WWE’s 5 Worst Decisions Regarding Dean Ambrose
Dean Ambrose's WWE departure has fans talking about 'what could have been' for the Lunatic Fringe. Ambrose holds a great WWE career many established and aspiring professional wrestlers would kill to achieve, but he ultimately played the third wheel to his Shield brethren: Roman Reigns - heir apparent as face of the company; and Seth Rollins, who has been consistently pushed and protected since the Shield disbanded in 2014.
Ambrose, who debuted with The Shield at Survivor Series 2012, has remained a fan favorite, but was repeatedly mishandled and underutilized by management. While he might return to the organization someday, it's clear Ambrose reached fantastic highs coupled with some baffling lows. The occurrences outlined in this article are likely to comprise some of the major reasons why Ambrose refused to re-sign with WWE.
He didn’t even receive a televised send-off, but WWE posted an exclusive video of events that transpired after RAW - the video has already reached over 9 million views.
How his 2016 World Championship reign ended
Ambrose achieved the unthinkable when he cashed in his hard-earned Money in the Bank briefcase to capture his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins at the 2016 Money in the Bank pay-per-view event.
Ambrose's run started off with a bang but flat-lined a couple months later. WWE likely would have never positioned Ambrose as champion had Reigns not violated the wellness policy that same summer. We finally got the long-anticipated Shield triple threat (which was a WrestleMania-worthy main event) at Battleground 2016. As champion and the number one pick in the modern brand split draft, Ambrose helped carry a rejuvenated SmackDown Live brand when it launched in 2016 (along with AJ Styles and The Miz), until the introduction of James Elsworth on the main roster. Fans quickly soured on the title run and Styles defeated Ambrose for the championship at Backlash 2016 after a low-blow.
His underwhelming 2017 Intercontinental Championship Title Reign
The WWE Intercontinental title is historically known as the workhorse championship, fitting of Ambrose, who worked more dates than anyone on the roster for several years. Ambrose was reported to have worked double duty some nights, traveling from one WWE live event to the next in the span of a few hours (or working multiple matches on the same show).
With little build or fanfare, he was relegated to the WrestleMania 33 pre-show against Baron Corbin. Ambrose later dropped the IC title to the Miz at Extreme Rules 2017.