8 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 18th)

2. A Resurgent Ambrose

Whether this is a permanent ascension for him, the renaissance of Dean Ambrose has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the past month. Seemingly cast off and forced to engage in silly feuds (losing most of them) and doing more and more €œcomedy€ backstage segments, it looked like WWE was trying to give Ambrose the Zack Ryder treatment. However, Ambrose has ridden a wave back to the main event, first forcing his way into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at Payback (turning it into a Fatal Four-way) and now landing a singles bout for the world title at Elimination Chamber. In addition, Raw centered on Dean for much of the program, as he appeared multiple times throughout. The best part about Ambrose€™s segments is that he€™s being himself, playing it loose and cool, even when he€™s standing in the ring with the entire Authority. The announcers play this up as him being the Lunatic Fringe, but really it€™s just Ambrose not backing down from a challenge. His appearance backstage with the Authority and offering to grant Seth Rollins a rematch (since Ambrose beat Rollins a few weeks back) was just gold. Then he goaded Kane, re-sowing the seeds of discontent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEq1ukyCFA But Ambrose strolling to the ring at the end of Raw showed that WWE is willing to roll the dice with him, at least in the short term. Hopefully, the promotion listened to the reaction he got from the audience and doesn€™t just use him as a flavor of the month.