10 Times WWE Gambled On A New Gimmick Match
4. Ambrose Asylum
A throwback to the days in which WWE would build a new match type around a performer, they probably should have thrown back to the days in which those performers were allowed to get their own sh*t over.
This programme was hideous.
Dean Ambrose replaced Chris Jericho's talk show with his own. Stephanie McMahon got involved because the entire show revolved around her at this point. She cancelled Ambrose's show, and replaced it with the Highlight Reel. Jericho destroyed Ambrose's plant friend. Ambrose destroyed Jericho's jacket.
Yada yada yada, both men went on to dig the grave of this moribund, hokey sh*t on a podcast a few years later.
There was nothing personal nor convincing about any of this. Nothing compelling. It was a feud premised on TV time - honestly not too dissimilar to the oddball meta of NXT Redemption, only without the wink and the nod. At a push, one man was petty towards the other he was mildly inconvenienced by, and this lack of real tension somehow escalated into a weapons cage match WWE, in a bid to get its protagonist over as ker-azy, called the Ambrose Asylum.
Lots of climbing ensued, some weapons shots, and Jericho took the most pointless, painful bump into thumbtacks you'll ever see.
WWE gambled on the Ambrose Asylum, and it didn't pay off; this nonsense was used by the victim to pull down a plant and weaponise criticism against the company.