The Wrestling Genius: The Dean Ambrose Effect

Will Dean Ambrose be the greatest WWE US Champion of all-time? It might be too early to ask that question but I know I can break this down and tell you why I think he has the potential be not just very good, but great.

There are few in the business today that can tell a story like Ambrose does and he does it with limited time on the mic. Ambrose has to share the mic with Seth Rollins (very good) and Roman Reigns (getting better) but as the alpha dog of the group he does get the lion’s share of the mic work. His ability to come off as cocky, creepy, and arrogant is a quality few possess. His mic work continues to get better and as this group continues, he’ll become the bigger and bigger star. While I am a bigger fan of Seth Rollins in ring work, I think Dean Ambrose is the more rounded performer. His well roundedness is the reason he got the singles title and Rollins has to share the spotlight with Reigns.

The dominance of The Shield will ensure him a long run as champion. Ambrose and company aren’t going to disappear any time soon and with how well they have performed, they shouldn’t. It’s clear that creative enjoys these guys and the WWE Universe likes to not like them. It stands to reason that Ambrose as the de facto leader of the most dominant group in recent history will dominate the mid-card. I don’t mean dominate as “Feed me more” jobbers but dominate in the sense that no one will be able to overcome Ambrose and his crew. As long as The Shield is a dominate group, Ambrose will be a dominate US Champion.

Ambrose will one day be bigger than the US Title and that might be the only thing to stop his run as US Champion. I could see Ambrose holding the title through SummerSlam and possibly through Survivor Series. Who else is on the WWE radar right now to beat him? The WWE for whatever reason has decided that Antonio Cesaro isn’t worth a push anymore. While I strongly disagree with that assessment, I don’t have a say so I just have to deal with it. It’s clear Kofi isn’t going to be taken seriously by the WWE and that is a shame. The WWE has a lot of young talent and it’ll be interesting to see whom they will put in a legitimate feud with Ambrose. They have stable of young and hungry guys in NEXT and development that could benefit from Ambrose’s talent and budding stardom.

These feuds are where future stars are made in the WWE. The WWE seems to think they can run anyone up the ladder quickly and fans will accept them. “Feed me more” being the latest example of a guy getting too much too fast. The mid-card use to be where guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and so many others made their name. They showed fans they could go and they developed their characters. The WWE has quickly become weak at the top because of injury and age. With CM Punk, Undertaker, and Dolph Ziggler out we have seen just how top heavy the WWE was. Ryback isn’t a real viable option as a main eventer but the WWE had little choice because they have little consistency in the mid-card. Ambrose can bring some stability to the mid-card and push a few other people up with him. Hopefully the WWE sees how quickly the top fell apart and actually learn a lesson from this. The lesson being when you develop a mid-card character you stick with that character and you don’t kill it in a flash. Cody Rhodes has suffered from creative having no idea what to do with him. Dashing Cody Rhodes, then they made him wear a mask, then they muddled around with his character, and now they had him grow a mustache. They took Cesaro a US Champion for months and made him a yodeling buffoon in just weeks. That doesn’t just hurt Cesaro it hurts the product as a whole. Cesaro beat a lot of guys as champion and now having him lose the way he is losing makes all those he beat look weak as well.

If you take one thing away from this article it should be this; Dean Ambrose will be a great US Champion and possibly the best modern era US Champion. The WWE needs mid-card stability and Ambrose will be the catalyst of that stability. People losing to Ambrose won’t feel like they will look weak in the process because Ambrose does a great job of putting others over. Also, they know that the WWE won’t go out of their way to make Ambrose look like a fool like they did Cesaro because from everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve talked to creative loves Ambrose. We as fans of in ring work hate what WWE did to Cesaro but we also have to understand that talking is just as important as ring talent. Cesaro isn’t their as a talking talent and Ambrose is there. Ambrose is well rounded and that’s what will make him a mega-star, but for right now, he’ll have to settle for being the best modern era US Champion.

Thanks for reading the column, as always you can reach me on twitter @jaredgebhardt or email me at jjg672@hotmail.com.