History YMMV / DeanAmbrose

** During Dean's ill-fated and ill-managed heel turn at the end of his WWE run, he was doing things like going to a doctor to get inoculation shots and showing up at the ring wearing a gas mask to supposedly protect himself against the "smelly disgusting people". During the 2020 UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic that disrupted the wrestling industry (while Jon Moxley was AEW Champion), WWE banned any performers from wearing protective masks while appearing on TV during shows because Vince didn't like how it made things look, eventually leading to a major outbreak among the performers and staff, with two dozen people testing positive for the Coronavirus- including Renee Young, Moxley's wife. Even worse, since he'd been exposed to her, Moxley has been forced to quarantine himself, forcing his scheduled title defense against Brian Cage at the ''Fyter Fest'' PPV to be pushed back a week to a hurried ''Fight For the Fallen'' special episode.

* HarsherInHindsight: While it was already pretty damn harsh and considered appallingly tasteless even at the time, the promo Dean cut on Seth after turning heel where he said that even Roman will "have to answer to the guy upstairs" after he was forced to take time out to recover from leukemia was even more horrible than initially thought. Out of kayfabe, Dean had gotten so distracted with trying to get a truly ''stupid'' line replaced (something about needing to bring a pooper-scooper to LA) that he hadn't noticed the shot at Roman until it was too late and Vince was able to persuade him with his "Jedi mind tricks" to go through with it. As soon as Dean said the line he felt ''physically ill,'' and this was what put the final nail in his decision to quit WWE. Even worse, the next week Vince wanted him to take another shot at Roman, one even ''worse'' than the first one, which Dean just flat-out refused to do, the line supposedly being so bad that if he ''had'' delivered it then WWE would have lost sponsors and Vince would have been forced to sack Dean and/or whoever writer came up with it on the spot in order to save face.
** Relating to this, his whole Chronicle special made during his return to the ring in 2018 and lasting until the first few weeks of his heel turn as a whole can be considered this. Since according to him in a podcast with [[Wrestling/ChrisJericho Jericho]] several months later he was breaking down from the creative strain WWE was putting him through and the botched [[HeelTurn heel turn]] is what sealed the deal for him to jump ship to [[Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling AEW]]. This especially goes towards his speech near the middle of the special talking about how much he loves wrestling with his [[Wrestling/RomanReigns bro]][[Wrestling/SethRollins thers]] and stating how [[TearJerker they'll always be his brothers]] no matter what happens and talking about him feeling like the tour they're on as [[Wrestling/TheShield The Shield]] may be the last one. Everyone assumed Ambrose just had a bad feeling because Roman Reign's leukemia announcement happened not all that much longer but it [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation could have]] been Ambrose finally deciding he was really leaving the company. The special did read like his gradual [[StartofDarkness descent]] as a character with everything falling apart around him. With him becoming more angry and agitated near the end it's not that hard to consider his behavior wasn't just him acting. In fact he repetedly states to the camera how much he just wants to wrestle and not have to worry about everything else outside of the ring which was another clear indication of how unhappy he was while wrestling in WWE. It goes to show how much different things could have turned out if [[Wrestling/VinceMcmahon Vince]] or any of the other top brass at WWE had been paying closer attention.
** During Dean's ill-fated and ill-managed heel turn at the end of his WWE run, he was doing things like going to a doctor to get inoculation shots and showing up at the ring wearing a gas mask to supposedly protect himself against the "smelly disgusting people". During the 2020 UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic that disrupted the wrestling industry (while Jon Moxley was AEW Champion), WWE banned any performers from wearing protective masks while appearing on TV during shows because Vince didn't like how it made things look, eventually leading to a major outbreak among the performers and staff, with two dozen people testing positive for the Coronavirus- including Renee Young, Moxley's wife. Even worse, since he'd been exposed to her, Moxley has been forced to quarantine himself, forcing his scheduled title defence against Brian Cage at the ''Fyter Fest'' PPV to be pushed back a week to a hurried ''Fight For the Fallen'' special episode.
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct:

** During Dean's ill-fated and ill-managed heel turn at the end of his WWE run, he was doing things like going to a doctor to get inoculation shots and showing up at the ring wearing a gas mask to supposedly protect himself against the "smelly disgusting people". During the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted the wrestling industry (while Jon Moxley was AEW Champion), WWE banned any performers from wearing protective masks while appearing on TV during shows because Vince didn't like how it made things look, eventually leading to a major outbreak among the performers and staff, with two dozen people testing positive for the Coronavirus- including Renee Young, Moxley's wife. Even worse, since he'd been exposed to her, Moxley has been forced to quarantine himself, meaning he'll almost certainly miss his scheduled title defence against Brian Cage at the ''Fyter Fest'' PPV.

