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At first glance, no two competitors are less alike than Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt. But watching their brutality in St. Louis, no one can deny their obvious similarities. Unstable, unhinged and unpredictable, Ambrose exhibited his manic and frenzied fighting style. But Wyatt, cool as a cucumber on the outside, matched his opponent punch for punch, collision for collision.
The opening minutes of the high-impact melee switched from between the ropes to the ringside floor, back to the canvas and to the outside again. Like one of Bray’s puzzling sermons or Dean’s staccato gesticulations, it was difficult to know where the battle would find itself next. But when Bray took advantage of a mistimed dive by Ambrose to the outside, the backwoods preacher managed to gain control.
Wyatt tossed his rival into the ring, landed a senton and locked Ambrose into an agonizing full nelson lock. Dean thrashed and escaped, and revved up like a Mustang GT in a Steve McQueen movie. But just as in “Bullitt,” it resulted in an explosion as he crashed head on into Wyatt in wild a full-speed collision. Feeling the effects, the two men once again found themselves at ringside where a double clothesline bludgeoned and took out both competitors. But just as the brawl was about to end in a double count-out, Wyatt and Ambrose slid under the bottom rope to avoid the 10-count.
Ambrose landed a ring-rattling bulldog and realized he was now one step ahead of his twisted rival. It was this moment where everything changed. The Lunatic Fringe — who had until this point allowed his opponent to get inside his head — was now inside Wyatt’s. Mimicking Bray, he hung upside-down from the turnbuckles. It was a haunting moment for Wyatt, who is usually himself the haunter.
Watch Dean Ambrose speak about the match and future of his rivalry with Bray Wyatt
Astonished, Bray attempted Sister Abigail. Ambrose countered with a roll-up, but Wyatt kicked out. It was the beginning of a dizzying series of maneuvers and counters that saw Bray miss a slam to the mat, Ambrose miss a rebound clothesline from the ropes, and Bray miss another senton. For a moment, it seemed as though the match would continue without either competitor making impact.
But The Lunatic Fringe finally scored the aforementioned clothesline and a top rope elbow to a standing Wyatt. But when Bray nailed a clothesline of his own that turned Ambrose inside out and back again, he followed that up with a brutal slam to the steel steps on the outside. Somehow, Dean was able to kick out of a pinfall attempt, leaving Wyatt incredulous.
He gnawed at his stringy hair, his eyes beginning to well up with tears. What would it take to put Ambrose away? He rolled to the outside and grabbed his weapon of choice: a microphone.
“Why you doing this, man?” Wyatt pleaded. “It didn’t have to be like this, Dean.”
Wyatt, questioning what he had brought upon himself, began realizing that he may have taken on more than he bargained for. Because in the end, Ambrose is as wild as Bray himself is.
“Me and you, we’re special,” he revealed, and then followed it up with something more ominous: “I’m sorry, you chose your path.”
Reaching under the ring, Wyatt uncovered a steel chair and tossed it into the ring and Ambrose quickly picked it up. Bray dared him to swing away. Dean contemplated for a moment, but allowed the rage to bubble to the surface. He nailed Wyatt in the gut with the chair, and then blasted him on the back. Unconcerned that he had been disqualified; he then dropped the chair to the mat, and nailed Bray with Dirty Deeds to the steel.
But Ambrose wasn’t done. He went under the ring himself and pulled out a table. A few moments later, Bray had found himself crashing through it by way of another top rope elbow. Like his own personal Home Depot, Dean lifted the apron again, finding dozens more chairs, tossing them into the ring, burying Wyatt alive under a pile of lumber and steel.
See photos of the wild and brutal mauling
The Lunatic Fringe had gone off the deep end, but then, the coup de grace: a ladder. He climbed to the top, triumphant and signaling that this war was far from over. Like a beautiful 50-car pileup, Ambrose had chosen his fate, a disqualification loss, a brutalized Wyatt, and a TLC Match on deck for next month.
Perhaps Bray was right. He and Dean are special when it comes to their methods of madness. But on the outside, they couldn’t be more different. And in this case, opposites attract.