What if Dean Ambrose starts his own faction?

Dean Ambrose has built his WWE career around The Shield. He debuted on the main roster as the young faction’s best talker, and therefore its de facto leader.

He rose to fame as part of the trio, and from there based much of his singles run around feuding with Seth Rollins, besides defeating Rollins for his first world title and then winning a Triple Threat match against Rollins and Reigns in what was his highest profile win to date.

Years later, the reformation of The Shield saw Ambrose seem to get re-motivated for the first time in these past two years, and he may have made the biggest headlines of his career for turning heel on the same night Reigns stepped away from the ring to battle leukemia.

But now that The Shield is gone for the time being, might Dean Ambrose start his own new faction?

Ambrose doesn’t necessarily need a group around him. Indeed, his crazed character may be at its most effective as a solo act. However, there’s also some real potential for a new group with him at the helm. This article looks at five possibilities for groups he could start up.

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5. An alliance with Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose may be an odd, but effective pair.

While Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt may seem like a bit of an odd couple, particularly for having feuded both in factions and as singles performers in the past, a power pairing could be of interest.

Wyatt has lots of experience fronting stables, and has his own take on a madman gimmick. Ambrose could bring a rougher, more realistic edge to balance out Wyatt’s more wacky antics.

What may be most important of all is the principle that these two could lend one another needed credibility as upper card heels.

Ambrose has been a face long enough that it will take an adjustment for fans to accept him as a villain, and Wyatt could help him get there.

Meanwhile, Wyatt largely feels played out, and pairing him with a hot act like Ambrose could do a lot to reignite fan interest in him.

4. Siding with the Authors of Pain

The Authors of Pain would offer serious back-up.

Dean Ambrose is no stranger to working in three man units, and if WWE wanted to give him a new group with a not entirely different look or feel from The Shield, they could do a lot worse than having him team up with the Authors of Pain.

The AOP demonstrated their chops in NXT, and while they still haven’t entirely had the chance to prove themselves on the main roster, associating with Ambrose could give them an immediate credibility boost with more casual fans.

Moreover, Akam and Rezar are big men who could believable serve as extra muscle for Ambrose and both offer him regular partners to team up with, and valuable outside interference as he likely transitions into the Universal Championship picture.

Of course, with Ambrose fronting the guys, their new manager Drake Maverick might quickly feel superfluous. WWE could easily enough drop him from the act, though, to re-focus on his authority position role on 205 Live, or else weave him in as a sidekick for Ambrose, too.

3. Sanity comes to Raw

Sanity would offer a ready made stable for Ambrose to take the helm of.

Sanity is an intriguing stable for featuring versatile Impact veteran Eric Young, younger star Alexander Wolfe, and the mountainous Killian Dain. The group did well in NXT, but has largely floundered on the main roster, with little direction or momentum.

The group could be an interesting fit positioned as the eccentric backup for the Lunatic Fringe on Raw. Young might feel a little superfluous in that scenario, but WWE could tell the story of Ambrose deposing him, not unlike what CM Punk did to Wade Barrett with The Nexus as 2010 rolled over into 2011.

Alternatively, Young could serve as a second in command to the bigger star. Regardless, the group seems like a near ideal fit to help sell the sense of chaos and violence already surrounding Ambrose’s character, set to bubble over to new heights with this heel turn.

Again, it’s a case of more backup better selling Ambrose’s act, while he simultaneously helps a batch of newer stars get more screen time and get over.

2. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre fall in line

McIntyre and Ziggler would be a simple enough addition to Ambrose's crew.

When Braun Strowman needed backup against the newly reformed The Shield, the rumour mill got to whirring about potential new allies for The Monster Among Men. WWE wound up choosing the path of least resistance in allying him with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, the star team that had already been feuding with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.

Now that Ambrose is out on his own and now that Ziggler and McIntyre have splintered from Strowman, one of the more obvious—if a bit lazy—paths would be to put these spare parts together to make a new whole.

Ziggler and McIntyre wouldn’t be completely out of left field given that their efforts to get Ambrose to separate from The Shield foreshadowed him actually turning on Rollins. Just the same, they probably aren’t the best pick as they aren’t necessarily a personality match for The Lunatic Fringe, and would risk undermining Ambrose’s lead heel vibe, given the twosome is, at least on paper, of similar standing to him.

1. Luke Harper joins the asylum

Luke Harper could fit in well with Dean Ambrose.

Most of the possibilities outlined in this article entail Ambrose teaming with established acts, but another approach could see him assemble a more entirely new cast of supporting talent, perhaps in a new faction that references his identity along the lines of The Asylum or The Lunatic Fringe.

A cast of madmen, monsters, and misfits could join him, including an NXT call ups like Lars Sullivan or Nikki Cross. Additionally, Ambrose might team up with guys who have gone astray or been thrown off course, like Luke Harper who hasn’t had anything to do since partner Erick Rowan went down to injury.

Harper is arguably an awkward fit for a henchman, given he’s been around the main roster almost as long as Ambrose and feuded with him a bit.

Nonetheless, the two could both fit the unhinged mold, and Harper could do a lot worse than playing Ambrose’s heater at this point in time.