8 Dropped Ideas That Could've Helped WWE Ratings

2. The Dean Ambrose Heel Turn

Randy Orton The Revival
WWE.com

No, not the one we’ve all put to the back of our minds amidst the sound of sirens and the memories of body odour-laced promos. Instead, this is about the Dean Ambrose heel turn that didn’t happen.

From late 2013 and through until WrestleMania XXX, the cracks began to form in The Shield. Cracks that were largely caused by Ambrose’s erratic behaviour.

Given how Dean was always the most natural heel of the three, the best promo of the three, and the one who was most capable of carrying the weight of being a top level singles act at that time, it seemed only a matter of time before The Lunatic Fringe caused The Shield to explode.

What we got, of course, was Seth Rollins turning on Ambrose and Roman Reigns just two months after ‘Mania XXX.

If WWE would have continued with the idea of Dean Ambrose being the one to break up The Shield, fans would’ve gotten a serious, calculated, vicious Ambrose – rather than the Goofy Dean character who soon reared his head to yuck it up and attack people with condiments and potted plants.

As an added bonus, this would also have stopped fans getting that awful initial heel character of Rollins, while having Ambrose as a genuinely hated heel would’ve given the babyface Roman Reigns somebody to play off and hopefully would’ve stopped the rejected response *begin Michael Cole voice* The Big Dog *end Michael Cole voice* soon found himself in the midst of.

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 dayjob, 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.