50 Absolute Worst Things WWE Has Done In The 21st Century
41. Dean Ambrose Gets Inoculated (2018)
Someone needs to grab an interview with the extra playing a doctor who jabbed Dean Ambrose on the 26 November 2018 edition of Raw and ask him if he knew he was setting wheels in motion for no less than 4 AEW World Title reigns. Big pop if the doc takes credit for that All Elite success and Deano's decision to leave WWE behind for a brave new world under Tony Khan's watch on AEW's first ever pay-per-view.
Those inoculation spots were the end of the line for Jon Moxley in the E. On paper, the idea that his Ambrose character wanted to cleanse the product of things he thought were ridiculous had potential, but Vince McMahon went about it in such a cartoonish way. Dean was literally needled to protect him from germs, and he even started wearing a gas mask to ringside before some matches and segments. It was too much.
Way too much.
It's all contextual. Stick mid-90s Jerry Lawler in his stead and you might've got some laughs from the inoculation stuff. Ambrose was never comfortable performing such skits though. They didn't suit his personality, but McMahon would've claimed that fluffing them showed Dean had no range. That wasn't true - the material was a poor fit for him.
Fans were confused by the story WWE tried to tell as well. It was a sharp left turn from Ambrose ending The Shield's reunion with gritty realism. The inoculation content shoved him out the exit doors and paved the way to happier times in New Japan and during AEW's first few years.