Dean Ambrose’s heel turn: good or bad?

On Monday, October 22, Dean Ambrose shocked the wrestling world when he made a heel turn by attacking partner Seth Rollins. While many fans had predicted Ambrose turning eventually, the swerve seemed almost too predictable the way WWE had set the wheels in motion.

On top of that, there was the shock of Roman Reigns announcing he had to forfeit the Universal Championship and walk away from the ring earlier on the same night. Thus, even though the fact that Ambrose would turn heel wasn’t completely out of left field, it was nonetheless a big surprise at the moment when it actually happened.

But was this turn—in its timing, execution, future implications, and even its very concept a good idea for Ambrose or for WWE on the whole at this time? This article takes a look at four different dimensions of Ambrose’s recent turn to evaluate, in the end, whether this major move was a good or bad decision.

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#5 Good: The Tag Division

Full-time tag teams stand to gain from Ambrose and Rollins breaking up.

Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are responsible for some the Raw brand’s best tag team matches over the last year and change. As such, it might seem counterintuitive to say that it’s a good thing for the tag division that they won’t be teaming anymore, particularly right after they had recaptured the Tag Team Championship.

Yes, Ambrose and Rollins are a very good team and generated some terrific outings opposite Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. However, they’re also a star team, built out of two singles performers WWE has a vested interest in pushing at or around the main event level. That dynamic creates the fundamental problem that WWE has been reticent to let any full-time tag teams really touch them.

For the immediate future of the tag titles, it might feel like a demotion for the division to lose its kayfabe top team. However, in the long run, this shift should make the tag titles less a pawn for what are truly singles division storylines, and refocus on proper teams. Pairings like The Authors of Pain and Chad Gable and Bobby Roode in particular stand to gain from the opportunities ahead.

#4 Good: The Main Event Scene

Fresh matches and matches with new face-heel alignments stand to happen toward the top of the card.

While no one in their right mind would have wished a real-life illness on Roman Reigns, and he was more talented in the ring than his sharpest critics tended to admit, he nonetheless hasn’t ever yet arrived as the kind of guy who consistently pulls off four star plus matches.

In Reigns’s absence, there’s every possibility that Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose will be working toward the top of the card. Better yet, without Reigns in the mix, there’s a very real question as to whom WWE will choose to push as the top star on Raw.

Ambrose vs. Rollins matches in and of themselves have a history of being quite good. Adding both of these guys to the mix of working with Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, and elite part-timers have a good bit of potential to freshen the top of the card and lead to some very good bouts.

#3 Good: Ambrose’s slate of opponents

Fresh opponents like Finn Balor await heel Dean Ambrose.

While Dean Ambrose debuted on the main roster as a heel when he was the de facto leader of the original Shield, in the aftermath, he spent the entirety of his singles run and both Shield reunions as a face. At first, he felt like a revelation in that role, as a madman who might have more easily been cast as a heel and given how hard he was clearly willing to work to justify his face push.

As time went on, though, Ambrose grew stale out of a combination of sheer longevity, questionable booking, and arguably Ambrose not coming across as entirely motivated.

Every star in every persona has some sort of shelf life. This heel turn opens the door for Ambrose to work opposite faces it didn’t previously make sense to book him against like Finn Balor. Additionally, it will allow him to revisit past opponents like Rollins and Elias with a fresh dynamic for the reversal of face-heel orientations.

#2 Bad: Merchandise

Ambrose and WWE stand to lose out on some merchandise revenue

When fans speculated about an Ambrose heel turn before it actually happened, one of the main points that gave them pause was if WWE would really be willing to give up the merchandise Ambrose moves.

There’s a long tradition of bad guys in the business not being the ones fans pay to wear the likenesses of—some wrestlers have historically even cited this as a reason they don’t want to turn heel, knowing they will lose out on a portion of their royalties.

Indeed, between Shield t-shirts and Ambrose’s own line of apparel, WWE probably will lose out on some revenue on account of not being able to sell based on Ambrose’s brand. In the end, it will probably be worth it given heels can sell t-shirts in this day and age, too, WWE has newly minted faces like Elias to merchandise off of, and Ambrose will move even more merch if or when he turns face again. In the short term, though, WWE may lose out in this particular area.

#1 Conclusion: Good

In the end, the heel turn is good for Ambrose and WWE on the whole.

Stars like The Big Show, Kane, and Randy Orton have turned a lot over the course of their WWE careers. These face and heel turns underscore that turns, in general, are a key storytelling mechanism in pro wrestling and that it’s often easiest to keep characters fresh with the help of a major kayfabe personality shift.

It’s a credit to Ambrose’s drawing power and talent that he was able to stay face and remain relevant across a five year plus period. The time had come for his turn, though. While WWE reportedly had plans on the turn before Roman Reigns had to step away from the ring, it also does help that The Shield was dissolving anyway and that Ambrose was able to collect even bigger heat for turning on the same night as the Reigns announcement.

The jury is naturally still out on how Ambrose’s heel run will ultimately play with WWE fans. For now, though, there’s plenty of reason for optimism.