The Shield Needs To Prove To Dean Ambrose That He Belongs

On this week’s episode of WWE Raw, Dean Ambrose walked away from The Shield after taking a pin from Drew McIntyre in their six-man tag match in the show’s main event.

The friction between Dean Ambrose and the rest of The Shield has created WWE’s biggest storyline heading into Survivor Series, and fans are wondering “when” Ambrose will betray Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. It’s telling that most fans see this as a matter of “when” and not “if”, because Ambrose has grown increasingly more abrasive and discontented with each passing week.

The Shield’s loss to Drew McIntyre, Braun Strowman, and Dolph Ziggler in the main event of Raw this week might have been Ambrose’s first breaking point. It was a hard-fought match, and all three “brothers” left everything in the ring. We saw Rollins show his heart, Ambrose show his savvy, and Reigns show his quiet confidence. But it wasn’t enough to beat a disjointed-albeit-brutal trio on the other side of the ring.

It was a disappointing loss for The Shield, but nobody took it harder than Ambrose, who literally walked out on Reigns and Rollins after the match.

Ziggler, McIntyre, and Strowman have been trying to recruit Ambrose to their side for weeks, and they are doing it to weaken The Shield. If Reigns, Rollins, and Ambrose do not stand united, it opens up more opportunities for the heels in the main event of Raw. Strowman hasn’t forgotten how Rollins and Ambrose costed him from cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Reigns, and he feels the only path to the Universal Championship involves breaking up The Shield first.

Meanwhile, McIntyre and Ziggler have been annoyed by Rollins and Ambrose for months. They are the Raw Tag Team Champions, but Ziggler could have remained Intercontinental Champion if it weren’t for Ambrose’s return to support Seth. Their motivations for supporting Strowman and wanting to end The Shield are clear.

To achieve this goal of breaking up the “Hounds of Justice”, the so-called “Dogs of War” have focused their efforts on converting Ambrose to the dark side. It seems simple enough. Ambrose has every reason to harbor mistrust for Rollins, who betrayed him before. Furthermore, both Reigns and Rollins are champions, whereas Ambrose has nothing. The heels are out to convince Ambrose that Rollins and Reigns are merely using him to prop themselves up as champion.

With all of these messages, it’s no wonder that Ambrose feels slightly alienated. After walking out on Reigns and Rollins, he told Kayla Braxton outside the arena, “I don’t get it. I don’t get it…Maybe I just don’t…fit in anywhere anymore.”

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Exasperated and purposefully vague after an emotionally-draining match, Ambrose may or may not explain his actions in full next week. For the most part, Ambrose has been a man of few words since returning from a torn triceps, using his stiff work in the ring and his icy stare to do the talking for him. He’s been almost like an enforcer for The Shield instead of being a wild card, but Ambrose’s unpredictable nature is starting to re-enter the equation.

At the crux of Ambrose’s issues with Reigns and Rollins is the fact that he doesn’t feel like he “belongs” with the men he’s called “brothers”. It’s jarring to hear him contemplate this out loud, but it is more than understandable. The Shield barely seemed to care about Ambrose when he was absent, as Dean even pointed out Rollins’s little tag team title run with Jason Jordan as an example of him being replaced just as quickly as he left.

Ambrose has always been an outsider. He sees things differently, approaches life from a vantage point that is completely dissimilar to those around him, and is willing to make moves without thinking twice. Having been around him for years, Rollins and Reigns understand this. To them, Ambrose belongs because he’s an outsider. What makes them cherish Ambrose’s friendship and value him as an asset is the fact that he is so unorthodox and headstrong. Without him, The Shield aren’t even half as strong, because they lose their X-Factor.

To Ambrose, however, it seems more like Rollins and Reigns view him as an “asset” more than a “friend” right now. They left him hung out to dry for months, and, once again, he was the one left holding the bag, pinned by McIntyre in a physically grueling tag match. The Shield aren’t on the same page, and those doubts that Ziggler, McIntyre, and Strowman planted in Ambrose’s mind are starting to manifest themselves into the reality that Dean perceives around him.

It’s up to Reigns and Rollins to be forthcoming with Ambrose. They need answers, they need to see where he is at, and they need to unequivocally admit that they haven’t exactly treated him as well as they should have. Reigns and Rollins did neglect Ambrose, and it’s clear that there’s an unequal balance of power with Dean being the only one without a title. He saved Reigns and Rollins from losing their titles, but how can he be sure that they will have his back in the end?

Break-ups are messy, and the only way The Shield can avoid a break-up is if Reigns and Rollins can tangibly prove how much Ambrose means to them. Actions speak louder than words, and if they cannot show Ambrose that he belongs, then he just might become their worst enemy on the road to WrestleMania 35.