I once had a friend who I thought I was very close to. This person's friendship was key to my happiness and made me feel special and important. Then one day, we had a fight, and just like that, our friendship was over. It never had the depth that I had thought it did. I cried for days and thought about it for months.

I didn't get over it all at once. There was no big moment of vengeance or reconciliation. But time did its work, and one day, I realized I had moved on. Thinking about this person just doesn't affect my feelings anymore.

So when I watched the Shield reunion on Ambrose's talk show segment on the 6/13 Raw, I knew exactly what was happening for Dean Ambrose's character.

After the segment aired, there was a lot of debate about whether Ambrose had ruined the segment. "Why was he grinning? making faces? trying to hug Rollins? His character wouldn't do that. His attitude was wrong. His acting was wrong."

If you compare Dean on this past Raw to the Dean from two years ago, then absolutely, it was night and day. After the Shield breakup, all Seth had to do was turn up in the arena during an Ambrose match and Dean would lose focus, lose control, and come at him. He lost matches because he was more interested in getting to Seth. Seth still had power over him.

So why was he hugging and laughing on Monday? Because he's over it. Not in a "no hard feelings" way - in a much more dangerous way. Dean is back in control of his emotions because now he's detached.

Watch the part where Seth switches from reminiscing about the old Shield days to bragging about the chairshot. It's the exact same emotional manipulation he was pulling two years ago. It gets to the crowd and inspires boos. It gets to Roman and inspires a rage-filled glare.

And Dean laughs. He laughs at Seth. Because somewhere in two years, he has stopped feeling anything toward him. Seth gets louder and louder, trying to exert the old influence that he had over Dean, back when his "I was never your friend" speech left Dean sinking weakly into the corner of the ring, back when Dean was screaming, "I was your brother!" while beating Seth with both fists.

Now, nothing Seth says can touch him, because Seth doesn't matter anymore. He is de-fanged. He's nothing but an ugly, loud little man, getting himself more and more wound up while his words simply dissipate in the air.

And this means that Dean now has the upper hand. Watch Seth and Roman face off, moving closer to one another, ready to fight - while Dean grins in the background. He's grinning because he put them in this ring together and cranked up their emotions without ever having his own emotions affected.

He orchestrates the crowd to cheer first for the idea of Seth winning, then for the idea of Roman winning. Watch how self-satisfied little smiles creep onto their faces as they imagine winning on Sunday. They're reacting just as he planned. Then watch their faces drop when he reveals his true plan - to get the briefcase and defeat whomever is holding the belt.

Moments later, Roman has dispatched Seth, and then Dean calmly dispatches Roman and stands tall over them both.

Because he's in control this time.

Seth has lost his power; he can no longer push Dean to lose focus and make mistakes. But Roman's power - the power of a loyal friend - is no longer influencing him, either. Dean shows where he truly stands when he attacks Roman with Dirty Deeds.

This latest version of Dean may be the most dangerous. In the Shield, he was often overcome by what he was feeling and depended on Seth and Roman to calm him down and direct his energy. After the Shield, he was driven by his feelings about Seth and his loyalty to Roman.

On Monday night, he showed that's he's now beyond their influence, both positive and negative. If he goes full-on dark, he could finally become the Joker character that fans have imagined he could be.