WWE has officially announced that Dean Ambrose will be leaving the company in April after opting not to renew his contract. The wrestling world has been rocked by the news and honestly, we can’t help but shed a tear over his departure.
via wwe.com
Love him or hate him, Dean Ambrose has been a vital part of WWE’s main event line-up for the past seven years since his main roster debut.
Since he first signed with WWE in 2011, Ambrose always seemed like he was destined for greatness. From start to finish, his WWE run has been paved with great accomplishments.
The – at one time – defacto leader of The Shield has been a former WWE Champion, 3-time Intercontinental Champion, a 2-time Tag Team Champion, former United States Champion, and a successful Money in the Bank holder. We’d be lying if we said we are not gonna miss the big lug when he’s gone.
As ‘The Lunatic Fringe’ aims closer towards WWE’s exit door, we couldn’t help but reminisce about the legacy he’s leaving behind in WWE. Lost in memories, we felt compelled to compile a list of Dean Ambrose’s 10 best moments in WWE.
But first, an entry that didn’t make the final cut, but deserves an honorable mention.
via wwe.com
Honorable Mention – A War of Words with Mick Foley
This may not have taken place on television, but this helped Ambrose get his first bit of mainstream buzz before making his official main roster debut.
For those unaware, WWE originally had plans to introduce Dean Ambrose to the WWE Universe with a feud and eventual match with Mick Foley.
However, WWE wanted to try something a little bit different. Rather than hype the feud on television, they decided to do so through social media in shoot fashion from an idea that Ambrose personally pitched to them.
During WrestleMania Axxess weekend in 2012, Ambrose confronted Foley in front of a crowd of fans who documented the whole thing on their camera phones. In a rage, Ambrose got in a shouting match with Foley about how ‘The Hardcore Legend’ inspired a generation of wrestlers to put their lives on the line in the ring with death defying risks.
Quite the unconventional way to build a feud, but the dirt sheets were eating it up. Unfortunately, as Ambrose explained in a Talk is Jericho interview, the angle was cut short before it could touch television because Foley couldn’t get medically cleared to compete.
Credit: WWE.com
10. The Shield Debut
After spending a year in FCW, Ambrose spent much of 2012 just waiting in the wings for WWE to call him up. After the aforementioned Foley angle was cancelled, WWE scrambled for months trying to figure out how to bring the Ambrose Asylum to television. The perfect opportunity came at the 2012 edition of Survivor Series.
A year after winning the title, CM Punk would face his greatest challenge hit when he defended his WWE Championship in a Triple Threat against Ryback and John Cena. His title truly looked like it was in jeopardy until some much needed collateral arrived in the form of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
Seemingly from out of nowhere, the three developmental standouts charged the ring and attacked Ryback and sent him crashing through the announcers table in the first of many Triple Powerbombs we’d see on WWE television.
Their mission statement was simple: inject their own brand of justice into the WWE. This called for ‘The Hounds of Justice’ to ambiguously protect Punk’s title, then serving as bodyguards for The Authority before breaking out as babyfaces.
By intervening in the events of the main event of Survivor Series, The Shield immediately established themselves as bonafide main-eventers.
A year and a half after running a rampage through the roster as a unit, all three men would continue their run as main event talents after going their separate ways as singles stars. The Shield are remembered fondly as arguably the hottest stable in WWE history.
via wwe.com
9. The Iron Man of FCW
Long before being promoted to the main roster, Dean Ambrose got his feet dirty in WWE’s original developmental territory known then as Florida Championship Wrestling. Right off the bat in his first night in FCW, he made an immediate impact.
He debuted in a promo where he not only immediately challenged Seth Rollins for his FCW 15 Championship – which was FCW’s mid-card title, but title matches could only be contested in 15-minute Iron Man Matches – but Ambrose promised that in arriving to WWE, he was “about to blow the doors off everything!”
Not only did he blow the doors off in FCW, but in his series of matches with Seth Rollins, both men blew the roof off the place and made an early impression as standouts of the roster.
In the coming weeks, both men would realize they were far too evenly matched. Their 15-minute Iron Man match would end in a draw, forcing another 20-minute title match the following week which would also end in a draw.
Their next and final Iron Man match for the FCW 15 Championship would not only be the best in the series, but was hyped as the biggest match in FCW history.
Alas, they would reach another draw in the closing minutes, but FCW General Manager Maxine would put the match into sudden death overtime, allowing Rollins a final fall finish to a victory.
We’re positive that it was his trilogy of Iron Man matches with Seth Rollins that helped Dean Ambrose make an early impression on WWE staff to convince them that he would have a bright future on the main roster one day.
via wwe.com
8. A Reunion with Rollins
Since arriving to WWE, Dean Ambrose’s career has always been strategically linked to that of Seth Rollins’s. Whether it be their FCW career, their formation of The Shield, the Shield breakup, their several battles on the main roster, etc. It always felt like Rollins and Ambrose were destined to do things forever.
