WWE News: Update On When WWE Decided To Make Dean Ambrose The WWE World Heavyweight Champion
From the archive: published Jun 25, 2016, 10 years ago. Details may have changed since.
WWE Money in the Bank saw some impressive things go down. Not only did we see Dean Ambrose win the actual money in the bank match, but he then went on to cash in the thing in the main event of the evening when Seth Rollins beat Roman Reigns clean for his second WWE World Title. Rollins would accomplish the dream he set for himself months ago when he went down with a serious knee injury only for Ambrose to take it away from him.
It was great to see for most, as it allowed us to see Dean Ambrose complete the triangle with all three Shield members being WWE World Heavyweight Champion. On top of this, he deserved it for so long after coming close multiple times over the years. One happened just as recently as WWE Roadblock earlier this year when Triple H survived because Ambrose’s foot happened to be barely under the rope….which wasn’t seemingly on the books as a problem until that match, but oh well.
To most, it was thought Ambrose would never be given a chance to win a WWE World Title despite fan outcry. Now that he has, fans are seemingly happy and would be more than open to the idea of Ambrose holding the title for a while. However, the Ambrose win was not always in place for WWE Money in the Bank.
The booking decision was pretty simple in planning, it seems. Due to the late change, WWE knew that they could have a match with Ambrose and Rollins regardless of Reigns being present. What is so odd about the entire thing is that the company added Reigns to the WWE Battleground main event match that will see the WWE World Title on the line. Both Reigns and Rollins will get their rematch for the title, and no one knows if either man will take it back.
WWE knew that if Reigns was suspended, they would have one man trying to sell a World Title story for Battleground where Rollins would face a man everyone knew violated the drug policy. At some point, this would have to come up in a promo or WWE would have to announce it. They would also have to make up an excuse as to why they’re rewarding Reigns with a World Title main event match despite his failed drug test. Most think WWE had the triple threat added just so the company could at least sell a World Title match a bit easier without talking about Reigns at all.
Regardless of the Cavs-Ohio connection, WWE had probably no choice but to have Dean Ambrose win the WWE World Title. Reigns clearly couldn’t retain while suspended and Rollins had to have someone to sell a story with if he won. Of course, the company could have Ambrose cash-in another time and have a tournament decide who would face Seth Rollins at WWE Battleground, removing Reigns from the title picture as punishment (which is not given in a 30-day vacation). However, we don’t make the rules.
