accept the news and celebrate his career thus far, before suddenly moving onto the next chapter in The Shield’s story. It seems as if WWE want to quickly gloss over what’s happened and forget about Roman Reigns entirely. I’m sure that none of this would have gone ahead without Reigns’ say, but it’s hard to look over the grim timing.

It’ll be interesting to see which direction WWE choose to take this storyline and Dean Ambrose’s character next week. No matter what brought Raw to your attention this week, you can’t deny that it has people talking and it has your investment. This could quite possibly lead to the creation of one of the best heel characters of our generation, I for one am very excited to see if the nuclear heat on Dean can be maintained over the coming weeks.

Again, we wish Roman all the best for his next fight.