5 biggest questions ahead of Dean Ambrose's final WWE match

Dean Ambrose will team with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins for the last time when they take on Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre in Moline, Illinois on Sunday, April 21.

WWE has announced that the match, which is being billed as “The Shield’s Final Chapter”, will air on the WWE Network, along with Finn Balor vs. Elias for the Intercontinental Championship.

It looked as though WWE fans had already seen The Shield’s last match together as a trio when they defeated Sunday’s opponents in the main event of the Fastlane pay-per-view in March. However, as this is Ambrose’s last advertised appearance before he leaves the company, WWE has taken the rare approach of showing live event footage on the WWE Network.

From a storyline perspective, Ambrose was written out of WWE programming the night after WrestleMania 35 when he was launched through the announce desk on Raw by Lashley. Since then, he bid farewell to the crowd in Brooklyn last week but he has not competed on television since losing a Last Man Standing match against McIntyre in March.

Looking ahead to what is expected to be the final time that we see “The Lunatic Fringe” in a WWE ring, let’s take a look at five of the biggest questions that need answering regarding his future.

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#5 Is this really The Shield’s farewell?

The Shield has had more reunions and farewells over the last 18 months than The Big Show has had face and heel turns, so it is only natural that some fans are questioning whether Sunday’s match truly is “The Shield’s Final Chapter” or whether they could join forces yet again in the near future.

For the avoidance of any doubt, Seth Rollins has taken to Twitter ahead of the match to confirm that this is indeed going to be their last encounter together, at least “for a while”.

He tweeted:

"I’m pretty stoked about this weekend. Taking the black one more time with my boys...and in my own backyard. We’ve had a lot of 'lasts' lately, I know, but I promise this really is the end for a while."

#4 What has caused him to leave?

On the same night that Roman Reigns announced his leukemia diagnosis in October 2018, Dean Ambrose attacked Seth Rollins in the main event of Raw to produce one of the most shocking heel turns in WWE history.

The moment should have made “The Lunatic Fringe” the biggest bad guy in WWE. However, his resulting heel run was a disaster from the very start – so much so that fans even chanted “Boring! Boring!” during his match against Rollins at TLC in December 2018.

Fast forward to January 2019 and, after a short reign as Intercontinental champion, it was reported by PW Torch’s Wade Keller that Ambrose had informed Vince McMahon of his decision to leave due to frustrations over the direction of his character.

Rollins appeared to confirm this during a ‘WWE Now’ interview before WrestleMania 35:

"I know how he feels about his creativity and sometimes when it pulls him in a different direction, that’s just how he’s gotta be. I never imagined the three of us [The Shield] working anywhere else, or not being here at the same time, unless - we’ve all been hurt or sick or whatever it is and had to take some time off."

#3 Where is he going next?

When a WWE Superstar leaves the company, it is usually obvious where they are heading next. Some advertise their booking dates on social media as soon as their non-compete clause has expired, while others return to promotions where they previously worked before WWE.

In the case of Dean Ambrose, nobody knows where the former WWE champion will show up next. As Seth Rollins recently said, his Shield partner “marches to the beat of his own drum” and “sometimes you just can’t put him in a cage or tame him”.

The words ‘Dean Ambrose’ and ‘AEW’ are cropping up in headlines on a daily basis right now. The new promotion appears to be trying to sign the best independent talents around, as opposed to stockpiling ex-WWE Superstars, but Ambrose is such a huge name that it would be difficult for a new company to ignore the star power that he would bring.

To steal a line from Sting: the only thing that's for sure about Ambrose is nothing's for sure.

#2 Will he ever return?

Despite rejecting a new deal with WWE, Dean Ambrose appears to be leaving the company on good terms. A statement on WWE.com in January 2019 read:

"Dean Ambrose (Jonathan Good) will not be renewing his contract with WWE when it expires in April. We are grateful and appreciative of all that Dean has given to WWE and our fans. We wish him well and hope that one day Dean will return to WWE."

Since then, the Shield member has lost multiple matches on Raw against Superstars including Elias, EC3 and Drew McIntyre, while he did not even appear at WrestleMania 35.

Given that Superstars have refused to compete towards the end of their contract in the past, credit must go to Ambrose for fulfilling his advertised dates and staying as professional as possible until his deal expires.

As the WWE statement said, the company wants him to return one day, so it is safe to assume that we will see him back in a WWE ring before he calls time on his career.

#1 How will the match finish?

The Shield defeated Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre in the main event at Fastlane in March, so how will WWE go about making this match different on Sunday?

The finish to the Fastlane encounter came about when The Shield Triple Powerbombed McIntyre through an announce desk before hitting several moves on Corbin in the ring. They then followed up with another Triple Powerbomb on Corbin before Roman Reigns pinned him to pick up the win for his team.

Given that Corbin has established himself as the top heel on Raw following his unpopular victory over the retiring Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 35, it would not be a surprise if he were to take the pinfall again on Sunday. Alternatively, Lashley was the one who essentially wrote Dean Ambrose off television last week, so perhaps he should be regarded as the favourite to lose the match for the heels?

Either way, regardless of who is pinned, “The Lunatic Fringe” is destined to get the 1-2-3 to end his WWE career on a high.