** His Asylum match against Wrestling/ChrisJericho at ''Extreme Rules 2016''. Most of the match had been rather plodding and felt like it was overstaying its welcome,[[labelnote:Explanation]]A backstage segment had been cut, giving the match 10 more minutes to run[[/labelnote]] with the premise of the weapons hanging above the ring (including [[CompanionCube a potted plant]]) running thing. But then Dean grabs an orange bucket. You'd think it was just a bucket, right? Nope, turns out something's inside it. [[HolyShitQuotient It's a black bag...filled with THUMB TACKS]]. The last five minutes turn out to be intense, with multiple teases as to who's going in them. Jericho's [[FinishingMove Code Breaker]] gets countered by Dean slamming him onto the tack...of course Dean hits Dirty Deeds on Jericho, [[SenselessSacrifice landing partially on the tacks himself]]. Dean wins.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[FaceHeelTurn Turning on]] Seth Rollins on the night Roman Reigns announced he was retiring for leukemia recovery. It is so far, the only thing that has gained Dean legitimate heat from the fans.

** Relating to this his whole Chronicle special made during his return to the ring in 2018 and lasting until the first few weeks of his heel turn as a whole can be considered this. Since according to him in his podcast with [[Wrestling/ChrisJericho Jericho]] several months later he was breaking down from the creative strain WWE was putting him through and the botched [[HeelTurn heel turn]] is what sealed the deal for him to jump ship to [[Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling AEW]]. This especially goes towards his speech near the middle of the special talking about how much he loves wrestling with his [[Wrestling/RomanReigns bro]][[Wrestling/SethRollins thers]] and stating how [[TearJerker they'll always be his brothers]] and talking about him feeling like the tour they're on as [[Wrestling/TheShield The Shield]] may be the last time. Everyone assumed Ambrose just had a bad feeling because Roman Reign's leukemia announcement happened not all that much longer but it [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation could have]] been Ambrose finally deciding he was really leaving the company. The special did read like his gradual [[StartofDarkness descent]] as a character with everything falling apart and him becoming more angry and agitated near the end it's not that hard to consider his behavior wasn't just him acting. In fact he repetedly states to the camera how much he just wants to wrestle and not have to worry about everything else outside of the ring which was another clear indication of how unhappy he was while wrestling in WWE. It goes to show how much different things could have turned out if [[Wrestling/VinceMcmahon Vince]] or any of the other top brass at WWE paid closer attention to Ambrose and what was going on.

** 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 (who reportedly didn't give a shit about the match and refused to work with Dean to even try and make the best of it). 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]]

* AwardSnub: Despite being the first member of the Shield (and the youngest wrestler) to become a Grand Slam champion, Dean's achievement is rarely mentioned at all by the commentators and not properly highlighted when compared to the others.

* CharacterRerailment: Seems to be the general consensus since debuting at [[Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling AEW Double or Nothing]]. His run during the [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling G1 Climax]] 2019 especially.

* CharacterRerailment: Seems to be the general consensus since debuting at [[Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling AEW Double or Nothing]]. His run during the [[Wrestling/NewJapanPro-Wrestling G1 Climax]] 2019 especially.

* HarsherInHindsight: While it was already pretty damn harsh and considered appallingly tasteless even at the time, the promo Dean cut on Seth after turning heel where he said that even Roman will "have to answer to the guy upstairs" after he was forced to take time out to recover from leukemia was even more horrible than initially though. Out of kayfabe, Dean had gotten so distracted with trying to get a truly ''stupid'' line replaced (something about needing to bring a pooper-scooper to LA) that he hadn't noticed the shot at Roman until it was too late and Vince was able to persuade him with his "Jedi mind tricks" to go through with it. As soon as Dean said the line he felt ''physically ill,'' and this was what put the final nail in his decision to quit WWE. Even worse, the next week Vince wanted him to take another shot at Roman, one even ''worse'' than the first one, which Dean just flat-out refused to do, the line supposedly being so bad that if he ''had'' delivered it then WWE would have lost sponsors and Vince would have been forced to sack Dean and/or whoever writer came up with it on the spot in order to save face.

*** This gets even HarsherInHindsight when it was revealed in May 2019 in an interview that Austin didn't even know that Ambrose had asked him not to bring up his past/personal life. Apparently, the producer that Ambrose had talked to didn't communicate the request to Austin, and so when the topic was brought up, Austin was rightfully annoyed that his guest refused the topic and Ambrose was rightfully pissed that they hadn't respected his wishes.

