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| photo courtesy: wwe.com |
When a breakup was initially teased in the winter, it looked as if Ambrose was splitting off from the group, leaving Rollins and Reigns as a regular tag team or leading to the end of The Shield. It wasn't exactly clear how this would happen, and it wasn't really clear who would kick who out and why.
That was dropped for a while when the whole group turned babyface, first halfway and then completely the night after WrestleMania. It made sense for a number of reasons. Whatever turn you do would mean more after being dragged out longer. The Shield deserved a big babyface run before splitting.
Perhaps most importantly, whatever turn led to the Reigns run would work better with him as a babyface being turned on rather than him as a heel leaving the group to turn babyface.
Even then, it was hard to figure out what the exact scenario would be or even if it would happen, since The Shield had caught on so well as babyfaces anyway. It's not like The Shield had to break up. Reigns could become a big star with Rollins and Ambrose as his allies.
If someone was going to turn, it seemed like it would either be Ambrose on his own (again), or Ambrose convincing Rollins (Reigns' primary partner in regular tag team matches) to join him in turning on Reigns.
Instead, Rollins turned on both Ambrose and Reigns last night, and so far, we don't know why. While Rollins turning on Reigns is probably the best scenario emotionally, I'm not sure this is the best way to do it. There was no buildup. Rollins just turned to join two guys he battled for half an hour the night before.
Maybe there's some big brilliant explanation we'll all hear on Raw next week, but I'm not crazy about this so far. The angle itself was tremendously executed, sure, but right now it's impossible to pin down why it happened. On top of that, it's not as satisfying, narratively speaking, as all of the alternatives I can think of.
On the bright side, it's officially time to stop worrying about Rollins getting lost in the shuffle now that he's not part of The Shield. If he's not actually in the Evolution stable proper, he's a top heel with ties to Triple H and Randy Orton.
For him, this is the best thing that can happen. If Ambrose turned on Rollins and Reigns, Rollins would be Reigns' little buddy, which is a precarious spot. If Ambrose and Rollins turned together, Rollins would run the risk of being Ambrose's henchman, which has similar pitfalls.
I'm honestly not sure where this is going, so I hope WWE has something clever up its sleeves.
source: bleacherreport.com
