History YMMV / DeanAmbrose

## The fans wanted Dean to be in the main event of ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' that year and finally win the title. The company, however, was dead set on finally giving Wrestling/RomanReigns his moment even though the fans on TV made it clear that they ''hated'' him.
## With Daniel Bryan's retirement and Reigns' injury, there was no other wrestler, let alone face, on the full-time roster that would make a convincing challenger for Hunter. For that matter, the reason Hunter was even champion at the time was because there was no other heel on the level that had a chance of getting booed against Reigns.[[note]]This is not hyperbole -- the injury bug had gone nuts ever since the latter half of 2015. Bryan and Sting were all but retired, Cena, Orton, and Rollins were all out thanks to long-term injuries, and Lesnar and Taker were both part-timers who barely showed up. With Reigns' injury, Ambrose and HHH were literally all that was left of the main event scene. They had no choice but to feud, not only for the special but also to get people to watch ''Raw'' in general.[[/note]]
** While Dean didn't win, he still managed to get a pin on Hunter, making it clear to the fans that Dean could beat him. The only reason he wasn't made champion is because his foot was supposedly under the bottom rope. That being said, Dean got his win back on the European Tour as compensation.

* TearJerker: His reaction to Seth Rollins' betrayal essentially qualified it as such. [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BpTKftGCIAAOiti.jpg This fan-art]] I'm fairly certain would bring this UpToEleven, especially considering how easy it is to believe Ambrose would've done this at least once in private that week. Considering his subsequent blinding rage against Rollins since then, Ambrose may well be getting set up to become the non-supernatural wrestling equivalent of a TragicMonster.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: While ''12 Rounds 3: Lockdown'' was considered your standard WWE BMovie fare (though many state it's better than what they usually put out), Ambrose was considered to be a highlight of the film with some definite talent for acting. This sentiment only increased when an episode of ''Swerved'' came out on the WWE Network and showed him acting as a crazy tourist at Universal's City Walk for a faux-prize promotion in order to prank fans. He managed to convince people so well that when he finally said "Swerved!" said fans had a delayed reaction.

Things between Ambrose and Rollins heated up even ''more'' during the summer of 2017 after both got into feuds with the Miztourage. After on-and-off teaming, bickering, and generally acting liking {{Tsundere}}s to each other, things culminated in the August 14, 2017 episode of RAW, which saw Dean and Seth acting like a pair of bitter, jilted, ex-lovers that ''both'' want to get back together but have burned each other so many times that they just don't know how to really forgive. The entire segment was ''dripping'' with [[BelligerentSexualTension Belligerent]] [[HomoeroticSubtext Homoerotic]] FoeRomanceSubtext, to the point even male wrestling fans were telling them to screw already, lampshading their support of said homoeroticism by mentioning how much they wanted to see two guys "[[DoubleEntendre fisting]]" each other. Eventually, the tension boiled over and the two got into a brawl, only to finally reunite and "fist" after getting attack by Sheamus and Cesaro. The following Sunday, they won the RAW Tag Team Championship, which only fuels the fire ''even more''. In fact, many wrestling fans commented that Ambrose and Rollins' reunion storyline was the second gayest storyline in 2017, after the reunion of the Golden☆Lovers Wrestling/KennyOmega and Wrestling/KotaIbushi, whose entire ''gimmick'' is based on the HomoeroticSubtext between them.

** Things between Ambrose and Rollins heated up even ''more'' during the summer of 2017 after both got into feuds with the Miztourage. After on-and-off teaming, bickering, and generally acting liking {{Tsundere}}s to each other, things culminated in the August 14, 2017 episode of RAW, which saw Dean and Seth acting like a pair bitter, jilted, ex-lovers that ''both'' want to get back together but have burned each other so many times that they just don't know how to really forgive. The entire segment was ''dripping'' with [[BelligerentSexualTension Belligerent]] [[HomoeroticSubtext Homoerotic]] FoeRomanceSubtext, to the point even male wrestling fans were telling them to screw already, lampshading their support of said homoeroticism by mentioning how much they wanted to see two guys "[[DoubleEntendre fisting]]" each other. Eventually, the tension boiled over and the two got into a brawl, only to finally reunite and "fist" after getting attack by Sheamus and Cesaro. The following Sunday, they won the RAW Tag Team Championship, which only fuels the fire ''even more''.

