WWE confirmed last week that Dean Ambrose is going to leave the company at the end of his contract after WrestleMania 35. According to various sources, he was not happy with his storylines and character development since returning from injury last August and thus decided to take this consequential step.
When he showed up on Raw to help his Shield-brother, Seth Rollins, after being on the sidelines for 9 months, his bulky physique and appearance were screaming of a heel turn. He enjoyed his first feud after returning against Braun Stowman, Dolph Ziggler, and Drew McIntyre, which was the headline of Raw for several weeks, and when fans were just warming-up to watching the Shield being back together again, they were hit with the news of Roman Reigns suffering from leukemia.
That night was an emotional one for all fans and wrestlers, but that didn’t stop Ambrose from turning on his other brother, Seth Rollins. The heel turn was brilliantly executed as no one could have anticipated that and was as shocking as the Red Wedding sequence from HBO’s Game of Thrones. He completely destroyed Rollins and the whole arena was booing him.
Everything was going pretty well till this point for him, but then things started going south from here. The follow-up promos were nothing less than a disaster and Dean never looked like a sadistic and dangerous heel that fans were expecting. He would have stayed with the company if WWE would have paid more attention to this rivalry. Let’s try to re-book the whole feud leading up to their match at TLC to make it more memorable and intriguing.
Take The Intercontinental Championship Off Rollins
Their rivalry was never about a championship. It was about their brotherhood and how Ambrose felt weak because of that. They barely mentioned the championship in their promos leading up to their match. Their feud already had so much heat that their personal grudges against each other could have easily carried them for a month.
Ambrose could have interfered in one of Rollins’ open challenges and could have cost him his championship. This would have given Ambrose more heat and Seth would have been furious with him. In their original feud, only Dean had an incentive and Rollins was just there because Dean was attacking him. This interference would have been beneficial for both and their storyline would have felt more personal and engaging.
Development of Dean’s Character
One of the biggest complains from this storyline was Dean Ambrose’s character. The writers made him some kind of germophobic lunatic who was running around different cities calling them filthy and entering the ring using a gas mask. This could have worked if he his promos were not that cryptic or obscure. WWE was just trying to make his character similar to ‘New’ Daniel Bryan, who was doing some exceptional heelwork at that time in SmackDown as an environmentalist. He failed terribly to create that same magic and was just seen as another coward heel.
WWE instead should have booked him as a sadistic psychopath, who was desperately looking for retaliation. In one of his promos he said that Shield made him weak, so after turning against his brother, he should have felt a sense of strength and freedom. He could have used that new-found resilience to run down on every next guy he could find.
In order to book him as a dangerous heel and get more heat before his match at TLC, WWE should have fed him some of the crowd’s favorites like Finn Balor, Bobby Roode, and Kurt Angle, along with regular beatdowns of Seth Rollins.
Booking the Match at TLC
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose are two of the best wrestlers in the current roster. Both have incredible chemistry inside the ring, hence it is a no-brainer that both are capable of having high-quality matches on a regular basis. Till now, both have enough animosity between them to blow each other to smithereens. Therefore, they should try to wreak havoc the moment the bell rings, instead of starting the match with a lock. Dean Ambrose should definitely emerge victorious here to justify his heel turn and everything he has done so far. But before that, they should have a good 20-25 minutes match to make Seth Rollins look strong.
The Follow-Up
Their feud should have ended after this one match as it would keep the fans wanting for more from these two. But the writers indeed decided to continue this storyline,with it just dragging on from there with nothing new is going to come.
Dean Ambrose could have go on to find his next victim. Since they just had one match in this feud, WWE could again visit this rivalry in the summer, maybe this time for the Universal Championship and nobody would have complained.
