Weekend Wristlock: Dissecting the Dean Ambrose Heel Turn

Oh boy, it finally happened: Dean Ambrose retaliated the anger he's held in for Seth Rollins this past Monday on Raw. This heel turn has been a long time coming, and telegraphed over the last month or so.

There are many different opinions on this betrayal, and I'm going to express mine throughout this piece. Along with that, we will also be looking at this storyline from the buildup, impact on the current product, and potential avenues moving forward.

Everybody knows about the summer of 2014, when Seth Rollins originally broke up The Shield. It was undoubtedly a historic moment, which was beautifully done. This lead to a fantastic rivalry between Rollins and Ambrose, which saw the Lunatic Fringe preventing Rollins from cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase every chance he got (until The Architect managed to enter the main event of Wrestlemania 31).

Later that year, Seth turned face amid a return from a knee injury. He tried to earn back the trust from his former brother, who was understandably hesitant to trust him again. Eventually, Ambrose signified their reunited team, with a Shield fist bump, which was another great moment.

During their run as a team (including a few months as Raw tag team champions), Dean suffered a serious triceps injury, which put him on the shelf for 8 months, until his return before Summerslam this August.

Following Dean Ambrose's return, his immediate moves saw him help Seth Rollins even the odds with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, and save Shield brother Roman Reigns from a Money in the Bank cash-in attempt by Braun Strowman, effectively reuniting the faction.

During the 3 on 3 feud between The Shield and Strowman with "The Dogs of War", the latter three brought up these facts, stating that Ambrose is being used, and that Reigns and Rollins never cared about him. At first it didn't seem to be working, but over the next few weeks, Ambrose became more and more distant from his brothers.

After an emotional start to Raw, where Universal champion Roman Reigns announced he has leukemia and had to forfeit the title, Seth and Dean came out to support their Shield brother. It was a very real and very shocking moment (get well soon, Roman), which only served to bring the three even closer... or so we thought.

The duo main evented the evening and defeated Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre for the Raw tag team titles, in a very good match. It seemed like we were going to get a feel-good ending to a show with a depressing start.

After celebrating with the titles, Ambrose threw everything out the window. He dropped his belt, and hit Rollins with Dirty Deeds out of nowhere. This moment threw the crowd into a frenzy, as they didn't know how to react. After beating on him some more, Ambrose started shouting "say it again!" (referring to last week, when Seth jokingly called him a lunatic) before tossing him out of the ring.

Dean started throwing his former brother's titles at him, implying that he cares more about championships than their friendship. Ambrose put the exclamation point with another Dirty Deeds, but this time on the exposed concrete floor, before walking out through the crowd.

Obviously Seth had this coming in a way, but it's safe to say The Shield is officially done for good. It looks like these two are going to be feuding in a series of chaotic matches and brawls, possibly for the Intercontinental title. It's a fresh feud, since they haven't fought in years (and that was a great rivalry). Not to mention the face/heel dynamic will be flipped. As great as Seth was as a heel, he seems to be even better as a face. Dean was okay as a face in my opinion, but his bread is buttered as an unpredictable and unsympathetic heel.

Hopefully this eventually leads to a Universal championship feud between the two in the future as well. I know that Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar are currently fighting for that title, but it'd be nice to see these two get the main event push (I believe) they absolutely deserve.

While many are asking if the timing was right for the turn, I think it was timed brilliantly. Despite the weeks of buildup, and despite the fact that everybody knew it was coming at some point, it still felt unexpected and out of the blue.

Personally, the ideal scenario would have been to never get to the point of the 3 on 3 feud in the first place. I would have turned Dean on Seth as soon as he won the Intercontinental title at Summerslam. With Rollins celebrating his win, Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds, and the Shield reunion never happens at all.

The reason for this is not only to add a memorable moment to a supposedly major pay-per-view, but also so the turn truly feels out of nowhere. My big issue with the story that played out was that WWE worked the heel turn into a storyline, so that made it obvious Ambrose would betray the Shield at some point. If he took out Rollins before any of that story began, there would have been no reason to expect it.

That's my take on this entire angle. What do you guys think? Was the timing right? Was the heel turn terrible? Sound off in the comments below! Thank you very much for reading.