* NoodleIncident: On the 9/22/14 episode of ''Raw'', Ambrose (for about the tenth time) tried to jump Seth Rollins, only to be apprehended by Wrestling/TheAuthority's security goons, who would have escorted Ambrose out of the building until Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, in a moment of cunning, had him thrown into a locked storage closet and set 5 guards in front of the only door. He reappears at the end of the episode in a box that, given Seth Rollins' dialogue, was probably ''supposed'' to be full of several cinder blocks. It's never explained where Dean would have put the cinderblocks... or, more importantly, how the hell Ambrose managed to escape a locked closet with five very burly men guarding the only door... His explanation for how he escaped from that closet? "There was a backdoor."
* NotSoDifferent: From Wrestling/RandyOrton, who was also pushed well and truly over the deep end by a [[Wrestling/TripleH friend's]] betrayal and has leaned to channel that madness into his wrestling and promo styles, although he's a little more crazy than Orton. Randy may hear some voices in head, but it's his rage that really makes him dangerous -- unprovoked, Randy can at least assume the ''appearance'' of someone with sound mental faculties (if a little bit ruthless). With Dean, you can tell right off the bat that the man is not right in the head, unprovoked or not.

* HeReallyCanAct: While ''12 Rounds 3: Lockdown'' was considered your standard WWE BMovie fare (though many state it's better than what they usually put out), Ambrose was considered to be a highlight of the film with some definite talent for acting. This sentiment only increased when an episode of ''Swerved'' came out on the WWE Network and showed him acting as a crazy tourist at Universal's City Walk for a faux-prize promotion in order to prank fans. He managed to convince people so well that when he finally said "Swerved!" said fans had a delayed reaction.

** It's popped up again in the latter half of December 2017, after Dean injured his triceps at TLC in October, wrestled with it for two months, and then had to go in for emergency surgery. The injury was unforeseeable, but it's clear that WWE was heavily relying on him to carry both the Shield reunion and a chunk of the tag-team division with Wrestling/SethRollins. Now that Dean's on the shelf for an unknown amount of time, Creative seems to be throwing everything they can against the wall. Roman's feud with Wrestling/SamoaJoe looks to be entertaining and potentially great drama for the Royal Rumble, but Seth is stuck teaming with Jason Jordan - a guy who spent weeks building a heel turn and feud with his "father" Wrestling/KurtAngle, a guy who is talented but not seen as anywhere near the level of either Seth or Dean, and a guy who Seth never really liked before mid-December. Putting the Raw tag-team belts on Seth and Jordan seems to be exacerbating the ire of fans, who are irked that while [[TrueCompanions the Roman-Dean brotherhood]] seems as strong as ever, Dean and Seth had been on a losing streak against the Bar (most of which were pins of Dean), and after Dean gets hurt, Jordan just steps right in and wins the tag belts with no problems. It makes Jordan look stronger than he is, Seth look like [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor he's stepped back into his 2015ish weasel persona, caring only about gold]], and Dean the guy who was weighing the Shield down and can be easily replaced.

** The exact moment where fans became split down the middle for Ambrose seemed to be a podcast interview Ambrose had with StoneColdSteveAustin. While Austin himself had his fair share of detractors who felt he crossed the line by repeatedly trying to get Dean to talk about his past, a good segment of fans also turned against Ambrose, claiming how Dean was being lazy, apathetic, unprofessional, and disrespectful to an icon like Steve Austin. Also somewhat related to the Styles vs Ambrose feud where a lot of fans jumped from the Ambrose bandwagon to the Styles bandwagon, it didn't help matters that AJ Styles also had an interview with Austin, who asked him just as many hardball questions about his difficult childhood past as he did Ambrose but AJ appeared to handle himself a lot better and was more open to discussing his past. Basically, after the Stone Cold interview, fans either saw Ambrose as a sympathetic guy who overcame the odds and should be respected for not wanting to talk about his past or a lazy, worthless bum who has no idea how to conduct himself as world champion, with very little middle ground.

** It's popped up again in the latter half of December 2017. While Dean injuring his triceps was unforeseeable, it's clear that WWE was heavily relying on him to carry both the Shield reunion and a chunk of the tag-team division with Wrestling/SethRollins. Now that Dean's on the shelf for an unknown amount of time, Creative seems to be throwing everything they can against the wall. Roman's feud with Wrestling/SamoaJoe looks to be entertaining and potentially great drama for the Royal Rumble, but Seth is stuck teaming with Jason Jordan - a guy who spent weeks building a heel turn and feud with his "father" Wrestling/Kurt Angle, a guy who is talented but not seen as anywhere near the level of either Seth or Dean, and a guy who Seth never really liked before mid-December. Putting the Raw tag-team belts on Seth and Jordan seems to be exacerbating the ire of fans, who are irked that while [[TrueCompanions the Roman-Dean brotherhood]] seems as strong as ever, Dean and Seth had been on a losing streak against the Bar (most of which were pins of Dean), and after Dean gets hurt, Jordan just steps right in and wins the tag belts with no problems. It makes Jordan look stronger than he is, Seth look like [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor he's stepped back into his 2015ish weasel persona, caring only about gold]], and Dean the guy who was weighing the Shield down and can be easily replaced.

