“You Deserve It!” But Do You… Really? Ambrose vs. Balor vs. Bayley

2016 was the year that “You Deserve it!” became the new “This is Awesome!” A meaningless knee-jerk chant in that familiar ball park 4-syllable rhythm, “You Deserve It” reveals a bit more about the WWE’s manipulation of the audience than other also-ran chants, like “E-C-W”, “Ho-ly Shit” or “U-S-A, U-S-A”.

“You Deserve It” implies that there is a reward structure for overcoming the odds that very few can accomplish, but this spontaneous moment of praise has now been co-opted by the dominant power to push their agenda on the audience. The WWE wants to legitimize specifically marketable superstars by making it look like they got to the top the hard way, and the fans have bought into it PUSH, line and sinker.

But before we go any further, let’s break it down what this chant most likely means:

You – refers to the wrestler in the ring, apparently someone who is considered to have worked hard and not particularly gotten their just return for this great deal of effort.

Deserve – the “you” had actually achieved some kind of greatness before, most likely in the lower ranks (indy scene, international wrestling, NXT, mid-card), and is now receiving the special recognition, and/or an elevated spot on a top-tier WWE show, usually reserved for hand-picked, less-deserving corporate wrestlers.

It – some kind of accolade, like a title belt or career achievement, that comes along with the perceived money and fame of being on the USA Network between 8-11pm.

So who deserves “it”? You’d think maybe Shawn Michaels when he won the WWF Title at Wrestlemania 12, or maybe Stone Cold Steve Austin when he won the King of the Ring, Eddie Guerrero after defeating Brock Lesnar at No Way Out, or Daniel Bryan at the end of Wrestlemania 30? Nah… not in 2016.

In 2016, the very same year that an inexplicably “This Is Awesome” chant spontaneously broke out just by seeing The New Day standing in the ring with the Wyatt Family, the “You Deserve It” chant was given not only to journeyman workhorses like TJ Perkins and Kevin Owens, but was also gifted to silver spoon, head office favorites Dean Ambrose, Finn Balor and Bayley.

The 411mania Wrestling 3-Way Dance matches up three opponents in an intellectual battle every week. The biggest advantages and disadvantages of each contender will be highlighted before a final ranking will declare the ultimate winner. This week’s 3-Way Dance:

Who Deserves “It” Least?

Dean Ambrose vs. Finn Balor vs. Bayley

Reasons they don’t deserve “it”…

Dean Ambrose = Corporate WWE Guy.

On the surface you might think, “Oh, of course Ambrose deserves it” just like these fans chanted following his Money in the Bank cash-in victory for the WWE World Title. Dean is a good wrestler and an incredibly hard worker, no doubt, but hasn’t this guy really been one of the most protected and coddled WWE superstar’s we’ve ever seen?

Fans love to rip on Triple H, John Cena or Roman Reigns for being force-pushed on us by WWE corporate at different times in recent history, but I think you’ve absolutely got to add Ambrose to that list, and thus how can he really “deserve it” if he was being groomed for it all along?

Roman Reigns gets all the criticism for being the WWE’s current pet project, but Ambrose has been just as protected and pushed, especially in contrast to their Shield stablemate Seth Rollins. Ambrose, like Reigns, was a blue-chipper in the WWE developmental system, used sparingly so to as to not burn him out or expose him to the audience too early. He also had this mythical reputation of being the next Roddy Piper, and therefore wasn’t chugged out every week to constantly prove that he had potential like Rollins did in FCW / NXT. Even when they all moved up with The Shield, it was always Rollins who was just considered the solid worker with the least amount of WWE-style upside, not the “it” guy like Reigns or the great “crazy” heel ready to be unleashed like Ambrose.

Then Ambrose was gifted the US Title and did nothing substantial with the belt for about a year, whereas Rollins had to go out and basically do all the heavy lifting in his tag team with the much greener Reigns. Following the break up of the Shield, it turned out that Ambrose was easily the weakest solo star, the crowd wasn’t behind him like they were Reigns pre-injury, he couldn’t work singles matches like Rollins, and that long promised “crazy” personality never truly emerged.

