Original WWE Plans For Dean Ambrose Heel Turn Revealed

After many weeks of teasing his departure, Dean Ambrose turned his back on Seth Rollins following their Raw Tag Team Championship victory by defeating Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. Shockingly, even though they just won the tag team titles, Ambrose viciously attacked his Shield brethren, then proceeded to walk up the crowd section into the hallway.

Although the way the turn happened was shocking, the actual turn itself was expected by many. In fact, there was a strong speculation that Ambrose was going to turn against Rollins at the end of 2017 when they had the tag team titles, but Ambrose was injured and shelved for eight months.

With the unfortunate announcement of Roman Reigns leaving the ring and forfeiting his Universal Championship due to battling leukemia, this reportedly made plans change regarding the direction of Ambrose’s heel turn.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the Ambrose heel turn was sped up due to the emotion of the night, as this method was considered to be more effective than taking the weekly twists and turns to eventually get to that moment.

It was also reported that Ambrose’s turn was slated to lead to a title program with Roman Reigns. The expectation was for Ambrose to initially feud with Rollins, since that was supposed to be the plan last year heading into this year’s WrestleMania in New Orleans. However, with the report of a Reigns vs. Ambrose title feud, it looks like the Ambrose turn would have led to another twist.

As we recently reported, The Shield was scheduled to compete as a unit on the Raw go-home show in Washington, D.C. leading into WrestleMania 35. However, with Reigns’ announcement, The Shield as a trio was forced to disband, and plans changed regarding the course of Ambrose’s turn. Even if a reunion occurred before WrestleMania, it would not make much sense now, since Reigns will be shelved for the foreseeable future.