I'm gonna get needlessly analytical with this week's headline topic, but what is the Wrap Up if not my prix fixe menu of self-indulgence?
Dean Ambrose was a total a-hole to James Ellsworth and, basically, deserved to get bitten on the ass by the whole Ellsworth phenomenon.
Look, wrestling never delves into character complexities. It's a fairly basic black and white playbook. Heels are loud liars and/or "know-it-alls" who talk too much. The babyface's job is to shut them up with fists, even when they make sense. Hell, especially when they make sense and hit too close to the nerve.
Occasionally, a top face will take on a sidekick. Er, "hero support." Hulk Hogan was big on this back in the day, whether it was Tugboat or Brutus Beefcake or Jim Duggan, and the role of Hogan's "buddy" was to take a beating and then hot tag Hogan. And they were to smile and be thankful the entire time they got to stand next to the Hulkster. It was kind of an icky, disposable relationship akin to Zack Morris' rotating door of vanishing girlfriends on Saved by the Bell.
Occasionally, one of Hogan's seconds would find a spine and fight back. They'd have to be a big name though, like Macho Man, who was still in Hogan's shadow the entire year he was WWE champ for the first time. It would come as a huge betrayal of course, because Hogan's friends were always supposed to be content with just being Hogan's friends. That should have been it for them, right?
James Ellsworth never actually teamed with Dean. They weren't "buddies" in the same way. In fact, Sir Chinnington even cost Ambrose a match a month or so back and Dean was super pissed. This isn't exactly a straight parallel, but it's safe to say that James was never Dean's friend. Or at least, Dean never felt that way. James, to both heroes and heels, was a laughing stock. He's the undersized, misshapen antithesis of a WWWE wrestler. Even jobbers in the past, those with built-in deficiencies as part of their gimmick, were more in the mold of a "superstar." Dean never treated James like a person he actually cared about.
It's part of Dean's character to be a jerk, it's true. He's never really been the "lunatic" they've set him up to be - mostly more of an unmade bed of a man who abhors planning and hygiene. Does he need to have friends? No. But what he offered James was a false friendship. And leave it to WWE's resident truth-monger, The Miz, to finally call Dean out about it on SmackDown this week. Yes, James was just a toy Dean used to annoy Styles. It was all just a game to Dean and a way to get under AJ's skin. He didn't really want Ellsworth to get a contract as much as he wanted to make Styles look bad by having him lose to Ellsworth in a contract ladder match.
Now, the motivation they're giving to Ellsworth for thwarting Dean at TLC (the question of WHY he came out in the first place when Styles was about to win is a whole other can of gummies, of course) is that he's deluded and feels like he can beat Styles for the belt. He's due a title shot and thinks he has a real shot if AJ's the champ. Of course, by the end of SmackDown, it all had turned into what seemed to be real animosity between Dean and James when James came out and purposefully cost Dean another match. Payback for the (awesome) Dirty Deeds from the top of the show...
Oh, how I wish James' actual motivation was explained as him being angry over Dean's Cheshire smile and fake friendship. Miz laid it all out. It made sense. Especially when you consider that Ellsworth didn't distract Dean and cost him the title. He didn't take the ref's attention away or anything. Ellsworth pushed the ladder over and sent Ambrose through two tables. It was a vicious attack that could have seriously injured Dean. That kind of swerve is done out of spite.
This is all my unwarranted long-winded away of saying I wish everyone could get called out properly for their storyline mistreatment of Ellsworth, especially the good guys.
Continue on for AJ's wardrobe malfunction, TLC, RAW, and more...
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