10 WWE Disasters That Saved Themselves
2. Dean Ambrose
When evaluated as a whole, it'd be extreme to call Dean Ambrose's WWE run a "disaster." The Shield will go down as one of the promotion's greatest ever stables and he was WWE Champion for several months, leading SmackDown when the brand split was revived in 2016. Unquestionably, he put forth some excellent, memorable work while under WWE's employ.
That doesn't mean his last few months weren't a complete calamity, though.
Turning heel on the night Roman Reigns announced his leukaemia had returned provoked a huge reaction by capitalising on raw, real emotion, but everything after it stunk. He had needles stuck in his arse so he wouldn't catch Seth Rollins' "disease" and wore a gas mask to the ring. When news that he'd requested his WWE release broke, Ambrose became a pseudo-jobber in a weird, brief feud with EC3, before mailing it in throughout a forced final chapter designed to convince him to change his mind about walking away.
It failed. By that point, Dean was too burned out by the Such Good Sh*t era that he had no choice but to leave, rediscover himself, shake off that Sports Entertainment stench, and become Jon Moxley once more.
One month later, he'd debuted for both AEW and NJPW. His record since then speaks for itself.