10 Amazing Heel Turns That WWE Immediately Ruined

1. Dean Ambrose

Dean Ambrose
WWE.com

Turning Dean Ambrose heel on the very same night that Roman Reigns announced he was battling leukaemia for second time was certainly a choice, but nobody can say that this wasn't a major shock.

By this point, the Lunatic Fringe had been on TV for two months after suffering a triceps injury, and this return to action marked one of the rare times where the Shield brothers of Ambrose, Reigns, and Seth Rollins were all back on the same page. As such, Ambrose and Rollins won the WWE Tag Team Championships on the 22 October 2018 edition of Raw; an emotionally-charged Raw which had earlier seen Roman reveal his awful news.

Of course, that Tag Title win was immediately followed by Ambrose turning on Seth, ushering in a new heel persona for Dean.

Despite some taking umbrage with this turn happening on the same night that real-life tragedy took centre-stage, at least this offered up the truly mouth-watering prospect of a first villainous singles run for Dean Ambrose. For those who'd seen Ambrose's prior work under his Jon Moxley guise, they knew just have vicious, sinister, and outright chilling he could be.

Instead, the heel Ambrose that we got was a gasmask-wearing chicken sh*t whose main focus was on getting vaccinated to protect him from catching anything from wrestling fans. It was dreadful, it was such a waste, and it all directly led to Ambrose choosing to exit the company.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.