Ambrose even had the incredibly rare opportunity to main event PPVs, and officially stunk it up in a weak TLC match against Bray Wyatt in 2014. Roman Reigns never gets the luxury of stinking up a match in the fans’ eyes, let alone a PPV main event, but Ambrose seems to get no punishment either from the fans or the corporate office.

WWE loves this guy, and they’ve given him every opportunity imaginable, and he’s done a generally fine job. Hey, pro-wrestling is like that sometimes, people just get anointed as stars for whatever reason. But does that mean should be applauded for getting to the top when he was expected to be at the top in the first place?

It’s one thing to be Kevin Durant but it’s another to be Steph Curry. Both were NBA MVPs in the recent past but only one of them had a multimillionaire NBA player for a father who groomed him to be a star from birth. Sure, he deserved to be MVP, but anything less would have been a disappointment.

We all know that the WWE is not a real sport, so the way we determine who “deserves” something they’re actually just being given is very tricky. However, it seems clear to me that Dean Ambrose is not in the realm of a Daniel Bryan or a CM Punk when it comes to having to prove yourself every night in order to get to the top. Nah, Ambrose is a corporate champ and he deserves that, but certainly doesn’t deserve a chant for it.

Finn Balor = Wrestled on 1 WWE PPV event.

From the minute he walked into NXT Balor was treated like a superstar. He didn’t have to actually wrestle one good match in NXT to earn that status, not that he wasn’t capable or didn’t eventually, but he certainly almost didn’t need to – people loved him. How many people in that audience actually paid attention to his long career prior to coming under the WWE umbrella is questionable, but they loved him nonetheless.

But then he made his WWE-proper debut, after being a stunningly high RAW brand-split draft choice despite never having wrestled on the main roster. In his first two matches (in one night) he straight up defeated Rusev and Roman Reigns earning a shot at a new championship belt in a marquee match at SummerSlam, one of the biggest events on the WWE calendar.

In a mediocre match at best, Balor defeated perennial champion Seth Rollins clean, and became the first ever WWE Universal Champion, a belt basically set-up to supersede the legendary WWE Title, which had just been demoted to the B-brand Smackdown.

So after being in the WWE for less than a month Finn walks out on RAW the next night and boom:

So basically a young(ish), athletic, pre-packaged, pretty boy is who your common man, super-fan wants to regard as an under-appreciated workhorse hero… huh?

Bayley = Walked into a RAW ring once.

That’s right, Bayely actually got the “You Deserve It” chant after simply making her very first entrance into the ring on WWE RAW.

Talk about overkill. To think that a dude like Hercules Hernandez died without ever once hearing a single fan say anything nice to him, but Bayley has an arena of people chanting “You Deserve It” to her for just walking down a ramp.

This has got to be the TNA of all “You Deserve It” chants. I mean, even Tyler Bate, who just won the WWE UK Title and got a “You Deserve It” chant, actually had to perform 4 pretty good/great matches in a 24-hour span to get it. And he got a title belt to go along with the chant. As for Bayley, this is the one case where I’m not even sure what “It” is other than the actual chant itself.

At this point I think Tye Dillinger is just going to have to stick a toe out from behind a curtain to get a “You Deserve It” chant on his RAW debut. And yet, aren’t you just a little bit curious to see what would happen if like a Jun Akiyama made a surprise appearance on RAW? I’m guessing he wouldn’t get a Bayley-esque reaction, but then again maybe all those Finn Balor fans will educate the rest of the arena on this man’s lifetime of pro-wrestling accomplishments.

Reasons they might deserve “it”…

Finn Balor = New Japan

You gotta give it to Finn Balor for working his way up through New Japan for years to become a legit main event-er in a foreign culture, and in an incredibly competitive federation that probably didn’t want him to ever truly succeed.

