5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Raw (July 25)
2. Loser: Dean Ambrose
The WWE Champion left Battleground as a made man. Dean Ambrose not only retained his championship with his clean-as-a-whistle pinfall on Roman Reigns, but also took Reigns’ place as the company’s chosen babyface. Already the most popular wrestler in the company, Ambrose’s victory signified WWE’s abandonment of the Roman Reigns experiment, and their newfound faith in Ambrose as “The Guy”.
Unfortunately, the introduction of the WWE Universal Championship as a second “top belt” completely undermines Ambrose’s ascension. While he’ll remain the company’s top babyface, particularly on SmackDown, Ambrose will have to share his spot at the top of the mountain with either Seth Rollins or Finn Balor come SummerSlam, and that’s a real shame.
The Lunatic Fringe has worked long and hard to get to this point. From botched bookings to misguided character directions, Ambrose has seen his progress continually derailed over the past two years, and should arguably have reached this point back in 2014, when his popularity was at an all-time high.
His Money in the Bank title victory was vindication for everything he’s been through since The Shield’s dissolution, and while the Universal Championship doesn’t quite ruin that moment, it does take the gloss off it.
This was always likely to happen, of course. Raw’s main eventers need something to fight for, after all, but installing the WWE Championship as a “floating” inter-brand belt and having the champion appear on both shows would’ve been a more effective way of doing this without sacrificing Ambrose’s shine.