Since turning babyface in late 2016 after spending the last couple years as a heel, he spent the following year or so on a redemption tour of sorts. For all of the crimes he pulled as a member of The Authority, he sought forgiveness from the men he hurt.
This was particularly the case for Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. While he buried the hatchet with the former, the latter was still struggling to etch the hatchet from out of his back.
Rollins spent the summer of 2017 trying to make amends with Dean Ambrose as they fought off opposition from The Bar. Things would come to a head on the Aug. 14 episode of Raw inside of the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
After denying each other’s attempts at fist bump, Rollins and Ambrose brawled. That is, until they were forced to fight off an intervening Bar. Afterwards, realizing there were bigger things afoot than beef between each other, they finally fist bumped to a roaring reaction.
The segment was orchestrated perfectly and it is a testament to the skills of both Ambrose and Rollins that they were able to use a simple fist bump to receive the loudest cheers we’d hear all year.
via wwe.com
7. Nailing the Walls Down with Thumbtacks
The Spring of 2016 saw Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose have an odd rivalry that was essentially over stolen talk show segments and destroyed potted plants. The frustrations between these two Superstars would conclude inside of the first – and last – ever Asylum Match.
The Asylum Match was simply a steel cage with gimmicks hung above in the air. Gimmicks such as a straitjacket, a mop, a belt and a bucket.
Needless to say, this was a silly comedy match. After being worn out from a classic Intercontinental Championship Fatal Four Way that went on right before the Asylum Match, the crowd were in no mood for silliness at the time.
In fact, the crowd was completely dead for the majority of the match and found it boring.
Suddenly, the whole crowd came alive and unglued from their seats when Ambrose pulled a bag of thumbtacks. They then gave the match one of the loudest reactions of the night when Ambrose sent Jericho back first into the tacks.
The fact that Ambrose was able to turn a match completely around like that takes quite the skill. Of course, the tacks helped, but the tacks would have never appeared in the match if not for Ambrose.
As he explained in a Talk is Jericho episode alongside Jeff Hardy, Ambrose convinced Vince McMahon to allow them to have a thumbtacks spot after he begged The Chairman and refused to leave his office until Vince would give the OK.
Of course, Vince’s OK was a begrudging one, but it was an OK nonetheless.
via wwe.com
6. Winning His First IC Championship
We were tempted to replace this with Ambrose’s United States Title win. Not only because it was his first ever WWE title win on a night where The Shield all won gold, but we had to disqualify this mostly because his US Championship reign – despite being the longest in modern WWE history – was a lackluster one considering he hardly defended it.
We also favor his Intercontinental Championship win because of the significance that comes with winning the title.
Not only is the title viewed as a young champion’s first step to the main event scene, but it’s called “the workhorse title” for a reason. If they don’t give it to a young rising star, WWE often hand the Intercontinental Championship off to the company’s best and hardest workers.
In breaking out of The Shield as a singles star, Dean Ambrose proved to be exactly that.
Prior to TLC, Dean Ambrose had defeated Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens in the semi-finals of the Survivor Series Tournament to crown a new WWE Champion.
Although Ambrose would lose in the finals to Roman Reigns, he still had a win over the IC Champion to boast about. The win earned him a title rematch against ‘The Prizefighter’ where Ambrose would acquire Owens’s shiny white prize in front of an elated Boston crowd in front of the TD Garden.
via wwe.com
5. Winning The Shield Triple Threat
Since the very start of The Shield’s run in WWE, Dean Ambrose was primed by many to become the breakout star of the group as a top heel.
To everyone’s surprise, that accolade would go to Seth Rollins, who would also become the first man out of The Shield to win a WWE Championship. Roman Reigns would follow that trend soon after.
Two years after Rollins broke the group apart with a steel chair to their backs, Ambrose still had yet to win a World Championship of his own.
People were starting to feel as though Ambrose was becoming the weak link of The Shield and that his singles run was quickly dissolving into disappointment.
Ambrose happily proved even his harshest critics wrong when he won the WWE Championship at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. His first pay-per-view title defense would wind up being a tough one in the form of a WrestleMania worthy dream match.
In the main event of Battleground, all former members of The Shield were set to collide in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship.
Still having critics who doubted his potential, Ambrose sought to disprove his skeptics once again by winning that Triple Threat and going as far as to pin Roman Reigns, who has always had a reputation as WWE’s would-be golden boy.
For years, people looked at Ambrose as an odd man out who was not living up to his potential within The Shield. To see Ambrose emerge from his Shield Triple Threat as the winner with the whole SmackDown roster raising him high in celebration was truly a breathtaking sight.
via wwe.com
4. Giving The Deadman His Last TV Match
When SmackDown arrived to the O2 Arena in London for the April 23 tapings, Dean Ambrose had only been on the main roster with The Shield for four months at this point.
In that time, all three man ran through several legends and future Hall of Famers in that time either by defeating them in matches or laying them out on their backs. Such men would include The Rock, The Big Show, Sheamus, John Cena and Randy Orton.
