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WWE: Dean Ambrose and Miz’s Feud That Was Abandoned Without Good Cause

By Alexander Podgorski

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WWE SmackDown had a great, ready-made feud between these four, and it was ended abruptly without proper explanation.

As of this writing, the Miz is scheduled to take on John Cena and Dean Ambrose will be facing Baron Corbin at WWE WrestleMania 33. These two matches are both a step down from what we were expecting only a few short months ago.

Towards the end of 2016, Miz and Ambrose were embroiled in arguably the best feud on SmackDown, with Miz doing a fantastic job in pushing the boundaries between scripted and reality.

Then, just as the feud was really getting good, it was abandoned and forgotten. The commentators stopped talking about it, and the wrestlers switched feuds without good reason.

So instead of having the Miz and Ambrose conclude their lengthy feud on a proper stage in WrestleMania, the two of them are now both going to be in a losing situation. Miz and Maryse will be facing John Cena and Nikki Bella, after the former duo started throwing shade at Cena and Nikki’s personal lives just as much as they were with Ambrose’s and Renee Young’s.

Must Read: 25 Greatest WrestleMania Moments

But here’s the problem: with Ambrose vs. Miz, there was an equal chance of both men winning, as they were more or less on the same level. Now, Miz is going to face Cena, a man that never loses, all because Vince wants a 21st-century version of the Macho Man Randy Savage/Miss Elizabeth moment.

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Despite all of his excellent promo work, Miz has absolutely no chance of winning against John Cena. So he’s going to be made to look like a fool at WrestleMania again, despite being one of the best talkers and most improved wrestlers on the show for the past year.

Ambrose won’t be faring much better. Instead of being in the ring with a relatively better worker in Miz, he’ll be facing Baron Corbin. Corbin’s relatively new to the main roster, but has made significant improvements over the past few months.

It’s reached a point where Corbin and Ambrose are now feuding over Ambrose’s Intercontinental Championship. But despite this being a feud it’s quite obvious that Corbin’s going to be winning.

Corbin’s a tall, intimidating monster when compared to most of the SmackDown roster. He’s also got a sick finisher that always manages to get a reaction, regardless of whom he’s fighting. He has come a long way from being relatively bland and uninspiring after his initial main roster call-up.

His matches are now more exciting, he seems more comfortable on the microphone, and he now carries himself more like a big man than he did before. Clearly, those lessons with Kane have been paying off.

Because of all this, it’s more obvious that Corbin will be winning the match at WrestleMania. If this ends up being true, this will be Ambrose’s third consecutive loss at WrestleMania, and his second singles loss. That doesn’t look good for any wrestler, especially since WrestleMania’s marketed as the most important show of the year.

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Indeed, both Miz and Ambrose were much better off feuding with each other than against their current opponents. In fact, for a time, the two of them, along with A.J. Styles, were the three most interesting wrestlers on SmackDown.

But while Styles and Ambrose were better in the ring, it was Miz who cut the best promos, not just on SmackDown, but arguably of anyone in WWE. From Miz ripping into Daniel Bryan for calling him a coward to revealing to the world that Renee Young ‘was the one sleeping with him [Ambrose], Miz has been one of the best acts on SmackDown, and one of the most improved in recent years.

The feud between Ambrose and Miz was a simple one that made much more sense than the current ones. Miz was acting like a jerk and revealed something about Ambrose’s private life that Ambrose wanted to remain private. Maryse made it even more personal when she slapped Renee.

These things, coupled with the ever-present bitter rivalry between Miz and Daniel Bryan, made their interactions some of the most must-see WWE programming, as cliché as that sounds. For the first time in probably his entire career, the Miz wasn’t just some loud-mouthed jerk that pretended to be a tough guy. He was a serious heel that actually backed his words up (for the most part), and more people respected him for the passion he showed in his promos.

Meanwhile, Ambrose and Renee Young played the roles of angry, disrespected couple perfectly. Ambrose and Renee did not want their private lives to become the subject of WWE storytelling, but by this point, the cat was out of the bag. This was something they didn’t have control over, so they tried to remedy the situation by exacting revenge on the Miz & Maryse.

Unfortunately, this realistic, simple, and well-executed rivalry never reached its proper conclusion. Vince McMahon decided that this wasn’t a storyline worth pursuing, so he retconned it and pretended as though it never happened. Instead, Miz was then shoe-horned into a feud with John Cena and Ambrose started feuding with Baron Corbin.

While both Miz and Ambrose have done their best to make their respective rivalries work, it won’t matter what they do in the end. Vince will always push Cena over anyone else, even if they have considerable momentum and are popular with the audience only for a brief moment in time. So no matter what the Miz says or does, there’s no way he’ll defeat Cena.

For Ambrose, the situation isn’t much better, as he has gone from feuding over the WWE Championship with the best wrestler in the world in A.J. Styles to acting as a stepping stone for Baron Corbin.

Next: Pros and Cons of Ambrose vs. Corbin at WrestleMania 33

If there was ever a time when WWE should’ve just let existing rivalries evolve and conclude by themselves without ending them prematurely, this was it.