The Power Of Positivity: Dean Ambrose Is Tough

I think I’ve confessed this on this site before, but I’ll do it once again: I am a fairweather wrestling fan. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched it most of my life and have fond memories of watching wrestling with my brother and grandfather as a child, but when it bores me I simply stop watching.

There were a few years in the early 1990s that it lost my attention. When my brother told me about Razor and Diesel showing up on WCW, it piqued my interest again and I was back into wrestling for well over a decade. Then, around the mid-2000s, I got bored with it again. What brought me back in several years ago was hearing about the guys that I loved in the early days of Ring of Honor (CM Punk and Bryan Danielson) who were now holding the WWE and World Championships in WWE. I’ve caught up on a lot of the late 2000 stuff I missed on, but if it weren’t for those guys I’m not sure I would’ve come back to it.

The point of this is that if I can’t find a reason to watch wrestling then I won’t watch wrestling. Luckily, I dig much of what’s offered right now and I want to celebrate it. In this article series, I plan on highlighting the things that entertain me in mostly WWE, but also TNA, Ring of Honor, NXT, and Lucha Underground. I don’t really watch New Japan or other overseas stuff but if it grabs my attention then it’s fair game.

Expect a handful of insights from me on a weekly basis from the storylines, performers, and the news that I think are the really good stuff in wrestling. I’m ripping off New Day in the title of this series, which should be obvious. Feel free to banter with me in the comments if you agree with me or think I’m dead wrong. Everyone has an opinion and I welcome yours.

This week is a little short because it’s Christmas and my time to invest into wrestling is a little limited, but I’ve still been entertained by a few people that didn’t walk out of the Slammys with a trophy. I’ve also got some praise for Dean Ambrose a little later and discuss a new dream matchup for Chad Gable, but let’s look at the “Most Prestigious Awards Show On Television” first…

Sore Slammy Losers On Twitter

Are the Slammy Awards rigged? If you ask Joey Styles, they are absolutely legitimate and how dare you for questioning the authenticity of such a hallowed ceremony. I don’t personally care but I have enjoyed the fallout on Twitter from a few of the Susan Luccis from this year.

Kevin Owens made it very clear before Raw that if he didn’t win then Christmas was going to be cancelled for everyone except for his family. I’m not sure if he has that authority; it seems like that should be Jesus’ or Saint Nick’s call. Regardless if Kevin can cancel one of the holiest days of the year due to a Slammy snub, that’s exactly what he decreed to the world…

https://twitter.com/fightowensfight/status/679146884066369536

Another Slammy snub, and probably the most surprising one, is when The New Day failed to win Tag Team of the Year. Screenshots of way more Twitter retweets have been passed around accusing WWE of an anti-New Day conspiracy. It’s true that Instagram and Facebook were also part of the voting process, so The Usos very well could have won without vote-tampering. Still, many aren’t buying it, including the members of New Day.

Big E tweeted multiple messages of outrage, calling this year the #ShammyAwards and that the Slammys were dead to him. My favorite Big E outburst came when he announced what he’d do if the votes had been cast in a less technological age…

If there were physical paper ballots for Tag Team of the Year, I'd be using them to wipe after I dropped a sloppy deuce. #SlammyAwards

— Ettore “Big E” Ewen (@WWEBigE) December 22, 2015

On a side note, I love how Big E is now into the Death Note anime, as evidenced by him changing his name on Twitter to ShinigamE. I’m not an anime expert or anything, but that’s my favorite manga.

The Toughness Of Dean Ambrose

Considering this is the week of Christmas and the Slammys, this is an overall recipe for WWE to phone it in. Thankfully, Dean Ambrose did not get that memo. He was in the main event of both Raw and on the live Super Smackdown and put on a couple of great performances.

The cage match against Sheamus on Raw was the weaker of the two matches but still had several highs. One such was a spot where Dean was blocked from climbing down the cage for the win by Rusev and Alberto Del Rio, so he dove off the cage and elbow dropped a standing Sheamus. Another notable tidbit about this match was that Ambrose needed six staples in his head after the match. It’s a testament to him that he’d perform again in another main event just 24 hours later.

