WWE Buy Or Sell: Dean Ambrose As A Main Event Talent
By Josh Raibick
Since The Shield broke up in 2014, it has been no secret that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have enjoyed more consistent success than Dean Ambrose. While Ambrose has won a WWE Championship, the question still remains, is Ambrose going to be a main event talent going forward?
First I want to address the biggest defense of Ambrose, “You know he was the first member of The Shield to become a grand slam champion?” While this is true, I would like to evaluate what happened with some of those title reigns.
The biggest accomplishment in Ambrose’s career was capturing the WWE Championship at WWE Money in the Bank 2016. Unfortunately, a cloud followed that title reign around, and that cloud was the suspension of Reigns for a failure of WWE’s Wellness Policy.
Ambrose got to defend his title at WWE Battleground 2016 a month later against Rollins and Reigns, did a short Summerslam program with Ziggler, but then eventually lost the WWE Championship to AJ Styles. Following his loss to Styles, Ambrose eventually faded out of the main event scene.
Another issue was that Ambrose defended the Intercontinental Championship on the pre-show for WrestleMania 33 against Baron Corbin. Meanwhile Ambrose’s Shield counterparts had high profile matches versus Triple H and The Undertaker.
Time is starting to run out on the Lunatic Fringe to live up to his potential from when he first appeared on the main roster. But, maybe hope is not lost yet.
Dean Ambrose before last December’s triceps injury was the iron man of the WWE. Since his main roster debut he had appeared more than any other superstar in WWE in that stretch.
Ambrose is a superstar that has been reliable, and can be counted on if there needs to be an emergency replacement. Technically all of this makes Ambrose the most overexposed superstar on the roster.
While an injury is certainly not a good thing (wishing him a speedy recovery), his recent injury might have had a silver lining. It finally gives a chance for the WWE Universe to miss him. It gave a chance for the WWE Universe to see what they were missing when Ambrose wasn’t on their television weekly.
WWE understands how important of a superstar that Ambrose is, and that is why a big push should be expected for him when he returns. But does Ambrose return as a babyface?
Probably not. Taking a quick look at the current landscape of babyfaces you will see Braun Strowman, Reigns, Rollins, Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, and Bobby Lashley. I might have left a name off the list, but as you can see the top of the card is extremely crowded on WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown Live.
It makes sense to bring Ambrose back as a heel. Ambrose for most of his independent and developmental career has played the part of a heel. In fact it is why people knew who he was before The Shield debuted on the main roster.
Right now The Miz cuts the best heel promos in the company. Yet, I still believe Ambrose has the ability to cut the promos that leave goosebumps after.
Simply put, Ambrose is anything but PG, so it is time to get the PG out of his gimmick. When that happens, Ambrose will become a main event heel.
That is why I am BUYING that Ambrose is a main event talent who will fulfill his potential. Many fans will write Ambrose off because his character “lost its edge” or moves like the Lunatic Lariat are a little too predictable.
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Once the Lunatic Fringe actually becomes unhinged as a heel, the WWE Universe will see that the real Dean Ambrose has been here all along.