Dean Ambrose’s title defense at Battleground was like LeBron James in the Cavs – the team pulled its own weight, but everyone knew who the engine was. Bayley’s for-one-night-only might have been Kyrie Irving, but the Lunatic Fringe’s come-from-behind win was a little reminiscent of the King carrying Larry O’Brien back to Cleveland.
The man who half-glanced a fan’s attempt to attack him last year (he was in CZW, man - if it wasn’t for security, Ambrose would’ve stabbed him) DDT’ed the “hmphs” of all those who discounted him as a placeholder for Seth Rollins.
Ambrose, apart from being an anomalous amalgam of Daniel Bryan’s underdoggedness, Stone Cold's take-no-prisoners style and Mick Foley's self-destructive tendencies, is always open for business. Keen to underline his statement of being a fighting champion, who do you think will be his first (would-be) invader?
John Cena
The face is in a new place and make no mistake, he has gold on his mind. With Anderson and Gallows on Raw, a feud with Styles to prove he can beat Cena without his buddies could end with a match at SummerSlam.
People didn’t give the Sami Zayn – Kevin Owens rivalry much hope, but they put on a Match of the Year contender at Battleground. Styles has the move set and if Cena tried hard enough, he could pull some tricks out of his bag and give fans the quintessence of this business – a heart-stopping match.
Cena’s signed up a number of mainstream gigs, which makes one wonder if the brass isn’t making like Will Smith’s song to their golden boy’s “suggestion” of letting him equal Naitch’s all-time record.
So what does he do? Put over Ambrose, of course. And going by history, whenever Cena gives up an inc, he takes back a mile – so Dean’s got his third or fourth title defense and Cena’s got a sixteenth notch in the bag.
AJ Styles
This is every non-mainstream wrestling fan’s dream come true – two of the most atypical WWE Superstars going at it for the championship. Heel vs heel, face vs heel, face vs face, doesn’t matter – the action will make us forget all about it.
If Styles comes in as a heel and the WWE want to turn him, an epic stipulation match would do the trick. This would be a near-ideal setting for Styles’ first title reign.
Shinsuke Nakamura
Styles and Cena are obvious, so with Stephanie admitting that they were planning to shift the focus from storylines to wrestling, this feud could take it a step further to rasslin. Their styles are made for each other and with NXT not being too storyline-reliant and populated by smaller wrestlers, they shouldn’t have too much of a problem filling the void.
Push comes to shove, they make Nakamura do a Kevin Owens before permanently moving him to the main roster.
Bray Wyatt
Unsurprising, but mamma mia, would this make for a maiden defense! It would really help etch out Ambrose’s characteristics as an underdog and a daredevil. But the angle does run the risk of Ambrose dropping the title to Wyatt.
Winner of Randy Orton vs Brock Lesnar
What we really mean is Lesnar putting Ambrose over – they could sell it as a WrestleMania rematch, even with the same clause. Orton’s still relevant, but giving the title to a part-timer who, odds aside, wants to return to the UFC, will create a lot of bad blood.
On the other hand, an Orton-Ambrose feud sounds sinfully enjoyable. The Viper can turn heel as easily as he can strike and Ambrose’s projection as the face of SmackDown would further crystallize.
