Best WWE Face/Heel Turns of 2018
A character turn can be crucial to a professional wrestling career, especially one in the WWE. It could be lead to numerous outcomes and shape the direction of the industry as illustrated by the vast number of turns over the past year.
With the emergence of WWE UK and the prominent rise of WWE NXT, character turns now have increased importance and has put added pressure on the WWE Creative to come up with the goods with the more-than-necessary resources in availability.
The bigger-than-life storylines behind the turns are what captivate the wrestling audience and make them strive for more, and over the past year, WWE have come up with a number of character turns, though some were more successful than others. Here are the best and most successful face and heel turns of 2018 in the WWE:
#1 Dean Ambrose
Ever since the return of the Lunatic Fringe, Dean Ambrose, on the Aug. 13, 2018 episode of Raw, there have been constant rumors floating around on Ambrose's impending heel turn. Ambrose was slated to turn heel the previous year itself before a bicep tear put him on the sidelines.
With the Shield back in full force to tackle the dominant-yet-complicated trio of Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, and Dolph Ziggler, WWE Creative regularly teased Ambrose's heel turn. But what made this heel turn all the more sadistic is the time and place.
On the Oct. 22, 2018 episode of Raw, Roman Reigns relinquishing the Universal title due to leukemia had already made it a very intense episode, with the main event involving a Raw Tag Team Championship Match between Ambrose/Rollins and Ziggler/McIntyre. Upon gaining the pinfall to win the championships, Seth Rollins was abruptly and brutally attacked by his former partner, much to the shock of the WWE Universe.
With Dean Ambrose's sadistic on-screen nature and his knack for cutting devilish promos already in full force, WWE Creative has created the best possible opening for Dean, whose career has been stuck in the mid-card level ever since he lost to AJ Styles at TLC 2016. Though the heel turn was brilliant, only time will define its success.