Booking the Return: Dean Ambrose

Anyone who has ever talked to me about wrestling knows I’m a HUGE Dean Ambrose fan and, like most members of the Asylum, I’ve been waiting with baited breath for the return of the Lunatic Fringe. Unfortunately, it seems that we will be waiting until late Spring/early Summer for his return (GRRRR). So, while we wait for Ambrose to return to either RAW or SmackDown, let’s have some fun booking his return.

1. Money in the Bank. Since this is going to be a joint match, Dean could easily enter as a brand neutral party.  Would I have him win it? Absolutely, but that’s just me. Even if Dean didn’t win, having him return at Money in the Bank would be amazing.
2. Sell the Arm: Okay, how this would work is that either Kurt or Shane would announce the return of the Ambrose Asylum. Dean does the segment with his arm still in a sling. Either Samoa Joe or Seth comes out and begins talking. Dean sells that his arm is still bad, but when whoever turns away, he takes the sling off and decks him.
3. Attack Someone. Depending on who it is could signal whether he’s a face or a heel.
4. New Gimmick. Maybe not a brand new gimmick, but maybe rebranding him either as a babyface or a heel.
5. Pulling a Seth at Extreme Rules. Remember Seth’s shocking return at Extreme Rules 2016, when he did a run-in and attacked Roman? Picture that, but with Dean, either attacking Seth or Samoa Joe.
6. As a Surprise Partner. A lot of people had hoped that Dean would be Braun Strowman’s mystery partner at WrestleMania, but that job was filled by Nicholas. Still, it could be fun for someone to tease a mystery partner and Ambrose comes out.

All this leads to the question: Who should he face first?

1. Samoa Joe. This is a pretty simple booking. Joe was the one who ‘injured’ Dean back in December, so booking a feud between them on SmackDown is an easy one to do.

2. Baron Corbin. This would be a revisit of an old feud. Corbin and Ambrose feuded back in 2017 over the Intercontinental Title, which lead up to a match at WrestleMania and looked to go to at least Backlash when Ambrose was drafted to RAW in 2017. Again, this would be an easy one to book.

3. Finn Balor. This could be a fun one. After Rollins’ amazing victory at Greatest Royal Rumble, a Balor turn would be amazing, and if he should decide to feud with a returning Dean or if Dean costs him another win, there’s nothing wrong with that.

4. Jeff Hardy. This would be an amazing feud. The chemistry between Jeff and Ambrose was pretty amazing in the tag match the Hardys had against Ambrose and Rollins the night after SummerSlam. A one-on-one feud would be pretty fun.

5. Elias. This one is a little iffy to me. Ambrose and Elias had a brief feud that was an off-shoot of Ambrose’s feud with Miz. That said, they had really good matches and it could be a fun feud.

6. Seth Rollins. Yeah, it’s been done, but this is one of those feuds that always works. I picture Dean coming back as a heel for this and being pissed that Rollins worked with Jason Jordan and won the Tag Titles with him.

7. Roman Reigns. HEAR. ME. OUT! I love the Ambreigns bromance as much as anyone else, but these two could also have an amazing feud and either would work as heel/face.

a. Heel!Ambrose: Ambrose calls Reigns out for his mega-push and how Dean carried the company when Roman got hurt or in trouble but never got the recognition.

b. Face!Ambrose: Ambrose comes back and either re-teams with Reigns or Reigns does an open challenge, Ambrose returns and beats Roman, either way, Reigns becomes jealous and turns on Ambrose.

8. Randy Orton. This could be a really great feud. It’s been teased a couple of times, but it never seemed to materialize. These two could really tear the house down if given a chance.

9. Daniel Bryan. This could be for after the Miz/Cass feud. These two had a great feud back in the indies before Bryan came to WWE in 2010, and the feud between Team Hell No and the Shield was great in 2013. I think a singles feud between them could be really great and bring out the best in both guys.

10. Shane McMahon. This feud was actually rumored to be in the works for WrestleMania last year, but it was scrapped in favor of Styles/McMahon and Ambrose/Corbin. Given the styles of these two, it could either really great or really awful, and the health of both guys is important, but I would still love to see these two mix it up.

What do you guys think? How would you like to see Ambrose come back and who should his first feud be with?