ECIII beats Dean Ambrose in his RAW Debut

WWE usually isn’t civil with anyone, especially wrestlers on their way out of the company.

But it seems things might be different between WWE and Ambrose, who reportedly told WWE officials last week that he won’t be re-signing with the company and will exit the company after his contract ends in April.

Last week, Ambrose lost clean to Seth Rollins in the middle of the ring, effectively ending their feud. At the Royal Rumble, Ambrose was eliminated by Aleister Black from NXT, giving the rub to a new up-and-coming wrestler. Then last night on Raw, Ambrose lost clean to ECIII, who was debuting on the main roster after spending almost a year in NXT.

It makes sense for WWE to use Ambrose to put over as many wrestlers as possible on his way out the door. It was a lot easier for WWE to do this 20 years ago, like when Kevin Nash and Scott Hall left the company for WCW to form the NWO. At WrestleMania 12, Nash put over the Undertaker clean in what would be one of his final appearances for the company.

But there was less TV then.

Ambrose doing clean jobs every week on Raw is fine, but the effect will be lessened week after week. With every loss, wins over Ambrose will mean less.

WWE needed to end the Rollins feud, so Ambrose putting over Rollins makes total sense. This could also be an indication that WWE has big plans for ECIII moving forward. If not, why waste an Ambrose loss on ECIII? It doesn’t make any business sense, especially knowing that each loss will chip away at Ambrose’s credibility.

ECIII’s win over Ambrose on Monday made headlines. Three weeks from now, if Ambrose is on a losing streak, the headline will be more about Ambrose losing than whoever beats him, winning.

That’s what WWE can’t afford.

Coming off two straight losses, it might make sense for WWE to keep Ambrose out of the ring for the next few weeks. They have him under their control until April, so they can take their time. Time heals all wounds, and the more time Ambrose spends away from the ring before his next match, the more impactful it will be when he wrestles someone next and puts them over.