* DramaPreservingHandicap: Dean Ambrose went on a losing streak during his initial feud with Seth Rollins. This was mostly due to the fact that he was selling a shoulder injury from the week after Rollins betrayed the Shield all the way through the night Rollins curb-stomped him out of comission for a month. That shoulder injury was pretty much the [[WorfHadTheFlu only reason]] Ambrose would ever lose to Rollins, who was by that point a cowardly heel who never hesitated to run a way from a fair fight.

* EstrogenBrigade: He's the closest the company has to a "bad boy" that isn't a heel, so this was inevitable. It's been said Dean Ambrose has some of the most rabid fan girls in the company. Women ''love'' him.

* HarsherInHindsight: While it was already pretty damn harsh and considered appallingly tasteless even at the time, the promo Dean cut on Seth after turning heel where he said that even Roman will "have to answer to the guy upstairs" after he was forced to take time out to recover from leukemia was even more horrible than initially though. Dean had gotten so distracted with trying to get a truly ''stupid'' line about needing to bring a pooper-scooper to LA replaced that he hadn't noticed the shot at Roman until it was too late and Vince was able to persuade him with his "Jedi mind tricks" to go through with it. As soon as Dean said the line he felt ''physically ill,'' and this was what put the final nail in his decision to quit WWE. Even worse, the next week Vince wanted him to take another shot at Roman, one even ''worse'' than the first one, which Dean just flat-out refused to do, the line supposedly being so bad that if he ''had'' delivered it then WWE would have lost sponsors and Vince would have been forced to sack Dean on the spot in order to save face.

--> "I loved you, Seth! You were my brother!"

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: See [[Awesome/DeanAmbrose the page]].

* SanityHasAdvantages: Sure, his unpredictability is what fans love about him, but one could easily make the argument that his lack of emotional control causes him more problems than it solves. Wrestling/BrayWyatt has even called Ambrose out on it a couple of times, and while Wyatt [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} isn't a hell of a lot more sane than Ambrose himself]], and thus his statements ring somewhat hollow, there's some legit reasons to back this up: During his TLC match with Wyatt, Dean Ambrose discovered a small monitor under the ring and saw that it was projecting his face and the crowd behind him on the jumbotron. He clowned around with it, and that let Bray recover and attack him. But far more damningly later was Dean's decision to try to smash Bray Wyatt's face with the monitor. [[spoiler: The monitor exploded in his face when it reached the end of its cord, and Bray Wyatt hit Sister Abigail for the pinfall.]]

** His feud with Seth Rollins served as the kickstarter for this trope. Not that he wasn't one in NXT and in the Shield, but he has become this '''BIG TIME''' ever since he started letting out more of his AxCrazy personality again towards (and after) the end of the Shield run. WWE doesn't have any long-term plans for him, but they know DA has a sizable following so they always cut away to him in the live segments just to remind you he's there. Given that Ambrose has gotten a short program with Wrestling/TripleH headed for a ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' Street Fight with '''Wrestling/BrockLesnar''', it seems that WWE is finally recognizing his popularity. (Major established stars like Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/RandyOrton being unavailable for ''[=WrestleMania=]'' due to injury probably helps).
** There is a reason why Dean is considered the most popular member of Wrestling/TheShield. Wrestling/SethRollins is popular with hardcore fans but since he's a heel he's hated by casual fans. Wrestling/RomanReigns, with his controversial mega-push and the company's desperate attempts to make him Samoan Wrestling/JohnCena, is hated by hardcore fans and a significant amount of casual fans. Dean is the only one of the group to be well-liked by both sections of the base. In fact, when Wrestling/DanielBryan retired, Ambrose became the most popular face on the full-time roster. Many speculate this is why he was last to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion -- to make his win and subsequent pop as memorable as possible.

* [[OvershadowedByAwesome Overshadowed By Marketable]]: Despite his popularity with the fans, he was always the member of Wrestling/TheShield WWE had the least faith and interest in. Part of this may have been that he spent most of his career taking part in the kind of hardcore deathmatches that WWE ''really'' don’t want to be associated with, but mostly it was because he was standing next to [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Vince’s]] [[Wrestling/RomanReigns new anointed one]], and Wrestling/TripleH’s [[Wrestling/SethRollins golden boy]].

