4 Phases of Dean Ambrose's WWE career

#4 Underwhelming heel turn and final exit (August 2018-April 2019)

The moral compass of WWE

When Dean made his long awaiting return a week before SummerSlam 2018, everybody was expecting him to turn on his Shield brothers sooner than later. Everything from his looks to behavior was screaming of a heel turn.

It was even executed perfectly by having him attack Rollins on the same day Roman had announced that he had leukemia, but then everything went south from there. He just kept on running away from Rollins for weeks to come and started calling himself "The Moral Compass of WWE", which many don't even remember. During the build-up of his match at TLC against Rollins, he started doing weird stuff like wearing gas masks and taking vaccinations on live TV.

When he and Seth finally collided for the Intercontinental Championship, what should have been the encounter between two longtime enemies, was just a sequence of submission holds with an anti-climatic ending. Dean never got to showcase himself as a dangerous heel. In 2019, he kept on putting other guys over after announcing his release from the company.

He lost matches against EC3, Elias, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, and Bobby Lashley on his way out of the company. But, those last few months will never affect his legacy as a WWE Superstar because people will always remember him as a Shield member who never settled for anything other than perfection. He was and will always be considered as a legend of pro wrestling.