Opinion: Why this week was the PERFECT time to turn Dean Ambrose heel
This past Monday on RAW, after the emotional beginning with Roman Reigns announcing that he is battling leukemia and The Shield hugging on the stage, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins defeated Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre in the main event to win the RAW Tag Team Titles. Shortly after, Ambrose shocked the world and turned heel and laid out Rollins. While some people find the decision controversial considering the circumstances, it was the PERFECT time to turn Ambrose heel.
Ambrose has been a face for almost his whole time on the main roster, except for when The Shield first debuted and were heels. After The Shield broke up in 2014, Ambrose has been in hot feuds with Rollins and Bray Wyatt before winning the WWE Championship in the summer of 2016. During this time, Ambrose was arguably the most popular guy on the main roster and got some of the biggest reactions from the crowd.
However, his act was running a bit thin as he was doing more and more comedy segments, such as helping James Ellsworth against AJ Styles and introducing his plant "Mitch". When he suffered an injury late last year, fans were expecting him to be a heel when he returned. That speculation intensified, even more, when he returned the week of SummerSlam and had a whole new look and attitude. It wasn't a question of if he will turn heel, it was when would he turn heel?
What many people didn't see coming was The Shield once again reforming the night after SummerSlam to assist Roman Reigns from a cash in attempt from Braun Strowman. Over the past few weeks, there were signs that Ambrose might turn soon, as he was losing his matches and he almost hit Rollins with the Dirty Deeds last week.
The issue was that if Ambrose turned on The Shield, but more specifically Roman Reigns, he would be cheered since Reigns was the least popular of the three. A turn against Rollins would have gotten him boos, but also probably some cheers as well. So, on Monday, when Reigns made his announcement and Rollins and Ambrose won the tag titles, it was an amazing feel-good moment and then BOOM! Ambrose turned and not only was it shocking, but it got nuclear heat. Just look and listen to the fans when it happened.
Fans know how good Ambrose can be as a heel. Just look at his work in the indies before he signed with WWE. It is rare that WWE pulls off a shocking and perfect turn for someone, but they did this week with Ambrose. Now, they need to book him as a true "lunatic" and not a cowardly heel like they so often do.
If they do it right, Ambrose can finally reach the potential everyone thought he would have when The Shield initially broke up. Some fans might find it controversial and bad that WWE capitalized on Reigns' real-life health issues to pull the heel turn when they did, but there would have never been a better time to do it with the circumstances, and if Ambrose turned down the road, and on Reigns or The Shield as a whole, it would not have had the same impact as him turning on this past Monday did.