10 Biggest WWE Creative Mistakes Of 2018
4. Leukaemia = Heat
Cheap heat isn't effective.
Dean Ambrose told us all that Roman Reigns contracted leukaemia as a punishment from God, but because he also says that we smell, like a school pupil, this ultimate verbal transgression didn't land. In truth, it wouldn't have landed anyway: absolutely nobody, not even the WWE mascots you see on Twitter, buys that Dean Ambrose truly believes a word he's saying. He doesn't. He says these words only to trigger a human response that is not forthcoming, because the provocation is so naked and ugly and manufactured.
By leaning into the ghoulish real-life circumstances, WWE, ironically, has contrived to remove any realism from a storyline that we could, once upon a time, have bought into with relish. Dean Ambrose held the ultimate, dormant motivation to turn on Seth Rollins. Rollins, meanwhile, had redeemed himself enough to make this a rare, complex - fascinating - shades-of-grey dispute. But no: everything in WWE is heat, and that includes life-threatening cancer. Dead daddies. Everything. The initial angle was one thing, but the follow-up has served only to alienate. It is as fake and as tawdry as WWE gets, and gauging by that inoculation bit on the November 26 RAW, as lame as it gets, too.
It is the worst of the worst.
The fantasy-booked Dean Ambrose heel turn was an outstanding prospect - but we live in the darkest timeline.