Every 1-Time WWE Champion Ranked From Worst To Best

13. Dean Ambrose

Eddie Guerrero
WWE.com

The man now known as Jon Moxley has had such a career resurgence since joining AEW in 2019 that it's easy to overlook his accomplishments in WWE under the name "Dean Ambrose".

The former Shield member had a bounty of memorable matches and angles in McMahon-land with perhaps none being bigger than his Money in the Bank cash-in at the titular Pay-Per-View in 2016. Ambrose traded in his newly-won briefcase for a shot at Seth Rollins' newly-won WWE Championship, pinning his old rival to win the belt and tie a poetic bow around their stellar feud.

Ambrose ruled SmackDown for 84 days as the first WWE Champion of the second brand before dropping the title to AJ Styles. This resulted in one of the feuds of the year and culminatated in a brilliant TLC Match with The Phenomenal One.

Despite only having the belt for a few months, Ambrose crammed a lot into his reign and gave fans one of the most cathartic moments in years when he dethroned Rollins. One bad match with Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam is not enough to ruin this reign, although it definitely came close...

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.