On the RAW after WrestleMania, Dean Ambrose said his final goodbye to WWE, standing side-by-side with the two men who he began his main roster career with – Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. It was announced after the Royal Rumble that Dean Ambrose would not be renewing his contract that expired in April.
At first, the reaction was instantly to assume it was a work. After all, WWE hadn’t really done this before and why would they announce a top star’s departure unless they were milking it out for a storyline? But as the weeks passed, hope for it being a work decreased, as Ambrose’s status on the card basically reduced to that of a glorified enhancement talent to other stars.
His last real moment of glory was at Fastlane 2019, where he reunited with The Shield for one last stand. It was a successful outing and an emotional conclusion to arguably the greatest faction in WWE history. It really came out of the blue when the announcement did happen, because, for years, Ambrose had been one of the top five stars of the company and not only that, but he was basically the iron man of the company.
For many years, he had zero sick days, little to no days off, he was there week in and week out and he was constantly one of WWE’s most reliable performers. Even though he wasn’t pushed as heavily as Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins post-Shield break-up, WWE knew exactly what they had in their hands with Ambrose. He managed to maintain his popularity with the crowd and though people didn’t take notice, there were extensive periods of time where Dean Ambrose was lowkey protected, hardly ever getting pinned at all. 2016 is a good example of this, because even though he lost his momentum to Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, he had hardly ever been defeated otherwise.
But then, around 2017, all those years of being an iron man had caught up to him and suddenly, he found himself with an extensive injury – one that would keep him out from December 2017 till the summer of 2018. Not only did he miss WrestleMania, but he probably missed a blockbuster match with Seth Rollins as well at WrestleMania 34. When he came back, he looked different.
His head was mostly shaved, he had bulked up quite a bit from before and he went right back to being Seth Rollins’ biggest ally. With his help, Rollins managed to reclaim the Intercontinental Championship. On the night of Roman Reigns’ tragic leukemia announcement, Ambrose would make a shocking heel turn when he attacked Seth Rollins immediately after they won the RAW Tag Team Championships.
That was perhaps the beginning of the end for Dean Ambrose’s career in WWE, because according to Seth Rollins himself, both he and Ambrose were dead set against him turning heel. In an interview with Yahoo Sports, Rollins said
The way that affected Ambrose, that wasn’t really his best look. No one wanted to see us fight each other, we had been through that, it didn’t feel good. I was upset, he was clearly upset and people didn’t want to see it, they wanted to see us be brothers and care about each other.
Too add to it, the feud turned out to be a major disappointment. While the idea was great on paper, the execution was anything but that. Ambrose’s heel character had more comedic elements than darker undertones and he clearly was not motivated in that rivalry. Their match at TLC too, turned out to be an underwhelming one, not showing any signs of a grudge match.
When Rollins said that it wasn’t his best look, he was right, because Ambrose was likely the one who took the blame for the match. His Intercontinental Championship reign would last all but a month before he dropped it to Bobby Lashley. With a 12-minute appearance, the writing was on the wall.
No matter how much Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose tried to convince him to stay, the writing was on the wall. It’s possible that Ambrose was completely burned out and frustrated, with Seth Rollins being completely empathetic about his situation. Talking to Cathy Kelley on WWE Now before WrestleMania 35, Rollins said
It breaks my heart. I get it, you know. I understand. This place can be frustrating and he’s a guy who ’s been doing it nonstop for … shoot, 15, 16, 17 years now. And so sometimes, you just need to step away, you know, and take care of yourself.
He went on to state that Ambrose walks to the beat of his own drum. The fact of the matter is that the creative frustrations got to him, but it was likely a culmination of a lot more factors. When you do what they do for over a decade and more, it’s easy to get burned out. Unfortunately for fans, Ambrose will be stepping away. But for Jonathan Good, the man himself, this may be the best thing to happen to him.
He’s lived and breathed wrestling for a good part of his life and he probably realizes that it isn’t everything. We wish The Lunatic Fringe the best of luck in his future and thank him for all the entertainment that he has provided.