** Things between Ambrose and Rollins heated up even ''more'' during the summer of 2017 after both got into feuds with the Miztourage. After on-and-off teaming, bickering, and generally acting liking {{Tsundere}}s to each other, things culminated in the August 14, 2017 episode of RAW, which saw Dean and Seth acting like a pair bitter, jilted, ex-lovers that ''both'' want to get back together but have burned each other so many times that they just don't know how to really forgive. The entire segment was ''dripping'' with [[BelligerentSexualTension Belligerent]] [[HomoeroticSubtext Homoerotic]] FoeRomanceSubtext, to the point even male wrestling fans were telling them to screw already, lampshading their support of said homoeroticism by mentioning how much they wanted to see two guys "[[DoubleEntendre fisting]]" each other. Eventually, the tension boiled over and the two got into a brawl, only to finally reunite and "fist" after getting attack by Sheamus and Cesaro. The following Sunday, they won the RAW Tag Team Championship, which only fuels the fire ''even more''.

** When it comes to slash, Ambrollins (Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins) reigns supreme, though there's a good deal of Ambreigns out there too (considering their real-life TrueCompanions relationship that also extends to the rest of the Anoa'i clan).

** A lot of fans ''love'' to ship Dean Ambrose and Renee Young. This is not helped by the ShipTease between the two in on-screen interviews since he turned face with Wrestling/TheShield, nor the possible case of RomanceOnTheSet this seems to stem from. Renee later [[http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2015/3/4/8150809/renee-young-dating-dean-ambrose-wwe confirmed]] that they were dating in early 2015.
** When it comes to slash, Ambrollins (Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins) reigns supreme.

** Of course, Ambrose and Reigns have this with each other, even after the breakup of The Shield. This was especially prevalent during mid-late 2015 while combatting the newly reunited Wyatt Family together, where Ambreigns seemed to be concocting some epic bromance together and Dean acting like jealous boyfriend when Wrestling/RandyOrton joined up with them briefly before Orton got injured again. For that matter, Rollins and Reigns were starting to develop some too during their brief feud before Rollins got injured, which may owe to Ambrolleigns having a surge of popularity. Hilariously lampshaded by Wrestling/TheNewDay on the 2-1-2016 episode of ''Raw''.

** Ambrose also didn't stand much of a chance when after Summerslam 2016 he went into a feud with {{Wrestling/AJ Styles}}. At the PPV, Ambrose had a lackluster and disappointing match with Dolph Ziggler while AJ had a MOTY contender with John Cena (who he beat ''clean''). AJ was one of the hottest acts around after that, so when he feuded with Ambrose afterwards, most were on his side because they wanted to see him as champ over Ambrose. For some it was simply a case of AJ over Ambrose while still being a fan of Ambrose.

** He previously played this straight, during his insultingly one-sided ''[=WrestleMania=] 32'' feud with Brock Lesnar. Despite Dean's epic promos throughout, Brock always came out on top during their weekly encounters... which was ultimately no different during their final match — despite Dean's favor and support from Legends like Mick Foley and even Terry Funk. Fans were consequently left burned-out and frustrated (no surprise there) by this depressing and pointless feud. Compare this to Wrestling/TheUndertaker's summer-2002 mini-feud with Wrestling/JeffHardy. The feud is constructed the same: the big violent dastardly heel repeatedly beats the hell out of the smaller rising superstar babyface but the face never stays down and even challenges the heel to fight him in his type of match with grand stage and/or stakes involved. The heel wins in the end, but the face still gains credibility by showing his resiliency and utter refusal to give up. Yet two small but critical changes in the match separate an example of how Undertaker even in victory puts over whoever he wrestles from a cringeworthy demonstration that Brock's ultra-destroyer booking sets him further apart from the general roster than it does from Reigns and Cena: unlike Hardy, Ambrose was ''never'' portrayed as standing a chance for more than two seconds in the big match, and he never received a gesture of respect from Lesnar. The only saving grace was Dean's aforementioned title reign soon afterward, which was widely speculated to be a much-needed AuthorsSavingThrow after this anyway.

