WWE Rumor: Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose Set To Wrestle For The Intercontinental Title At ‘WrestleMania 32’
Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view gave us a few hints as to what the WrestleMania 32 card is going to look like. Matches like Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt and Triple H vs. Roman Reigns were more than hinted at during the Rumble match itself, and it’s pretty much a guarantee that both matches will happen this spring at AT&T Stadium.
One match that was set up during the Rumble match that no one seems to be talking about at this point is Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose. According to Bleacher Report, Jericho and Ambrose are set to battle for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32.
The Jericho vs. Ambrose match was strongly hinted at back in September when Jericho returned as Ambrose and Roman Reigns’ surprise partner against Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Braun Strowman at Night of Champions. After the match, which Jericho lost for his team, he stormed out of the ring, but not before shoving Dean Ambrose out of his way. It was a heel move that wasn’t addressed by WWE after the fact, likely because Jericho wasn’t scheduled to return to WWE television for several months at that point.
On Sunday, Jericho was in the Royal Rumble match for nearly an hour, and his night was brought to an end by Dean Ambrose, who was the one to eliminate “Y2J.”
This Thursday’s SmackDown show will feature a Highlight Reel segment with both Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns as the guests. According to the spoilers, there was no tension between “Y2J” and the “Lunatic Fringe,” as they were interrupted by the Wyatt Family, which set up the show’s main event.
Jericho, Ambrose, and Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan via disqualification was set up when Braun Strowman ran in and laid out the babyface trio. Big Show came out to make the save, but he was laid out as well.
One of these men is heading to the main event of @WrestleMania vs. @TripleH! https://t.co/CrVFsCcB8B #WWEFastlane pic.twitter.com/gNSQ7gPr1o
— WWE (@WWE) January 26, 2016
If WWE is planning Jericho vs. Ambrose at WrestleMania 32, then it would make sense to turn one of them heel. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has suggested that Ambrose will go heel at some point in the near future, possibly after February’s WWE Fastlane show, where he’s set to take on Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns in a triple threat match to determine the number-one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 32.
Meltzer’s idea involved Ambrose, who is clearly in the Fastlane main event to get pinned, resenting the fact that he wasn’t able to get the job done in the triple-threat match and turning heel following the show.
Ambrose has always expressed his desire to be a heel, saying that he, like most wrestlers, prefers to be a heel. An Ambrose heel turn would also be something new, as opposed to a Jericho heel turn, which we’ve seen over and over again.
Before his return to WWE television several weeks ago, Jericho noted on his podcast, Talk is Jericho, that Dean Ambrose is one of the few guys that he would want to work with at WrestleMania. Other opponents Jericho said he would like to face on WWE’s grandest stage were Ambrose’ former brothers in The Shield, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.
It seems to be a foregone conclusion that Reigns is going to wrestle Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 32, and, of course, Seth Rollins is currently out with a knee injury, and he’s not expected to return until the middle of this year. So that leaves us with Ambrose as one of the few potential opponents for Jericho.
Other guys, such as Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, or a called up Finn Balor, could end up facing Jericho at AT&T Stadium, but it does look like WWE is going to wait until after WrestleMania to bring Balor up to the main roster, and due to the fact that Owens eliminated Styles from the Royal Rumble, it’s looking like the two of them are going to be wrestling each other in the future, probably at WrestleMania.
[Image via WWE]