On Smackdown, Dean put his Intercontinental Championship on the line against Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler. Before talking about how I appreciated Ambrose’s performance, I want to point out how much I’m loving that division right now. Those three are great in the ring, so give me plenty of combinations of matches between them all over the next month.

I liked the silliness of the Christmas decor and how they brawled throughout it all. Logically, an empty wrapped box shouldn’t hurt that bad when it’s used a weapon but these guys are committed to what they do, so they sold for it. Luckily, there were other creative moments of offense that really ignited the crowd. One example was when Dolph was on Kevin’s back, giving him a sleeper hold. Owens didn’t let that deter him as he still performed a running senton onto Ambrose, taking out both guys in the process. Another creative move was when Ambrose was going for a DDT onto Owens and Ziggler added a Zig-Zag to Dean in the process. I’m getting sidetracked with play-calling, but you get the idea that this was a great mix of three complementary athletes.

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Getting back to Dean’s toughness, there was a moment in the bout when Owens performed a suplex on him and dropped him straight onto his head. They kept showing replays when the ref checked on Dean and the slow-mo of it showed how dangerous he landed. Keeping in mind the six very fresh staples he’s got up there, the cause for concern was valid. Even so, Ambrose continued on and appeared fine from then on. He won the match to retain his Intercontinental Championship, hopefully proving to the people in the back who matter that he’s a guy who’s worth putting titles on. Now if only he could upgrade his IC strap for the WWE one…

An Unexpected Dream Match

When NXT held their big TakeOver: London event last week, they also taped a few matches for airing this past week. The opening match on that card was a four corners tag match between The Vaudevillians, Blake & Murphy, The Hype Bros., and everyone’s favorite duo, Jason Jordan & Chad Gable.

Chad Gable is an absolute prodigy in the ring, but everyone already knew that. Another wrestler who knows a thing or two about applying more than just a wrist lock is Simon Gotch. The two had a few exchanges in the ring and it made me realize how much I’d love to see a one on one match between them. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so because Gotch has retweeted several other fans who’ve expressed similar sentiment.

I could watch @GotchStyleWWE and @WWEGable chain wrestle for an hour. Like an Ironman Match hour. Book it. #WWENXT

— Matt Hamilton (@hamtoes) December 24, 2015

I’m not even asking for a big rivalry or anything, just give them ten minutes on a random NXT to do whatever they can come up with. I’m not picky at all about this, just give me Gable vs. Gotch.

One Thing To Complain About

This is the lone part of the article in which I break the theme of positivity for a quick rant. The Usos winning the Slammy for Best Tag Team is my big gripe of the week. Don’t get me wrong, Jimmy and Jey are a couple of great wrestlers, but this was criminal. Even if New Day were entertaining in the fallout of it, they should’ve won.

Final Ramblings And Plugs

This is a little bit of a down time of year for wrestling since the end of the year holidays are going on, so there wasn’t too much material for the first crack at this series. There were still a few things worth celebrating, so it wasn’t a reach to come up with this or anything. I’m pretty committed to taking a complete writing break next week, so it might be a couple of weeks until the next installment. I want to make this series work, I just want to take a break from much of the wrestling I watch and write about for a minute.

It’s Christmas Eve as I’m finishing this up and I’m stoked about the holiday. Give me the egg nog, the nativity scenes, the presents, the everything… I’m a grown up kid who loves it all. One of the gifts my wife is getting me for Christmas is the most recent PWG Battle of Los Angeles, which I’ve heard good things about. Merry Christmas to you all and I hope someone gives you the gift of wrestling as well.

If you want to keep with all that I do, just follow me on Twitter @MitchNickelson.

I podcast with my wife about whatever wrestling stuff we’re into at the moment. This week, we reviewed Dean Ambrose’s movie “12 Rounds 3: Lockdown.” We also gave some predictions for the upcoming year. Give us a listen on just about anywhere that podcasts are found or just click on the play button below.