WWE Spoilers: Seth Rollins' Heel Turn Proves WWE Can Still Make Magic

The June 2, 2014 edition of WWE's Monday Night Raw after the Payback pay-per-view was a hit-and-miss installment. Outside of a few segments here and there, the show was relatively dull. Then, Seth Rollins took a steel chair, demolished Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose and essentially blew up the Internet.

Yes, The Shield is no more. After Batista quit Evolution and the WWE, Triple H put his diabolical mind to work and recruited Rollins to his side. He mouthed "I win" as the show went off the air Monday night just to pour a little salt on the wound.

Kayfabe is more or less dead and has been for quite a while. In a world where Brie Bella Bryan can say she has a girl crush on Stephanie McMahon in a real interview and then slap the taste out of her mouth on live television, it's hard to maintain the illusion that these people really have a problem with each other.

The death of kayfabe means smarks like me are guilty of thinking we have the storylines pegged, that WWE is too predictable and that we know everything that's going to happen before it happens.

Seth Rollins proved we're not as smart as we think we are.

I dare say an extremely small percentage of WWE fans knew this was coming. Dean Ambrose's character is a crazy person. He's Ric Flair without the "Woos" and the elbow drops onto articles of clothing. His work on the microphone and his character seemingly make him a natural heel. Roman Reigns is the popular pick to break out as the next major star of the company, but a heel turn was not out of the question for him.

Rollins was the third of three options in most fans' minds, and WWE pulled off this turn beautifully. Just watch this fan's reaction (skip to the :23 mark) as her face transitions from neutral to confused to completely shocked:

WWE used to elicit these types of reactions from fans all the time back in the Attitude Era. Not every turn worked, but the unpredictability led to genuine shock on the part of the fans. Yes, we're more "in" on the product now thanks to the Internet, but our jaws really did drop when Stephanie McMahon joined Triple H, or Stone Cold aligned with Vince McMahon.

Seth Rollins brought that reaction out of us on Monday night. The Internet has been buzzing for days since he cracked that chair across Reigns' back. WWE truly captured fans' imaginations and attention with this move.

There have been conflicting reports about the backstage motivations behind the heel turn, with some reports stating it was a last minute decision and others claiming it was put in motion about a month ago. Either way, the result is the same, and fans now have a memory to hold onto for quite some time. It's unclear where this story goes from here, but we should all be thrilled to go along for the ride.

On a side note, let's address the commentary from the final segment of Raw. Michael Cole actually did a decent job selling the shock and confusion of the situation. I'm not one of these people who hates on the WWE's play-by-play man, because we've seen what he can do when he doesn't have Vince McMahon or another higher-up working him like a puppet through his earpiece.

But this "somber announcer voice" nonsense needs to end. The announcers' hushed voices are supposed to hammer home that a particular segment is important, devastating, etc. But all it does is suck the energy right out of the moment.

Can you imagine what Jim Ross' call would have been if he were on commentary Monday night?

"HEY WAIT! WHAT'S HE DOING?! NO! NO! OH GOD! SETH ROLLINS WITH A STEEL CHAIR RIGHT TO THE BACK OF HIS BROTHER ROMAN REIGNS! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! TRIPLE H WITH THAT EVIL GRIN ON HIS FACE! AMBROSE IS SHOCKED! AND OH GOD NOW ROLLINS LAYS OUT AMBROSE! HE IS DESTROYING DEAN AMBROSE WITH THAT CHAIR! WHY, SETH? WHY THIS WAY?! WHY TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR BROTHERS?!"

And let me be clear. This isn't an "Attitude Era Rules, PG Sucks" mentality. But JR had a way of not just capturing, but adding to the emotion and intensity of a given moment. Cole is nowhere near as bad as most fans think, but he just does not or is not allowed to do the same.

Were you shocked by Rollins' heel turn? What did you think of its execution? Where do you think it goes from here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.