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Dean Ambrose, a main event wrestler for WWE since debuting with The Shield in 2012, has given his notice to WWE that he will be finishing up when his current contract expires at the end of April, according to three PWTorch sources. He broke the news to management this weekend, including directly in a meeting with Vince McMahon, after being offered a new contract and a raise weeks ago.
He is expected to finish up shortly after WrestleMania, although it’s possible WWE would write him out of storylines sooner. This could explain why he was rather unceremoniously eliminated from the Royal Rumble on Sunday night and did a clean job to Seth Rollins on TV on Raw last night.
Sources tell PWTorch that Ambrose has been long frustrated with the creative direction of his character and reached a breaking point recently. He’s indicated to WWE management this weekend he’s not interested in negotiating further and made it clear this isn’t about trying to get more money. One of his colleagues on the roster, when asked tonight about Dean’s demeanor lately and if there were any signs of discontent, said “he’s pretty much impossible to read.” He added, though, that Dean “hates hokey sh–” and, since so much of his character has been portrayed as hokey in the last few years, he’s not surprised that would have built up frustration leading to a breaking point.
Top management in WWE and a small circle of friends of Dean knew about his decision this weekend, but it wasn’t well known at the Rumble or Raw among most of his colleagues.
NOTE: I have more details to report on this situation on the next Wade Keller Hotline for VIP members tonight. (Subscribe for a VIP membership for just 19 cents with our VIP sale this week – CLICK HERE for details and sign up form). We will also discuss the ramifications the rest of the week on our podcasts.
(Please credit www.pwtorch.com with a link to this story if reporting elsewhere.)
CHECK OUT SUNDAY NIGHT’S PWTORCH DAILYCAST “ROYAL RUMBLE POST-SHOW” with live callers and an on-site correspondent.
In this episode of Wrestling Night in America, PWTorch columnist Greg Parks, with callers and emails, dissects the Royal Rumble event from all angles. Caller subjects include a live perspective from an on-site correspondent, thoughts on Becky Lynch tapping to Asuka, and Lynch’s WrestleMania match. Email topics cover Nia Jax in the men’s Rumble match and the Ricochet vs. Johnny Gargano bout from NXT: Takeover.
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Becky Lynch. Should not have been in 30 women rumble. She lost to Asuka. Get over it. Tired of her getting away with what ever. I want Drew Mclntrye as Champion.
right nor should bret and austin when they won either im guessing. also shes totally not the most over act in the company with probably a feud that will be the main event of wm.
Possibly heading to AEW?
Judging from comments on the internet, WWE fans are acting in their typical petty, immature way by turning on Ambrose as if he is pond scum. There are no worse fans than WWE fans who demand any free agent signs with WWE and yet they are content doing nothing less than belittling the product. Any wonder why mainstream society sees wrestling fans as idiots. Great to see him leaving as they have no interest in doing anything for talent other than giving them their pay.
Yeah, I don’t get why people are mad at Dean. He’s frustrated and wants out, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Why stay at a company if you’re not happy?
There’s a good chunk of WWE fans that are just a part of the machine, especially on the internet. It blows my mind how anyone can bash this guy for being all about the body of work though, when we all love wrestling. It’s not as if the only reason he’s leaving is AEW offered him some massive deal that “poor little” WWE just can’t match.
Ambrose will be going to AEW where they will give him full control of creative when pertains to his character, a raise and less road travel, along with Ziggler and Revival. AEW is going to change the wrestling industry for the better. He is good friends with Jericho and Cody! He will show up at Double or Nothing!
Not all of us are so quick to turn on Dean, looking forward to his work elsewhere if this ends up having weight.
Sorry but this smells like a work.
This is great news! Ambrose should have been a star on the level of Stone Cold Steve Austin (yes he is that good and I date back to Rogers and Thesz) but as is typical of WWE they had no idea what to do with him. They have thrown all of their eggs into the “Sears Roebuck” (my name for Rollins) basket and the results will fit that moniker. Keller needs to start a new feature on this site called “That’s So WWE.” It is going to be great for people to have “someplace else to work.” AEW hasn’t even had their first show yet and they are already making a difference. Finally, Cole’s abuse of Renee Young during the Ambrose/Roebuck match, no doubt courtesy of VKM, was embarrassing and pathetic. She needs to leave when Moxley leaves.
I’m not as down on Seth as you are, but I get it. Otherwise, I completely agree with you. Ambrose was the star of the Shield. Early in their run, he was the singles champ; and the one that did most of the talking. For whatever reason, they just never took him to the heights that they should’ve.
This explains his early out in the Rumble, though. I thought it was maybe just an odd choice to set up a feud with Black eventually, at the time.
I’d love to see Impact scrounge every nickel they have together, bring Ambrose in, and turn him loose as an anti-hero type of face. Doubt there’s enough nickels though, even if he’s apparently not about the money, but the work. AEW has the cash, and could be cool too. There might be some fun match ups over there. Dean’s one of my favorite (even though WWE has butchered his heel run) acts in wrestling, so I’ll be a viewer wherever he goes.
King, I totally agree! Hope to see Ambrose back in the ring soon after he leaves WWE.
I totally agree with “King”! Hope to see Dean/John back in action soon wherever he might end up (where he also, hopefully, would be better treated as the real star that he is).
I believe Impact Wrestling is done, so I wouldn’t want to see Ambrose go there. I would love to see Impact’s Eli Drake in AEW as he has everything it takes to be a major star.
A.e.w just picked up another star WWE gets everybody to come there then creative botches them then they had nowhere but impact to go to and possibly not get paid now they have an actual place to go this is what WWE needs a boot on their neck vkm always needed an enemy to push him to excellence.tell me wrestling has been better with no real competition wcw made Vince and co focus I think if they can pull a couple more stars a.e.w might force WWE to get their shit together
Dean is going to make huge amounts of money on the indy scene.