Opinion: Why Isn’t WWE Building Ambrose vs. Owens Properly?

The feud between Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens has been the victim of some bad luck. The feud was headed into “Survivor Series”, but Seth Rollins got injured, and Ambrose vs. Owens was postponed because of the WWE title tournament. Last week, When it resumed heading into “TLC”, I was excited to see them clash.

Unfortunately, their feud this month has been a tremendous disappointment because it hasn’t been showcased properly and it comes off as filler to me when it should be one of the best feuds going and last night just proves my point with a segment that sums my point up in a little bow.

httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=7tpdHf_tF5o

Okay, Owens has a pretty good match with Dolph Ziggler. The fact that Tyler Breeze is just sitting in the “VIP Section” without interacting with Ziggler is another matter.

Regardless, Owens gets the win. Ambrose comes down eating popcorn and drinking soda. By the time their face to face, the Champ is talking trash, and Dean just throws the food and drink into his face, and that’s that.

Owens was sick last week, and Ambrose has been a big part of the Reigns vs. the League of Nations feud. They’re had limited time to build their feud to this Sunday, but why is Ambrose throwing popcorn in Owens’ face like he isn’t taking the match seriously?

Owens is the IC Champion, and he’s a top heel in the company. This is exactly why Owens should have defeated Ambrose in the WWE title tournament. The feud with Ambrose would feel a lot bigger if the WWE Universe didn’t already know that Ambrose can beat Owens. Now, he can get away with telling jokes.

On the other side, Owens hasn’t been booked strongly either. Personally, I like that Owens loses some matches because it makes him vulnerable and that’s good as a heel. Only Brock Lesnar can pull off the “unbeatable” aura forever. Owens can lose at any time and that makes being a fan of him more interesting.

The issue with Ambrose beating Owens before is Owens doesn’t look desperate right now. He’s only going to be able to convey that in the ring with Ambrose, or on the microphone.

WWE hasn’t been building the feud either of those ways. Instead, they booked Owens vs. Ziggler for Raw and the contract signing for Smackdown.

I understand WWE needs to build Smackdown for the brand’s move to the USA Network, but I’d much rather have seen the contract signing on Raw and a good fifteen-minute match on Smackdown. I’d rather see Raw continue to be the talking show and have Smackdown be the brand that gets better quality wrestling.

Ambrose and Owens will finally get mic time on Smackdown, but not as many people are going to see it and frankly, a better segment between them for the IC Championship would have helped a very poor Raw show.

 

It’s not like WWE has screwed the pooch on this one just yet. It’s only “TLC” and WWE television is in a slump. My concern is they’ll do something crazy like put the IC title on Ambrose to change up the game.

That’s great for Ambrose, but where does that leave Kevin Owens? It’s doubtful we’re getting Owens vs. Zayn this early and both men are bound for the Royal Rumble match, but is Owens going to win the Royal Rumble match to go to Wrestlemania? Very unlikely.

Hopefully, this feud between Ambrose and Owens becomes more personal and gains some steam. A title change would do that. But, I think Dean Ambrose should be the winner of the 2016 Royal Rumble. I think we got a small taste of Ambrose vs. Reigns and this April, we’ll get the main course.

This Sunday is really important for Ambrose and Owens because they’re leading the midcard. “TLC” could put them on a great run through Wrestlemania. It’s going to be the Royal Rumble before we know it; I’d like to see both of these men in great matches.

For me, Sunday is the first step to making that happen. It should be given more than what we’ve been seeing.