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How Dean Ambrose’s Title Win Rejuvenates WWE

By Brandon Carney

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Dean Ambrose’s title win at Money in the Bank gave WWE the boost it so desperately needed.

At Money in the Bank, the entire landscape of WWE changed. And if that sounds dramatic, it’s because it is. The main event changed our perception of how WWE works. It went against everything we thought we knew about how things were going to go for the foreseeable future, and in turn revitalized WWE itself.

Roman Reigns has been booked as an unbeatable juggernaut who was going to overcome everything despite what the fans thought of him. He was the guy hand-picked to carry the championship and the company even though the fans vehemently fought against it. Vince wanted him to be the next Rock or Stone Cold and there was nothing we could do about it. He was going to have his way and we kept getting reminded of the classic Vince quote, “I’d rather make a dollar my way than a million dollars somebody else’s way.”

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Until last night, Reigns hadn’t lost a singles match cleanly on the main roster. But then Seth Rollins hit two straight pedigrees and pinned Reigns smack dab in the middle of the ring. One. Two. Three. Everything changed. WWE finally allowed Reigns to look weaker than his opponent, signaling a changing of the guard.

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It’s safe to say fans were worried that after Rollins went down with injury that Reigns had taken over the spot as the face of the company for good, but now we see that isn’t the case. Against everything that had been built up over the last several months, Reigns went down and gave Rollins his throne back. Think about that for a second. Vince basically sacrificed the ending of the biggest WrestleMania of all time just to give Reigns his moment despite the fans not buying into it whatsoever. And after all the effort put into making Reigns the new face of the company, after all the time spent blatantly ignoring what the fans wanted, WWE flipped the script like it was nothing.

If the night ended there, everything would have been wonderful. The nightmare that was Reigns’ superman booking was finally over and we even got signs of a possible heel turn. This one match changed things drastically, but WWE weren’t done. They decided this would be the night that they pull the mother of all 180s and do the unthinkable. Dean Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank on Seth Rollins and became the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

So not only was Reigns truly conquered for the first time in his career, WWE gave the title to the fan favorite Dean Ambrose. Ambrose had always come up short in the past, and sometimes that’s an indication of what WWE really thinks of a guy. They trust him to be in the main-event picture, but not to actually be their champion. It was a real concern that Ambrose was turning into another Cesaro; someone the fans really like but WWE themselves simply don’t have a ton of faith in. But in one night, WWE showed that was not the case for the lunatic fringe.

This is the first true babyface champion WWE has had in over two years. Two years! Daniel Bryan was the last world champion who the fans were truly, fully behind. Since him, the only guys to hold the title are John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, and Triple H, all of whom were either tweeners or outright heels. Ambrose is the first one since Bryan to have the majority of fans supporting him.

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Until Money in the Bank, WWE confusingly refused to give the fans what they want for a long time. It’s fair to ignore the fans sometimes because if we started booking things, it would be chaos. But to go two years without a champion to fully root for is ludicrous. The fact that WWE finally broke this mold is huge.

Ambrose’s title win removes a sense of pessimism that has followed the main event scene for so long. We finally got confirmation that the guy we like can actually win the big one and that it isn’t just going to follow the same formula time after time.

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In one night, WWE went back on a number of their annoying tendencies. Reigns is no longer unbeatable, Ambrose is no longer just a lovable mid-carder, and WWE is no longer ignoring everything we want to see as fans. No matter how long his title reign lasts, Ambrose’s victory shows that WWE does know how to please its fans when they want to, and that alone will make watching their programming infinitely more enjoyable.

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