10 Times WWE Used Real Life Misery For Storyline Gains

7. Roman Reigns, Leukemia, The Shield

Roman Reigns Dean Ambrose Seth Rollins Shield
WWE

Everyone and their dog had been clamouring for Dean Ambrose to turn heel for years. When it became clear that WWE wasn’t capable of capitalising on his magnetic babyface charisma, a turn to the dark side seemed like the most obvious thing in the world. It didn’t even require much creativity; just turn Ambrose heel, and the rest takes care of itself.

Despite this apparent simplicity, WWE still managed to make a mess of it all by having Ambrose turn on Seth Rollins on the night Roman Reigns announced he was fighting leukaemia. Rollins and Ambrose had just won the WWE RAW Tag Team Champions as well, to further compound the confusion. It was a mess, from beginning to aborted end.

According to reports, Ambrose wasn’t even supposed to turn heel that night. The decision was made before the show aired, ostensibly so the company could wring even more heat out of the Reigns situation, to capitalise on the real-life struggle of a friend who was fighting for his life.

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Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.