The “make Seth Rollins a babyface” campaign seems to be going pretty well on Raw.
He’s been screwed over by a clear heel in Universal champ Kevin Owens, and has at least one powerful enemy behind-the-scenes in Triple H. He hasn’t injured, or bragged about injuring, anyone in a few weeks. He’s regained the cocky swagger he had from the Shield’s glory days, and still has the crowd-pleasing in-ring style fans never really wanted to jeer.
Still, as Geno pointed out via a couple Tweets from after the Oct. 10th Raw, some fans aren’t willing to turn the page.
It’s why, despite being a good example of the edgy confidence WWE good guys have possessed since the Attitude Era, maybe his newest t-shirt isn’t the best idea:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7258983/SFR_fb.png)
Back in the period where Dean Ambrose was the guy from the Hounds of Justice who was holding solo gold, and in the early days after they split (pretty much up until he became the only person under the age of 40 on the WWE roster who lost to Bray Wyatt), it was en vogue to refer to the Lunatic Fringe as “Dean. Fucking. Ambrose.” This was popularized by Heel Book, a creator of online content popular on Facebook and other platforms, but it was a widely used joke/meme.
So, especially in this day and age when so many are quick to cry “gimmick infringement”, is stealing from the one guy who’s been consistently over as a babyface since June 2, 2014 really a good idea?
Dean, of course, has one of the biggest stars in history and the greatest wrestler on the planet today helping him reach the next level over on SmackDown, so this isn’t really gonna hurt him, and - aside from a few jokes from smartasses like me - isn’t a big deal.
Good thing they didn’t make a “Roman. Freaking. Reigns.” shirt, though.
The internet would burn WWE to the ground.