** He previously played this straight, during his insultingly one-sided ''[=WrestleMania=] 32'' feud with Brock Lesnar. Despite Dean's epic promos throughout, Brock always came out on top during their weekly encounters... which was ultimately no different during their final match — despite Dean's favor and support from Legends like Mick Foley and even Terry Funk. Fans were consequently left burned-out and frustrated (no surprise there) by this depressing and pointless feud. Compare this to Wrestling/TheUndertaker's summer-2002 mini-feud with Wrestling/JeffHardy. The feud is constructed the same: the big violent dastardly heel beats the hell out of the smaller upstart face but the face never stays down and even challenges the heel to fight him in his type of match with grand stage and/or stakes involved. The heel wins in the end, but the face still gains credibility by showing his resiliency and utter refusal to give up. Yet two small but critical changes in the match separate an example of how Undertaker even in victory puts over whoever he wrestles from a cringeworthy demonstration that Brock's ultra-destroyer booking sets him further apart from the general roster than it does from Reigns and Cena: unlike Hardy, Ambrose was ''never'' portrayed as standing a chance for more than two seconds in the big match, and he never received a gesture of respect from Lesnar. The only saving grace was Dean's aforementioned title reign soon afterward, which was widely speculated to be a much-needed AuthorsSavingThrow after this anyway.

** He previously played this straight, during his insultingly one-sided ''[=WrestleMania=] 32'' feud with Brock Lesnar. Despite Dean's epic promos throughout, Brock always came out on top during their weekly encounters... which was ultimately no different during their final match -- despite Dean's favor and support from Legends like Mick Foley and even Terry Funk. Fans were consequently left burned-out and frustrated (no surprise there) by this depressing and pointless feud, and the only saving grace was Dean's aforementioned title reign soon afterward (which was widely speculated to be a much-needed AuthorsSavingThrow after this).

** Dean's championship win at ''Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank 2016'' and subsequent reign were considered to be the company's way of saying sorry for both what went down regarding Ambrose's participation at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 32'' (the fans made it vocally clear that they wanted Ambrose in the main event that year, only to get Reigns instead; Ambrose was put in a match with Brock Lesnar as a sort of compensation, but even that match ended with Ambrose being unceremoniously squashed by Lesnar. The fact that the actual event was so widely reviled that both the fans and the company are pretending it never happened is just icing on the cake), and for passing him up for the other two members of the Shield -- not only did he win the title, he was also the #1 pick for ''[=SmackDown=]'' at the WWE Draft, effectively making him the face of that brand, and turned out to be the only member of his former stable drafted there. He was drafted before numerous top stars, including Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/RandyOrton (both of whom ended up on SD as well). He also pinned both Rollins and Reigns clean to bring the title to his brand -- Rollins in a rematch at the Draft, Reigns at the Triple Threat at ''Battleground''. It helps that Ambrose is the only member of the Shield to not embarrass the company in some fashion.[[note]]Rollins cheated on his fiancée -- she retaliated by posting NSFW images of him and his lover on the Internet, and later on his lover was fired for posting Neo Nazi imagery on her social media accounts, which reflected badly on him; Reigns, meanwhile, was suspended for violating the Wellness Policy three months into his championship reign, after the company mega-pushed him to the top for two years in spite of the growing fan hostility.[[/note]]

** During the Shield's face run, Seth and Dean began doing stereo suicide dives, and even resorted to crazy dives to save one another from Wrestling/RandyOrton [[Wrestling/{{Evolution}} and]] Wrestling/TripleH's assault as the four fought increasingly further away from the ring during the six-man tag match at ''Extreme Rules 2014''. It seemed they were developing into a first-rate tag team of their own while working alongside a burgeoning singles juggernaut in Roman. Perhaps this goes toward explaining Dean's absolutely visceral hatred towards Seth for his betrayal—he's a borderline [[WomanScorned Man Scorned]], and not in a mockable Wrestling/MattHardy-ish way. During a handicap match against Rollins and Kane, Dean finally got Seth by himself after incapacitating Kane, only to scream this in his face:

*** Dean is an honorary Samoan.[[labelnote:explanation]]Again, because of Ambrose's close association with members of the Anoa'i family. It's often been joked that Ambrose is the only Samoan in the company besides Samoa Joe that isn't related to that family by blood.[[/labelnote]]