But his career in WWE has been a completely opposite story. Sure, as a seasoned pro-wrestler there is no need for him to necessarily start at the jobber bottom of the WWE system, but he hardly had to work to achieve much there.

Daniel Bryan, the legit best wrestler in the world at the time, had to carry kegs around an obstacle course on live TV to prove that he had “it” and still got fired in a few months during his first WWE stint.

Maybe it seems unfair to expect there to a be a paying of dues of sorts, but when we’re talking about the earning of a “You Deserve It” chant from the public, shouldn’t there at least be some? If you’re going to “deserves it”, then I’d hope we didn’t all just watch the WWE basically fluff a guy for a full year first.

Dean Ambrose = The Myth of the CZW Match.

Let’s be honest here, working CZW in the late 00s was NOT the equivalent of working early 00s ROH. That company sucked and Jon Moxley might have been a step above the rest, be he was hardly the king of the indys.

Still, you gotta give him some credit for going through all that crap.

Bayley = There were those NXT matches.

Undoubtably, Bayley wrestled in some pretty great NXT matches. Her Takeover matches with Sasha Banks were just as good as anything on the WWE main roster at the time.

But let’s emphasis “some” here. As in more than a couple, but not objectively “a lot”. She had a good run for about two years in a mainly pre-taped, developmental promotion where she was actually attending a WWE-run training school during the day to learn how to give promos and run the ropes by some of the biggest legends in wrestling history.

I mean, what are we chanting for here?

Okay, fine, these are all reasonable options, but who is the wrestler that LEAST deserves a “You Deserve It” chant?

#3 = Finn Balor

The guy literally has a baby face, so sometimes it’s hard to forget how long he’s been around. In my opinion his career in New Japan was pretty fantastic, but it was also properly recognized too.

In NJPW the guy became a big star that everyone loved, and then turned into a heel that everyone loved to hate. He had a great run, and earned tons of accolades, awards and money in Japan. So I don’t think an Irishman who found success in Japan somehow deserves a retroactive honoring from a live American TV audience to legitimize his accomplishments, but he is the one of these three who doesn’t not deserve it the most (or least… now I’m confused).

#2 = Dean Ambrose

Even though I spent WAY too many words explaining why I think Ambrose is a WWE corporate darling, I’m sure anyone who has worked in ANY company knows how annoying that can be, especially the more responsibility you have. I imagine that being in a much more office-friendly position than say Epico or Konnor means you probably have to meet with a bunch of douchey office people all the time and say yes to all kinds of nonsense. It’s gotta suck.

So even if he doesn’t really deserve to be told that he deserves something that was basically handed to him, he does still deserve to at least get some respect for putting up with all the crap that’s gotta come with being that much of a corporate guy.

#1 = Bayley

Can I be honest here, I don’t find Bayley attractive in the slightest. Not that that has anything to do with deserving respect for your hard work, I’m just talking from a purely base-level, superficial, heterosexual personal opinion. It feels like she’s being pushed on me constantly as this cutesy little sister-type; a pony-tail having, naive sweetheart who is in this comic book style fictional universe where I’ve been conditioned for 30+ years to look at the women on the show as these exaggerated archetypes of beauty. It’s like they want me to think Bayley is AJ Lee, but nothing in my primal man parts allows me to agree with that notion. So I respect Bayley for at least not getting to the top because of her looks.

Anyways, that was just an unrelated tangent. Obviously Bayley didn’t deserve that “You Deserve It” chant in any way on her first night on RAW. She didn’t do that much in the first place, and I don’t even think the implied “it” reward of just being on that piece of shit show Monday Night RAW means anything anyways.

So join me in giving Bayley the 411mania 3-Way Dance honor of being the least deserving of a “You Deserve It” chant. C’mon, you all know how it goes: You-De-Serve-It clap-clap-clapclapclap…