Despite being in WWE for such little time, the trio had accomplished a lot and were given huge opportunities against big league competitors. On this night, Ambrose would receive the biggest opportunity yet when he was given the privilege of facing another future Hall of Famer in The Undertaker in one-on-one competition.
While that is an honor in itself, it is also huge knowing that this match was The Undertaker’s final match on television.
Since then, Undertaker has wrestled exclusively on pay-per-view. No matter what, Ambrose will always have that very special, unique feather in his cap to boast about.
Even more impressive is the fact that he nearly won the match. Ambrose came within inches of defeating The Undertaker before ‘The Demon from Death Valley’ locked in his Hell Gates submission hold to tap out the de facto Shield leader.
Even in a loss, Ambrose and Co. stood tall at the end of the night when The Shield sent The Undertaker crashing through the announcer’s table.
via wwe.com
3. Slaying the Beast
The Feb. 8, 2016 episode of Monday Night Raw served as one of the final weeks of television until Fastlane, where the main event saw Dean Ambrose face Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar in a Triple Threat Match to determine the #1 Contender for Triple H’s WWE Championship at WrestleMania.
The Raw show opened with a contract signing between all three men that ended with ‘The Beast’ laying out ‘The Lunatic.’
Later that night, Ambrose goaded the former UFC Champion on the mic, begging for more. Unsurprisingly, Lesnar would lay Ambrose out again. Every time he did so and tried to leave the ring, Ambrose would goad Lesnar some more and beg for more punishment with a smile on his face; laughing at Brock.
Lesnar would continue to decimate Ambrose until suddenly, on one final attempt, Ambrose would bring ‘The Beast’ to his knees after a low blow.
Granted, it helped that Roman Reigns would provide a minor distraction, but it doesn’t take away the fact that Ambrose laid out an unstoppable juggernaut like Brock Lesnar.
It’s rare that any WWE Superstar gets the jump on Lesnar to the point that they walk out of the segment leaving ‘The Beast’ laying, and to see Ambrose do just that as an underdog made for an awesome sight. Our final image of Lesnar that night was seeing the MMA striker grieve in pain as a wild ‘Lunatic’ stood tall over him.
It was also awesome to see Ambrose get knocked down time and time again only to get back up and demand that the former 5-time World Champion give him his best shot for once. It was very reminiscent of Jeff Hardy’s star-making performance against The Undertaker in 2002.
via wwe.com
2. Ambrose Burns Down The Shield
For several weeks since returning from injury during the end of summer 2018, it was teased on numerous occasions that Dean Ambrose will eventually turn his back on his Shield mates and put an end to the group once and for all.
It felt like he could turn at any second of the week, but we still were caught off guard on the night when he finally did turn.
Oct. 22, 2018 remains a fateful, pivotal night in the history of both The Shield and the WWE as a whole.
Roman Reigns would open the show to relinquish the WWE Universal Championship to battle a real life bout with leukemia. He would join his two Shield brothers at the top of the ramp for one final fist bump. It could be very likely that this moment is the last time we’ll ever see The Shield as a unit together onscreen.
To commemorate their fallen brother, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins promised to win the WWE Raw Tag Team Titles from Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler in Roman’s honor, and that they did.
What no one saw coming was Ambrose sending Rollins’s head crashing to the mat with a Dirty Deeds immediately following the main event. It felt as if the world stopped for a second and all that could be heard was the stunned awe of the crowd.
It’ll probably be debated until the end of time whether or not this moment was an example of pure booking genius or ill-timed crassness that was done in poor taste.
Regardless of how we feel about it, we all have to admit that WWE caught us off guard with one of the company’s most unpredictable moments. While his intense feud with Rollins would turn hokey quickly in the coming weeks, this is still a moment that we will not soon forget.
via wwe.com
1. Winning the WWE Championship
When Ambrose is long gone, one image we are always going to cherish is the lasting image of ‘The Lunatic Fringe’ raising the WWE Championship over his head to close out the Money in the Bank pay-per-view.
A mere six days before the pay-per-view, Ambrose had WWE Champion Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins on his Ambrose Asylum talk show segment so that his former Shield mates could talk about their upcoming main event title match at Money in the Bank.
During the segment, Ambrose made sure to promise that he was going to win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match and cash in his briefcase on the winner of the main event. He did exactly that on the night of the pay-per-view, but that didn’t make us any less pumped up to see it happen.
At the PPV, Ambrose won his briefcase. An hour later, Rollins defeated Reigns for the WWE Championship. Two minutes later, Ambrose clocked ‘The Architect’ with his case and won his title.
After putting in work with WWE for four long years, Ambrose finally won himself a WWE Championship.
It was an exceptionally rewarding moment for fans of Ambrose who stuck it out with him since day one knowing that one day, he was going to have his day in the sun. And boy, what a bright day it was.
It’s moments like this that are going to make us truly miss Dean Ambrose when he’s gone.