WWE: Dean Ambrose’s Heel Turn is The Best/Worst Booking Decision

via WWE.com

It’s been a real crazy, hectic 24 hours in the world of professional wrestling. After an emotional announcement from Roman Reigns, WWE had one last heartbreak in store for us at the end of the show.

At the top of Monday Night Raw last night, Roman Reigns announced that he must relinquish the Universal Championship to fight his real life battle with leukemia. He had privately battled the disease for the better part of eleven years, and now it has returned. It was an emotional moment to kick off Raw that left many fans shocked, heartbroken, and in tears.

After that emotional rollercoaster to open the show, the fans needed a feel good moment to lift their spirits. The crowd was begging for such a moment. It looked like we were going to get that moment during the main event when Reigns’s Shield brethren, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose,  defeated Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre to win the Raw Tag Team Championships.

That supposed feel good moment was cut short when The Lunatic Fringe attacked Rollins almost immediately following the match, assaulting him with a Dirty Deeds in the ring, and then another on the concrete floor.

The decision to finally turn Ambrose heel and turn his back on the Shield on the night of Roman Reigns’s hiatus announcement has divided the wrestling community in terms of if it was the right call to do this on that night of all nights.

Some think it was brilliant, while others think it was in poor taste. We see both sides of that coin. In fact, we honestly think this might be both the best booking decision WWE has made all year, and at the same time, the worst.

Ever since Dean Ambrose returned from his nearly year long injury and reformed The Shield this past summer, it was always a matter of when he would turn heel, not so much if. That mystery was often highlighted in storyline over the past few months with Ambrose often butting heads with his Shield mates, and teasing either an alliance with The Dogs of War, or simply turning his back on The Shield.

For months, fans have been playing the guessing game trying to figure out when WWE would pull the trigger on an Ambrose heel turn. As it turns out, it would happen when literally nobody expected it to.

After Reigns’s announcement, most fans figured that WWE would drop the Ambrose heel turn storyline, or at least put it on the back burner for the time being in light of recent events. The aftermath of Raw’s main event reminded us that WWE’s mentality towards the business is that no matter what happens, the show must go on.

In terms of shock value, producing unpredictable content, and storyline advancement, this was a great move for WWE. People expected a feel good moment to counter one bummer of an opener, but instead, WWE gave us a devastating one instead. There is no other point in time where a Shield breakup like this would have devastated us as much as it did last night in a way that we never would have saw coming.

Not to mention that a move like this gives us more storyline potential than just a simple feel good moment. Usually, feel good moments like this would mean that Ambrose and Rollins would win the titles, and hold onto them for a mere couple weeks before dropping them once the dust had settled. Now, not only are we all talking about the segment, but we’re wondering what’s going to happen next week with not only a Rollins/Ambrose feud, but with the Tag Titles.

How can they defend the titles as rivals? Will the titles be vacated? Where does Roman fit into Dean’s motivation to turn? Is Ambrose still cool with Roman, but just hates Rollins? What is Rollins’s next move from here?

These are all compelling questions that we’re anxious to see answered in the coming weeks, and makes us excited to tune into WWE programming. That’s the kind of content that WWE should be producing. We wouldn’t have gotten such questions, or as many questions if we only got a feel good moment.

Alternatively, this might have just been the wrong move on the wrong night for WWE. Following Roman Reigns’s reveal of his leukemia diagnosis, the crowd and fans at home were instantly deflated and that dejected energy was felt throughout much of the night. Fans not only wanted a feel good moment, but they needed it.

Not giving everybody that moment and using an Ambrose heel turn to capitalize on a real life tribulation can be viewed as tasteless in a way that puts heat on the company rather than Ambrose.

More people are complaining about Vince and Co. orchestrating the heel turn at an inopportune time rather about Ambrose’s character turning. On top of that, a Shield breakup and a real life cancer diagnosis sends the hard paying customers in attendance home sad, when WWE should always strive to send their fans home happy.

At the end of the day, whether you loved the turn or you hated it, the moment struck an emotional chord with you. It’s not easy to get such a strong reaction out of any entertainment medium, but we all felt strongly about the heel turn one way or another. For better or worse, that’s the beauty of professional wrestling. That’s the beauty of this polarizing segment.

The Dean Ambrose heel turn drew ire for some and delight for others, but if one thing is for sure, we are all excited to see what happens next.