WATCH: Dean Ambrose Farewell Speech to WWE Universe After Raw with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns (VIDEO)
Dean Ambrose is moving on from WWE. Following last night’s edition of WWE Monday Night Raw in Brooklyn, Dean Ambrose gave a farewell speech to the WWE Universe. Ambrose was in the ring with his Shield brothers WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns as he talked to the fans.
As many of you know by now, there were reports in late January that Ambrose was going to be leaving WWE when his contract expires in April and then WWE issued a statement about it, which was rare. A lot of fans thought it was just a storyline and I’m sure some people reading this still believe it’s a storyline, but apparently, it is true that Dean is leaving even though his wife Renee Young is one of the three announcers on Raw. Dean feels like it’s the right time to walk away. Will he be back one day? Probably. He’s only 33 years old and in good health, so perhaps this is just a break for him before an eventual return. Some fans might think he will join another wrestling promotion. It’s possible, but we really don’t know right now.
Ambrose had what was billed as his final Raw match on Monday although the match against Bobby Lashley never actually began. When Lashley said he’ll “take care of” Renee Young while Dean is gone, that infuriated Dean and it led to a brawl. Lashley stood tall when he gave Ambrose a spinebuster through the announce table, so Ambrose’s last Raw appearance (for now) was him lying on a broken announce table with Renee there to check on him.
The post-Raw farewell from Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns (who didn’t speak to the crowd) was posted on WWE’s Youtube, website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. after Raw. I woke up at 8AM this morning to see that this video already had 1.7 million views, which is a huge amount for any video after Raw the night before. I’ll paste the video at the bottom of the post. Here’s a summary of the segment.
Rollins said that there was one more thing that he needed to do before he got out of there. Rollins said he’ll need his friend and brother Roman Reigns to come out here. Reigns entered to mostly cheers, but there were also boos. Reigns was not on Raw and was dressed in a casual way as he got into the ring with Rollins. They hugged when Reigns got in the ring. Reigns did not speak.
Rollins put over Reigns saying this guy had his first singles match (at WrestleMania) since battling leukemia. Rollins said that Reigns inspires him and he loves him, which drew cheers from the crowd.
Rollins talked about how Ambrose had his last match on Raw (sort of) and he wanted him to come out there. Rollins said he knew Brooklyn had some party left in them since he saw the beach balls (I’m sure he was thrilled about those). Rollins said he loved Dean Ambrose, so he wanted him to come out there to tell him to his face.
Dean Ambrose entered to a big ovation from the crowd. He was in a leather jacket and jeans as Ambrose raised Seth’s hand when he got in the ring.
Rollins said that title around his waist doesn’t happen without Dean Ambrose. Rollins said that nobody prepared him for Brock Lesnar more than Ambrose, he learned so much from this man and it breaks his heart to see Dean go. Rollins: “I love you so much, my friend.” The fans chanted “please don’t go” at Ambrose. Seth said he tried that, but it didn’t work. Seth said he thanks him and he loves him.
Ambrose took the microphone from Rollins: “One of the sweetest sights that I have ever seen as a guy who busted his ass for this company, for this locker room, who has dragged his broken, dead body through every highway, through every single building all across this country and the world right alongside my brothers, my best friends…the sweetest sight I ever saw was Seth Rollins stomping Brock Lesnar’s big, dumb, lunchbox head into the mat, pinning him and holding that Universal Championship over his head, and taking it back to the boys.” That drew a lot of cheers.
Ambrose continued: “One of the other sweetest things I’ve ever seen was just recently when we saw Roman Reigns kick the shit (it was bleeped) out of cancer and come back on Monday Night Raw. (The crowd cheered.) I love this building. I know some of you probably aren’t even from New York City, you know. You came here from all over the world.”
Ambrose: “I love this building. I love the Barclays Center. We opened up the Barclays Center. The very first WWE ever show, first ever pay-per-view, TLC whatever year that was (it was 2012). I’m getting very old. I can’t remember. My very first WWE PPV match, TLC, we got thrown to the wolves. Arn Anderson called us two indy schmucks and a football player. Like Seth said, we walked that aisle and we tore it up and we took our spot. I have a lot of great memories in this building. That match is probably my favorite match I’ve ever had. Winning the Tag Team Championships with Seth Rollins at Summerslam right here in this ring, in this building. But, here’s the big thing you’ve got to remember… a building is just a building. It’s just brick and mortar and it’s wood and nails. What makes the building is the fans and there are no fans in the world like you, the fans who come all over the world to be here on Wrestlemania week to come watch, to come to all the different shows and to stay and sit through three friggin’ hours of Monday Night Raw and sit here and be here tonight and listen to us talk. So, without you, there isn’t any us. Screw this building. The important thing is the people who fill it and that’s you, so we want to thank you once again.”
Ambrose went to all four sides around the ring and bowed to the fans as they chanted “Thank You Dean” at him.
Reigns stood in the ring with the Shield fist, Rollins joined him and Ambrose joined him for the familiar Shield pose that we have seen many times. The Shield music played. The boys hugged in the ring and Ambrose posed some more and video was over there with a run time of 9:12.
Analysis: Good speech. I enjoyed the part where Ambrose said that Lesnar had a “big, dumb, lunchbox head.” That was funny. The line about Arn Anderson calling them two indy schmucks and a football player (that would be Roman) was pretty funny the way Dean delivered the line. It was also funny how talked about how special the building the was and then moments later was saying “screw this building” because what really mattered were the fans. That’s true, but “screw this building” was weird. I assume he was getting nervous or didn’t know what to say.
It was nice to see the crowd being respectful to Ambrose and chanting things like “please don’t go” and “Thank You Dean” at him. It’s certainly better than playing with beach balls or chanting the name of another promotion in the main event of the show, which I’m sure WWE wasn’t thrilled about. As I said in the Raw Deal Review, I get why the crowd was angry, but they probably could have handled it another way too.
Dean’s speech was from the heart and it was nice to hear him speak to the fans like that. He’s not a guy that opens up that match. Dean hasn’t said anything about why he is leaving in WWE. We just know that he is…although as I said earlier there are people that think this is all a work.
I’m glad that WWE gave Dean that farewell moment with Seth, Roman and the Raw After Mania fans in Brooklyn.
To Dean, I say thanks for the memories, you’re a very good professional wrestling and we hope to see you back in the ring one day in the future. Whether that’s in WWE or somewhere else, it’s up to him, but I believe in doing things that you are good at it in life and he’s awesome at what he does. Best of luck to him.