After The Shield’s promo to open WWE Raw this past week, it appeared that the old Dean Ambrose returned as the voice of The Shield. The voice that fans heard over the microphone was not the quirky, goofy Lunatic Fringe that fans have grown accustomed to over the past couple years. No, this was a guy with an edge.
The rumors have been swirling about an Ambrose heel turn for most of 2017. A lot of the talk about Ambrose changing his character direction was put on hold when Ambrose reunited with Seth Rollins , and then finally reforming The Shield with the other member of the group Roman Reigns.
With The Shield back together, everything feels right again on WWE Raw. Yet again, that could just mean that WWE has fans right where they want them. When Rollins turned on his brothers over three years ago, it was right after The Shield had defeated Evolution and was at the peak of their popularity.
Keep in mind that all three members of The Shield are former WWE Champions, and the reforming of the popular stable is only temporary. Is it possible that all three men join together briefly and just go their separate ways? Yes. Is it likely? No.
While Reigns will likely have different plans come WrestleMania season, it is Ambrose and Rollins who are currently Raw Tag Team Champions. Since we have already seen Rollins betray Ambrose, it would only make sense that it would be Ambrose’s turn.
If Ambrose turns on Rollins, does that make him automatically the top heel in the company? The answer is yes, and just like high school math I will show my work.
We can start with a simple question. Was Rollins the top heel in the company automatically when he turned on his brothers of The Shield in 2014? Yes, because The Shield reached their highest level of popularity right before Rollins betrayed Ambrose and Reigns. Fans cared, and considering that Rollins was the reason for The Shield being disbanded, he received all of the frustration from the WWE Universe.
This time around the nostalgia of seeing The Shield standing side by side has the WWE Universe once again hoping that all three superstars stay together for the long haul. This will be the same reason why Ambrose can count on hatred from the WWE Universe when he decides it is in his best interest to end the walk down memory lane.
When that happens, Ambrose will become the most interesting superstar on WWE’s #1 weekly show, Raw. I do admire what both Jinder Mahal and Kevin Owens are doing right now, but they are on the company’s #2 show.
That sounds offensive, but look at the facts. Raw is where every member of The Shield is, it is where part-timers like Brock Lesnar, Triple H, The Undertaker, (recently) Cena have made appearances, and where The Miz was sent after becoming one of the most valuable pieces to SmackDown. There is no denying where both shows stand on Vince McMahon’s priority list.
To my final point, if Ambrose does turn on Rollins in the next few months we know what his plans are for WrestleMania. Look around at every other full-time heel on either Raw or SmackDown and try to figure out who will have more interest than the Lunatic Fringe entering WrestleMania season, and where they will be positioned on the biggest show of the year.
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Most likely the other heels will not have as big of a moment as a Shield betrayal, and will not be facing someone to the caliber of Seth Rollins at WrestleMania.