I look forward to the eventual Brandi Rhodes movie brought to us by The Rock.

Gonna laugh when Dean goes over HHH at Mania.

Fightful and other sites reporting Hideo Itami has asked for and been granted his release as well.

Hideo is ridiculously limited now. I wanted to see him face D Bry once before he left.

i believe Itami but Ambrose smells like a work.

Would explain the sudden change he made to his Twitter profile photo recently which then led to the speculation of him wanting out of the WWE.

Gran Metalik pulled a similar stunt via a tweet that teased he wanted out.

Can someone please explain what benefit there is to this being a work? Like, is there any? Let's say that Ambrose signs with WWE in April -- doesn't he look like a fuckwit for doing this whole "walking out of the company" thing? At best, doesn't it feel like a weak re-tread of the CM Punk stuff? If he beats Triple H at WrestleMania, it's just a Triple H vs. Ambrose match. I don't get what possible reason there would be to release a statement to the media that says that Ambrose is going, leading to people making a stir about AEW and all that. Hell, Ambrose might even get "All Elite" or "AEW" chants of that throughout this hypothetically worked program. What is the point of that?

More likely, as John Pollock pointed out, is that WWE received so many questions from actual people in the media about it, and to keep good channels of communication open, they've come clean and reported the truth. Ronda Rousey got all that attention too and WWE came out and spoke about her contract status. Occam's razor really suggest that Ambrose has probably said I'm definitely going, WWE has been asked about it, so they've done a statement that sounds amicable.

If anything is a work, it seems more reasonable that it would be WWE trying to maintain a good relationship with Dean Ambrose so he doesn't look like such a babyface for sticking it to them.

This reminds me of when Jeff Jarrett left the WWF in 1999, and WWF.com were releasing all those sweet-talking statements about what a gentleman and stand-up guy Jeff Jarrett was. It was to get him into the buildings and doing business heading into the show.

Would love it if KENTA and Gran Metalik left too. I imagine Metalik's contract must be coming up, because he was polling people as to whether he should go to CMLL or AAA or something. :lol:

As for KENTA being limited, I wonder how much of that is just WWE-style and him being, perhaps, really unhappy in that company. I just heard recently that WWE actually let him work the Pro Wrestling NOAH 20th Anniversary Show, which shocked the hell out of me. But apparently he had an excellent match with Naomichi Marufuji? I'm yet to see it.

I just said this to Slik and RoXer.

He's really bland and boring.

Kenta sucked in WWE until that four-way at the Rumble. He was awesome. I’m glad for
him to leave because you can see how this run has poorly affected him. Hopefully he gets back to NOAH and maybe even NJPW.

They’re actually really similar in that regard. Ambrose has way more charisma and personality than the typical generic indy guy. If this is legit, I’m actually excited to see him get to work outside of the creative black hole that is WWE.

He had a banger with Aleister Black too.

Has he spoke on the “goofy shit” or are you just assuming? Because I actually do remember him doing an interview where he talked about not taking wrestling too seriously.

When i first saw this I thought this guy is going to be the savior of wrestling . :(


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Yeah they nerfed his promos big time on the main roster. Calling him the "Lunatic Fringe" never felt fitting unlike when he was actually playing a believable crazy person on the indies.

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a corporate branded name such as thelunaticfringedeanambrose doesn't really scream authentic crazy person.

Somebody on twitter said something about it. Can't find it now.

oh then it must be true.

I’d be pissed off if the company I worked for got me to suggest that one of my mate’s leukaemia was cosmic justice, and it flattened my career with them anyway.

Don't forget getting vaccinated from the smelly fans with comically large needles

You can imagine Vince promising Ambrose it would be great, Ambrose not wanting to do it, Vince promising great heat, then Ambrose coming out to cricket farts.

Watching KENTA vs. Marufuji from just a few months ago right now. It's a fucking good match. KENTA is working like a pure heel thus far. His facial expressions are excellent. He's got great presence. Set up the story of him being the "bad dude" by trying to kick Marufuji off a break after Marufuji showed him the respect of a clean one. It's now going into a more back and forth contest.

Man, KENTA's facial expressions are really fucking good. They're kind of what I'm taking away from this. He's a great storyteller.

Probably because that 90 seconds was better and more believable than anything WWE's main roster (and arguably the entire company) has done in the last 14+ years.

Man, I loved the Ambrose FCW stuff. Double or Nothing ending with with an Ambrose promo like this could be epic.

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Ambrose actually looked better when he looked "worse" IMO. The short hair and beard make him look so generic and boring. The straggly hair and stubble was a unique look and if he kept that, still beefed up but got some actual wrestling gear he would look more of a star.

Haven't seen him actually work since he came back though, does he still do that goofy "get stuck in the ropes then hit a weak as fuck clothesline" spot? Horrible signature.

Yeah.... I think his current look w/short cropped hair makes him seem so "generic" and I "don't care about him"

Looking forward to The Shield reunion when Reigns returns with Seth and Fake Dean Ambrose.

I'm mixed about the look. His old look was "cool" and had this edgy, quirky outsider boy band appeal to it. He was the "street" one. The shaved head made him look far more serious and "tougher," but it did make him look like one of my friends.

He doesn't really have that larger than life look at all. He's pretty tall and in good shape, but he's not a huge guy by superhero standards, so he's kind of like a big normal dude that sometimes has hair and sometimes doesn't.

The Bane gimmick was fucking awful. Holy shit, way to make a guy in the best shape of his life (possibly) look shit by comparing him to a movie character that was huge.

For some perspective on how frustrated Dean was in the WWE, X-Pac thinks the deal that Dean turned down was likely around $3 million per year based on his past experience with contracts and how WWE handles downside guarantees.

Dean should wrestle Nia Jax in a loser has to wear a Weasel suit at WM!!

That's brilliant.

I don’t know what to make of that. I like X-Pac, but would he...know?

That being said, I totally buy Dean being frustrated. I would HATE WWE if they got me to do the things they’ve asked him to do. I probably would have tried to quit earlier. I really wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the first of quite a few surprises.

He did admit his guess was based on some rough math. Only had the report of Dean's new deal having a $1 million downside and his past knowledge of WWE's percentages to work with. Would also mean that wrestlers get roughly a third of their contract as paid guarantees.

If I remember, Dean's current contract is rumored to be somewhere around $1-$2 million per year. All 3 Shield guys were also rumored to be among the highest earners in the WWE.

I can imagine that a $1 million downside guarantee would come up with some special events and merch sales and all that. I mean, it sounds like they get paid specifically for the Saudi shows, and those are pretty hefty sums.

I suppose X-Pac having some knowledge would make sense with his friendships.

That being said, I'm more inclined to believe like you guys said, a downside guarantee of roughly a million per year. That has always seemed to be the max for big stars who aren't the top stars.

Then again who knows what they are doing with the new tv deals. Maybe they are going to switch up contracts to bigger guarantees but less percentages of everything else.