Around a year ago independent wrestler Jon Moxley, best known for his violent matches and acclaimed promos in CZW, DGUSA and FIP, was signed to a developmental deal with World Wrestling Entertainment. No false pretenses were made, he worked his last match in Evolve, losing to Austin Aries, made a farewell speech and was instructed by good friend and frequent stablemate Sami Callihan to go and make a lot of money (not in those words, naturally). At the time of the signing few could have predicted what a highly touted prospect he would become, but here we all are waiting with baited breath for him to debut on the main roster. But the question remains, how exactly should his first appearance be executed?
They could go the route of Claudio Castagnoli and just quietly sneak him in the back door as Antonio Cesaro on Smackdown, put him in a mediocre at best angle that fizzles out and then relegate him to Superstars until the booking team have something better for him. They could have him follow in the footsteps of his FCW peers and have him squash someone on the newly revamped NXT and wait around for someone to notice him and bring him over to Raw. Heck, he could take the Dolph Ziggler option and appear in a plethora of backstage skits wherein he introduces himself and walks away, becoming a huge joke to the IWC only to slowly put together one of the most solid resumes in the company and become an internet darling.
When it comes to the WWE, there’s a litany of ways to cut your teeth on television, ranging from the creative to the comedic to the down-right lame. But Moxley, or Dean Ambrose as he’s now known, is not just another developmental talent. Debuting in FCW last summer, he immediately made a beeline for Seth Rollins (formerly Tyler Black, who a large portion of fans have been begging to be brought up for nearly 2 years) and the two competed in three fantastic matches, and though Rollins would finally prevail, Ambrose had debuted with a bang, and would move on to an extremely compelling program with William Regal that lasted over 6 months and culminated in the final ever FCW TV match.
His impeccable developmental work earned him a 20+ minute encounter with CM Punk at an FCW live event, with the current WWE Champion putting him over big time afterward. He would also compete in dark matches on numerous occasions with rumors swirling that he would be the next talent to be called up, but with one caveat: Triple H has allegedly instituted a ruling that new talent can only be brought up to TV if the writers have fleshed out some real plans for them, with feuds and angles ready to go from day one.
That rumor was circulating in early 2012, and yet here we stand in mid July and still no Dean Ambrose on television. His WWE potential has been more than shown. So what can they do with him? How do they bring him in?
She’s been called the most compelling thing on WWE television over the last month, and she’s deeply embroiled in an angle with the WWE Champion CM Punk, the number one contender Daniel Bryan, and even the Big Red Monster Kane. She’s been a creative breath of fresh air, with fans waiting to see what she’ll do next.
And what I’m suggesting she does next, is Dean Ambrose. Recently AJ has seemingly decided she’s no longer interested in Punk or Bryan, kissing and then slapping them both, and what a revelation it would be if she claimed the reason was she had a new boyfriend on the 999th episode of Raw. Fast forward one week, have her, Punk and Bryan in the ring with questions flying back and forth, only for Ambrose to slide into the ring and lay out both men, make out with AJ and then laugh his ass off.
She’s a crazy chick, he’s demonstrated he can pull off mentally unbalanced, they’re a match made in hell. And one need only watch promos like this to see that he knows how to treat the ladies.
It would be one of the most impressive debuts in recent history, with AJ’s heat getting him over and making fans intrigued to find out who the heck he is, and if they allowed him to attack Punk and Bryan as well, that would be quite the statement. When was the last time a wrestler debuted by destroying a main event talent? The closest thing that comes to mind is the Nexus, and they technically debuted on NXT, but even so, remember how cool that was?
Both men have worked with him before and praised his work, so he’d be walking into familiar territory, getting himself over, providing us with a few weeks of great wrestling and adding yet another chapter to the Punk/Bryan feud that’s managed to remain unusually fresh.
Either that, or put him in a program with R-Truth or something, I don’t know, I’m not a TV writer.
I totally agree with AJ should valet him. Now that I think about it their personalities would click so well together. Ambrose is great at being the dominant persona while AJ can bounce back and forth between dominant and submissive like all great, hot crazy chicks do. I think he should go straight to RAW though and feud with Cena. Ambrose can cut so many edgy/shooty promos on Cena like Punk did last year before he resigned. That’s what I would do. Ambrose w/ AJ (The voice of the people) vs. John Cena. Then move on the feud with Punk. Is that enough meat on the bone there for ya’ Triple H?