Dean Ambrose

[Hanley!]

I don't like the way this guy works.

His move set is so phony. A bunch of his moves require the other guy to basically stay in position for a few seconds, waiting for Ambrose to hit them.

And the bouncing on the second rope and the little spin on the apron thing have both become annoying. These moves cannot be surprising anybody anymore, and without the element of surprise they look useless. He doesn't build any momentum so it's just wasted motion.

Somebody said it in the shoutbox on Sunday night, and hit the nail on the head: there's a lot of wasted motion in a Dean Ambrose match.

Between his lack of psychology in the ring and his cheesy, over-the-top promos, I've really been losing my interest in this guy over the last year. He's still very popular so I want to like him. I like the idea of a Pillman-esque character in today's WWE too. But he's not doing it for me.

I know that @EmperorWu agrees with me on this one. Anyone have any furious rebuttals?

[lyonssv]

I'm a huge Ambrose mark, so I'm probably a little biased, but I love the guy.

I wish they would dial him back a tad as far as his "lunatic" gimmick though, but I do thoroughly enjoy him and his character regardless. And I've never been bored by his matches. I could watch him and Rollins tear it down every night. They're fantastic together.

And he's the most over babyface on the roster right now, and has been for awhile despite being buried for the better part of the past year, so he must be doing something right.

[Str8Shooter]

I can't say I agree. I will say I agree about the rebound clothesline through the ropes. It's not realistic and it looks awkward and in no way does he seem to gain any momentum from it, in fact it slows him down more than anything. But then again it seems to be getting over.

I do like him though, I think he's different, just from his look, his hair, his ring attire, his voice and cadence, it's all unique from everyone on the roster. He's an attention grabber. He has the intangible quality when he comes out that people seem to be drawn too. We saw it last year against Rollins and this year now too. The crowd just likes the guy naturally, they don't have to book him incredibly like Reigns to get or keep him over, he just is. It's almost the Jeff Hardy factor where something about him draws people in despite his flaws.

[SlightlyJames]

As far as his rebound clothesline thing, I like the spinning one on the apron but the pull back one on the ropes looks pretty bad. There's at least some momentum to go with the apron variant and he pulls it off a lot faster but for the in-ring variant I do agree that it's a bit too staged. He also used it several times on Sunday and I groaned a little more each time.

As far as his character it is a little off the mark for me as well but it doesn't stop me liking the guy. Certainly not as much as some but he definitely has a certain charisma to him and I want to cheer for the guy, I'd have to agree with lyonssv that if they toned down the lunatic stuff and made him less of a cartoon character I'd be able to invest him a lot more. I've seen some of his pre-Shield promos and he's very capable, if he can bring a little more of that out rather than his current hijinks then I think I'll be able to fully get behind him.

[The Legend]

Here's the thing for me. I really like the idea of the Ambrose character. When I like the idea of a character I give it some leeway when it comes to actual execution. There's things I wish the WWE and Ambrose would do better with his character, but I live with it because the WWE product overall is better with a character like Ambrose than it would be without it.

Now as far as his moveset goes, it's always been shit. I'm not a fan of the clothesline thing, but it beats that ugly reverse DDT/facebuster thing he used (maybe still uses? He never gets to hit a finisher anymore ). Wasted movement is a good way to describe most of his moveset, contrived would be a good one as well.

However, even with his flaws I'm still a big fan of the Ambrose character and enjoy his being on the screen than most other guys in WWE.

[VaderBomb]

He's never had particularly great in-ring psychology, even before coming to WWE. He's tight as fuck with his deliveries but I agree that there's always been a sense of wasted motion in his matches. His wrestling style definitely works better when he has an opponent who can work on his level or beyond. His minor flaws become much more apparent when he's carrying the match, especially since coming to WWE with a much more limited move set. I'm not a huge fan of that rope lariat move that he uses but it's really no worse or predictably set up than the 619 or the "Vintage Undertaker" arm move.

What I liked about Dean Ambrose so much before coming to WWE was how real and gritty he was. With his best promos, he always painted this unmistakably brutal and arresting picture of urban life: fistfights, chain-linked fences, trashcans and dark alleys. He truly was convincing in this role and he was always so fucking angry and stressed out about the situations that he purposely got himself into. He was a train wreck and he was so fun to watch, especially in heated feuds.

I am a big fan of him in WWE, but a lot of that is based on what I know that he's capable of if given complete artistic freedom (which he may not ever get). It's awesome that he's finally being treated like main event singles star, the roster had been lacking a character like him for a long time. He retains many of the good qualities that made guys like Piper, Pillman and even Austin so compelling to watch but WWE has to figure out how to balance those qualities more naturally. Then and only then will he look as good as he actually is.

WWE has this problem with so many guys. Cesaro being another big one. The team with Kidd and Natty is good for him. He's been allowed to showcase a little bit more of his charm and comedic approach, which he absolutely excelled at in ROH, Japan, PWG, etc. He's much more than a generic strongman, which is the way that WWE has booked him for years up until now. Honestly, he's on that Eddie level as a total package but you'd never know that watching him on Raw. Like Ambrose, WWE just needs to give him a lot more room to breathe, expand and then go back to his roots.