Could Dean Ambrose beat Braun Strowman? He certainly came close when he planted The Monster Among Men with a surprise Dirty Deeds after a long, grueling bout that was going Strowman’s way until The Lunatic Fringe up and dropped his foe with the double-arm DDT that once won Ambrose the WWE Championship.
But it wasn’t enough: Strowman kicked out of the pinfall, rolled out of the ring and (despite a frantic follow-up from Ambrose) quickly turned the proceedings from a match into a statement beating — one so severe Roman Reigns appeared to run interference, clocking Stroman with a Superman Punch that led to a disqualification win for The Monster Among Men. It also set up the evening’s next match: After Seth Rollins joined the fight and Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre arrived to even the odds, Baron Corbin re-emerged to restore order by immediately sanctioning Reigns vs. Ziggler, as well as Rollins vs. McIntyre for later in the evening.
As for Ambrose, he wasn’t crazy about the whole thing. In fact, when Rollins went to check on his brother in the trainer’s room, The Lunatic Fringe pointedly reminded The Kingslayer that he could have left Raw as Intercontinental Champion if he made a different choice.