#wwe's done it for years; he doesn't need it from you ungrateful assholes too

[softambrollins]

Why Dean Ambrose deserves to be respected and appreciated by WWE and the audience.

So, I’m seeing lots of people trying to discredit Dean’s accomplishments in WWE or reduce him to one hokey segment or one badly-booked match (which literally everyone has had at some point) or act like he’s never done anything significant in WWE and won’t be missed. Which is 100% bullshit, obviously. But I thought I’d make a list anyway, definitely not comprehensive, but hopefully a good reference of the things this man has accomplished in WWE over the last 8 years.

His matches with Seth Rollins in FCW and his feud with William Regal are both highly underrated and some of the best things to happen in FCW.

The Shield would not exist without Dean Ambrose. This is a fact, made clear by the members of The Shield themselves.

He was United States Champion for 351 days.

After the breakup, despite him admitting that they pretty much set him up to fail and didn’t see him as a priority, he got himself over and quickly became the most popular Shield member on his own and the most popular babyface on the roster.

He had the feud of the year with Seth Rollins in 2014. He had a ton of amazing promos and segments during that time and they had some great matches culminating with their HIAC match. Which was the first time in decades two guys under thirty main-evented a PPV, by the way.

He was pretty much consistently over as a babyface from when The Shield split in 2014 to after he returned in 2018. Which is not a small feat to accomplish.

He was drawing better numbers than Roman Reigns on the house show circuit.

He was selling more merch than Reigns and Cena at one point.

He had an insane Last Man Standing match at the 2016 Royal Rumble with Kevin Owens, and then entered the Rumble and was the runner-up.

He had a great build to the Lesnar match at Wrestlemania 32, but Lesnar didn’t want to do anything he wanted to. So it was not his fault. Case closed.

He won the briefcase at MITB 2016 and cashed in that same night to become WWE Champion.

He won the Shield Triple Threat at Battleground 2016, and carried the WWE Championship over to Smackdown.

He was the #2 overall draft pick in the 2016 draft, and the top babyface on Smackdown after the brand split.

He had the most matches in WWE in 2015 and 2016 and 2017. 

He’s main-evented 17 PPVs.

He has 28 four-star+ matches.

He had a bunch of great matches in 2016, with Kevin Owens, with Triple H, with Seth Rollins, with AJ Styles, with John Cena, etc.

He brought the Intercontinental Championship to RAW in the 2017 Superstar Shakeup.

He had one of the best-written reunion stories ever with Seth Rollins. Just listen to the reaction they get for putting their fists together.

He became the youngest Grand Slam Champion ever at Summerslam 2017.

He and Seth had some of the best tag team matches of the year together.

He was the catalyst for The Shield reunion in 2017. As I said before, The Shield would not exist without Dean Ambrose.

The man was working with an arm he could barely extend for months after TLC. His tricep was basically hanging on by a thread.

He was out for 9 months after undergoing triceps surgery during which he contracted an infection that could have been life-threatening. He came back in the greatest shape of his life. To an amazing reaction, by the way.

He had one of the most devastating heel turns of all time. And the range of emotion and the obvious conflict he showed during it was phenomenal. 

The first three weeks of his and Seth’s feud were great. Then after Survivor Series, someone decided to fuck it all up. They still tried to make it work, but It probably was too late, unfortunately. Their match at TLC was fine though, it just fell victim to wrong booking for the feud and a bad spot on the card.

If you don’t understand what a uniquely compelling and complex character Dean Ambrose is, I strongly urge you to watch his WWE Chronicle episode (alternate link).

The Shield is one of the best WWE-created acts of all time. You can’t deny that. And Dean Ambrose is a fundamental part of that. He’s not the weak link or the third wheel. He’s the emotional centre of The Shield, he was the best promo and the most interesting character of the three of them when they came in, and he only made the other two better.

He’s had some of the best promos in WWE in the last decade. Examples: One, two, three, four, five.

He’s one of the most believable and well-rounded characters in WWE. He’s an amazing actor and storyteller. He can do intense and emotional as well as he can do humour.

All those hokey moments everyone hates so much? He made them all work better than most other people could even dream of. Because he’s just that likeable and charismatic. Examples: One, two, three, four, five, six.

He has countless underrated moments of good character work or continuity or genuine humour or just showing how well he understands the business. Examples: One, two, three, four.

Just watch the segment from last Monday and tell me that this man isn’t one of the best characters and talkers that WWE’s seen in years.

Of course a lot of this is subjective, but a lot isn’t, and to simply ignore all of these things because you personally don’t like him is ridiculous.

STOP ERASING DEAN AMBROSE’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND HIS TALENT AND HIS WORTH TO THIS COMPANY. THANK YOU.