After weeks of teasing Dean Ambrose's exit from The Shield, this past episode of Monday Night Raw instead saw the end of The Dogs of War alliance.

Tension in the group mounted over the inability to take out The Hounds of Justice, and soon enough, the cracks in the foundation led to what seems to be a split.

There's still a chance WWE backtracks on this by having the group reconcile, but patching things up would be a mistake.

This is not only the right time to break up the team, it's also the perfect opportunity to restore some balance to Braun Strowman's position on the roster by having him return to his role as one of the top babyfaces in WWE.

If They Feud, Someone Must Turn

When a group fractures like this, it's anticlimactic if the members go their separate ways as bitter failures who move on to different feuds with no blowoff, especially after teasing an implosion from within.

After Strowman powerslammed Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre struck back with a Claymore, which could be read as being in retaliation and defense for his tag team partner.

Ziggler and McIntyre haven't come to blows, nor should they, as they still hold the Raw tag team titles together and there aren't any qualified teams ready to take the belts from them.

It's overkill if The Shield holds all the titles, The Revival has no momentum, Titus Worldwide may not even be a thing anymore, Chad Gable and Bobby Roode are losers, and so on.

The Authors of Pain are the only decent team, but WWE rarely does heel vs. heel feuds, which is also why Strowman would be the odd man out if he fights with Ziggler and McIntyre.

The fans will always pick a side, and since Strowman has only been a heel for a month, they'll gravitate toward cheering him out of habit, if not by pure preference, too.

But What About Crown Jewel?

Yes, Strowman is still feuding with Roman Reigns until at least November 2, so it would be strange for him to be a full-blown babyface as soon as next week. However, Crown Jewel isn't too big of a problem to deal with.

Brock Lesnar, Reigns and Strowman have had enough matches over the past year to indicate how the crowd will react. The Big Dog always has a divided audience, and while his fans will cheer him, his detractors will favor both Strowman and Lesnar out of spite.

Even as a heel over the past month, Strowman has continued to have some support from the fans, so he'll be cheered over Lesnar one way or another, and WWE should play into this mixed reaction by balancing the equation.

With Reigns as the top babyface and Lesnar as the true heel, Strowman could lean toward the tweener spot and be in the middle. That's how the dynamics will work regardless, so WWE may as well work with it.

That way, Lesnar and Strowman don't cancel out each other's heat and there isn't a situation where the crowd is cheering a full-on villain, like what keeps happening with Becky Lynch in her feud with Charlotte Flair.

This helps excuse the cheers Strowman will get, as the commentary team can say the crowd is warming back up to him after he ditched McIntyre and Ziggler, explaining the mixed reaction instead of pretending it isn't there.

Then, after Reigns retains the title and Crown Jewel is over and done with, Strowman can transition from tweener to babyface, and the true benefits to the turn can begin.

It's a More Natural Fit for Success

Once Strowman became a babyface behemoth, the audience embraced him so much that he was receiving some of the loudest pops of the night for this past year.

Strowman was everything WWE wanted in a top Superstar, but everything save for his larger-than-life appearance and athleticism has diminished since his heel turn.

Those loud cheers didn't turn into equally loud boos, because he reverted back to the 2017 version of his character, which was merely a monster for Reigns to repeatedly overcome.

He no longer looks as strong, because as long as The Shield is the priority, Strowman will continue to lose to the group. As a babyface, he was tougher and would dominate all of his opponents.

Since Strowman is not the cowardly type, he also no longer has any comedic value. He went back to being serious and stoic, which is generic and boring, whereas when he was a babyface, he was allowed to be funny. It's rare to get genuine laughs from the audience, but he did it, so that's been thrown out the window.

Also, it seemed Strowman had a genuine knack for being a positive force on the charitable side of being a WWE Superstar, which seems counterproductive to promote when he's supposed to be one of the biggest baddies on the show.

As a performer and a representative for WWE, he came into his own as a babyface more so than a heel, and going back to that can only be favorable for him as far as what comes naturally and what he'll succeed at the most going forward.

Future Feuds

This is especially true when looking at the potential feuds he has waiting for him.

If he stays a heel, he's out of decent options. He's already feuded with The Shield and had issues with Finn Balor, which leaves only people who are lower in priority like No Way Jose and The B-Team.

With Reigns on top as champion, a heel Strowman has nowhere to go but downhill.

As a babyface, though, he can feud with McIntyre, Ziggler, Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, The Authors of Pain and even Konnor, if he continues to gain steam. This may even be a saving grace for Bray Wyatt, who failed as a babyface and could return as a heel to work a story with Strowman, since they've never faced each other.

The only way for Strowman to get back to his previous heights and put his best foot forward for storylines over the next few months is to go back to being a babyface to avoid spinning his wheels as a midcard heel who is still cheered by the fans who naturally want to support him no matter what his alignment is.

Now is the time to pull that trigger and go back to the status quo.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.