When Roman Reigns suffered an injury last year and was forced to miss three months of action, his massive push toward the WWE Championship had to be put on hold. Dean Ambrose took his place in a feud with Shield turncoat Seth Rollins, and even though the two had battled over the summer, they met in a huge Hell in a Cell match in October that saw Ambrose appear to break through as a main event player. Rollins won the Cell match with help from Bray Wyatt, but Ambrose was still the most popular active babyface in the entire company. Though it was long suspected that Reigns would win the 2015 Royal Rumble and challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title at WrestleMania XXXI, fans began to hope that the changes on WWE programming would be reflected in the booking and Ambrose would get the coveted slot. Instead, when Reigns returned, he picked up right where he left off - only this time, the crowd resented him and the demotion his comeback meant for Ambrose. Reign won the Rumble, main evented WrestleMania (though failed to win the WWE Title), and has since been prepared for an eventual run at the top. The last thing WWE wants is for Ambrose to start eclipsing him again.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