* [[OvershadowedByAwesome Overshadowed By Marketable]]: Despite his popularity with the fans, he was always the member of Wrestling/TheShield WWE had the least faith and interest in. Part of this may have been that he spent most of his career taking part in the kind of hardcore deathmatches that WWE ''really'' don’t want to be associated with, but mostly it was because he was standing next to [[Wrestling/VinceMcMahon Vince’s]] [[Wrestling/RomanReigns new anointed one]], and Wrestling/TripleH|’s [[Wrestling/SethRollins golden boy]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Ever since he won the World Heavyweight Championship, he's slowly morphed into this, which can admittedly be quite common for a lot of guys who win the world title for the first time. You have his devoted fans who believe he's absolutely doing a good job and deserves the push he's getting. Then you have wrestling fans who never liked Ambrose to begin with and criticize him for being overrated and/or limited in the ring, in addition to being unworthy of being world champion. You also have fans who like Ambrose but claim that he's been so neutered by jobbing to Reigns and Lesnar, along with WWE not pulling the trigger on him during the height of his popularity in 2014, that he can never truly be a credible world champion. Some fans accuse him of becoming complacent on the top and putting less effort into the matches. And of course, there are fans who say they loved Ambrose back when he was still in The Shield or when he had his first solo run but have turned on him now and see him as being a terrible world champion. Basically, his world championship run has divided wrestling fans into at least a half dozen or so different camps where opinions on Dean Ambrose are scattered all over the place.
** 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. It also didn't help that in another example of bizarre face-heel booking on WWE's part, Ambrose was the one using a jobber to repeatedly humiliate Styles with the help and support of management.
** The exact moment where fans became split down the middle for Ambrose seemed to be a podcast interview Ambrose had with Wrestling/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.
*** This gets even HarsherInHindsight when it was revealed in May of 2019 in an interview that Austin didn't even know that Ambrose had asked him not to bring up his past/personal life. Apparently, the producer that Ambrose had talked to didn't communicate the request to Austin, and so when the topic was brought up, Austin was rightfully annoyed that his guest refused the topic and Ambrose was rightfully pissed that they hadn't respected his wishes.

* DorkAge: His long-awaited heel turn started off in dramatic fashion, turning on Seth Rollins the night Roman left WWE due to his leukemia diagnosis. It then devolved into a germaphobe Bane gimmick, killing off most of the fan interest in his rivalry with Rollins. The heel turn was so bad that it may have been a major factor in Ambrose deciding to leave the company. Now with only a few months left for him in WWE, he's been slowly retconed into resembling his old character.

** The fact that his harsh background has left him as such a grounded and mature person yet so talented at portraying a realistically mentally damaged character that it's become his stock and trade in the wrestling business.

** The fact that his harsh background has left him as such a grounded person yet so talented at portraying an insane character that it's become his stock and trade in the wrestling business.

* HilariousInHindsight: Back during Wrestling/TheShield days, everyone pegged Ambrose as a career heel. By 2016, he was one of the most popular faces on the roster, if not THE most popular, and eventually its top face. For added hilarity, everyone pegged his future ArchEnemy Wrestling/SethRollins as a career face. Rollins ended becoming the top heel in the company.

* FridgeBrilliance: In his post-Shield career as he settled into the upper midcard, Ambrose's greatest rival has been [[Wrestling/KevinSteen Kevin Owens.]] Their regular exchanges of the Intercontinental Title aside, it's pretty obvious when they fight each other ('fight' being the operative word given that their matches tend to be more brawls than anything) that there's a very personal venom there. It may have something to do with the way Owens established himself: an arrogant, mercenary competitor with little to no conscience, who toiled away with and around Ambrose on the indies for years and would sell out and physically maim even his best friend if it got him a shot at glory. Does that accurately describe Kevin Owens - ''or Wrestling/SethRollins''?
** Speaking of Seth Rollins, go back and look at that clip of Seth turning on Wrestling/TheShield again. Seth hit Roman once with the chair to signal his betrayal and one more time after that, but Seth hits Ambrose until he's down and then ''[[ExtremeMeleeRevenge keeps wailing on Dean]]'' [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge with the chair afterward]], to the point that the chair bent and then eventually broke outright. Whereas taking out Roman first seemed like strategy (as Roman is physically the strongest and Seth obviously knew that), there appeared to be legitimate venom behind his beatdown of Ambrose. This, aside from the act itself and [[HairTriggerTemper Ambrose's own personality]], might have done a bit to explain why Ambrose was so pissed at Rollins in the aftermath. Seth may have written it off (more or less) as a business decision to get where he wanted to go, but his assault on Ambrose in particular looked and felt personal.