Why Roman Reigns' Friendship with Dean Ambrose Doesn't Have to End in Betrayal

Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose are WWE's Butch and Sundance, two guys joined at the hip through thick and thin.  They came up together, debuted together and go to war together.

Not since Triple H and Shawn Michaels have fans seen such an enduring friendship, and now many of them are waiting for it to fall apart.

But like Hunter and Michaels, Reigns and Ambrose are forever connected; their friendship does not need to end in betrayal.

Many fans are waiting on a heel turn.  From the moment The Lunatic Fringe and the Samoan Superman began working together after The Shield, it has perhaps been a foregone conclusion that their alliance would not last long.  The temptation to turn one guy on the other seems to be too great for anyone in WWE Creative to pass up.

It's the easy way out, after all.

Take best friends, throw in a title shot and see how quickly they destroy each other.  It's a move that fans have seen countless times before, but one that always seems to work. One guy heels out and gets major heat, getting the other guy over to the moon in the process.

It's really an ideal way to build two stars at once, and if WWE went this way, it would probably work. But the operative word here is "probably."

The trouble is, Reigns is not fully over.  He continues to struggle in terms of total fan support, and his crowd reaction is better in some places than others.  He talks a good fight and looks pretty good in the ring, but in the end, he cannot quite gain the foothold that the company surely wants him to.

Ambrose, however, is very much over as a face.  He's one of the company's most popular Superstars; everything he does gets a great reaction, and the more he's on TV, the better.  In fact, many fans would likely say he's not getting enough time for his main event career.

If the one who's over turns on the one who can't get full crowd support, bad things will happen.

Ambrose could potentially heel Reigns out, but it's likely that WWE does not want that.  Reigns would be put in a bad position and would perhaps not recover, while Ambrose would be left in a tough spot, with WWE Creative being clueless as how to handle it.

A rough situation would be made much worse.

So why go that route at all?  Why be forced into a scenario that would see two of WWE's best and brightest put into a booking nightmare?  The crowd is already surely sick of stars constantly switching sides and characters acting out of character, so why risk it with Reigns and Ambrose?

With the rise of Sheamus and his new League of Nations faction, Reigns has more than one opportunity to finally start getting over with even his most ardent critics.  It may be early in the process, but there's still plenty of time for him to become a top guy, and Ambrose does not necessarily need to be part of that process.

A separation will probably happen at some point, as both men will eventually need to stand on their own. But that does not mean the friendship will end in ruin.  They are better off being left alone to run with their partnership as long as possible; each man can benefit from it right now.

The story of best friends and bitter enemies is one that could very well be told between Reigns and Ambrose, but it's not one that should be right now.  WWE has been criticized by many fans for being too predictable at times, and this would be a very predictable move.

The opportunity for it to happen was there at Survivor Series but was not taken, and the window may have closed now.  The League of Nations features four guys itching for a fight, and Reigns and The Usos are willing to join that fight.

But they can't do it without Ambrose, which means he must be on the same page as his former Shield teammate.  Now is not the time for betrayal. WWE Creative must find another way to get Reigns over while continuing to maintain Ambrose's upward trend.

Reigns and Ambrose are better together, and that's the way it should stay.

Tom's work can regularly be found on Bleacher Report and his podcast, Tom Clark's Main Event, is available on iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Amazon Android, Windows Phone and online here