12 Days of WWE’s Best: WWE Made The Dean Ambrose Turn Matter

Today on my list of the Best of WWE in 2018, after complaining about the impending SHIELD break-up earlier this year, Dean Ambrose’s was more devastating than any of us could have imagined.

I was never too shy to admit it – after the Shield reunited for the second time after this year’s Summer Slam, and rumors of their third break up began thereafter, I was thoroughly not interested.

At the time it seemed to be fruitless to build the Shield up as a unit, because the shock of Seth Rollin’s initial betrayal would be unable to replicate. I elaborated more on this earlier this year.

Boy oh boy, was I way off on that.

Of course, the circumstances of the Shield’s break-up were completely unexpected and truly heartbreaking. You never expected The Shield’s break-up to come with the emotional circumstances that it did, and you would never wish that to happen to any performer again.

Should you somehow not know what I’m talking about, Roman Reigns, Top Dog of The Shield, was re-diagnosed was leukemia this year, and he made the heart-wrenching announcement that he was relinquishing his Universal Title to us all on October 22nd.

On the heels of that announcement, Roman’s Shield brothers, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, were set to have a match for the Raw Tag Team Championships as the main event of the evening. Seth and Dean won those titles from Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler, and we watched in unbridled, jubilant satisfaction as Dean and Seth triumphed in the wake of such terrible news.

That is, of course, until it happened.

Of course, Dean Ambrose’s turn was being built for weeks before this point, and we all knew it was coming eventually. The Dogs of War (still can’t believe that was really a thing) had been sowing the seeds of dissent in Dean Ambrose for weeks and weeks prior to this.

On Dean Ambrose’s WWE Chronicle feature released last month, that mental shift in Dean was documented. Dean had been beginning to doubt his own role within The Shield, and he was seemingly only holding  to the sense of brotherhood that he felt to Rollins and Reigns.

Dean never went on to fully explain why that night, only really saying “People have no idea what it’s like”. From the outside looking it, it may have been the fact that his brotherhood was being threatened that acted as the catalyst for his actions, but that’s all just me speculating.

Again, I feel terrible discussing a storyline in which someone’s health and wellbeing were truly and realistically affected, but turning Dean Ambrose heel by attacking Seth Rollins after such a beautiful moment, a moment that we so desperately wanted them to relish, was the only way WWE could have executed it that would have made that turn matter.

The turn divided us a little bit, and rightfully so, with some thinking the decision to utilize Dean’s turn that night was either smart or insensitive. Regardless of how you saw it, it seems WWE tried to regroup as best as they could in the midst of such a terrible situation, by shocking us with that turn on an eve where we were all reeling from Reigns’ announcement.

Our emotions were thoroughly rocked, and while the feud may have simmered down between Dean and Seth in the weeks following that October 22nd episode, the initial shock of Dean’s turn left us heart-broken in a way we never could have expected.

There’s really nothing else to say here except that in 2019 and beyond, we wish Roman Reigns a speedy recovery, all the prayers we could offer, and nothing but the best of health. We can’t wait to see you come back and teach Dean Ambrose a lesson!