Dean Ambrose became a main event player when Roman Reigns was on the shelf, but when Reigns returned, the ultra-popular Ambrose lost his spot as the company's rising star. Reigns won the Royal Rumble and main evented WrestleMania, but fan backlash - due in part to resentment over Ambrose's demotion - led to WWE pulling back on Reigns and delaying his title reign. WWE still has plans for Reigns to lead the company into the future, and for that reason, it's imperative to WWE brass that Ambrose doesn't overshadow him again. Subsequently, for all his talent, Ambrose has spent the year in a holding pattern. He feuded with Seth Rollins for the WWE Title in the spring, but it was largely a placeholder program for Rollins. Since then, he's aided Roman Reigns in Reigns's feud with The Wyatt Family, so fans who want to cheer Ambrose will have to cheer his partner. Ambrose is in an unfortunate position. Reigns has reached a level of shaky acceptance with the fans, and WWE's decision-makers are clearly afraid to jeopardize that. Ambrose - who will always be linked with Reigns due to their time together in The Shield - represents the greatest threat to Reigns's continued popularity, so for the time being, WWE creative has had him rehash old feuds and give whatever rub he can to "The Big Dog." Where will Ambrose go after the feud with The Wyatt Family? Nobody knows - least of all those in WWE.
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