Dean Ambrose Is the Greatest Threat to Roman Reigns' Success as WWE's Top Hero

For the second year in a row, Roman Reigns in preparing for a main event showdown at WrestleMania, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at stake in the biggest match in professional wrestling.

As he makes his way down the road to The Showcase of the Immortals, though, he is once again being met with great resistance by fans who are not sold on his one-dimensional character and his lackluster booking.

Enter Dean Ambrose, Reigns' best friend on- and off-screen, a wrestler not nearly as physically impressive but whose unique charisma and on-screen presence have fans completely invested in the so-called Lunatic Fringe.

And unbeknownst to WWE's resident juggernaut, he is the greatest threat to Reigns' success as WWE's greatest babyface.

Ambrose's popularity was not manufactured in a writer's room, nor has he enjoyed the massive push of his buddy. What he has, though, is the ability to energize an audience that Reigns simply does not. He may not have the size or build of someone destined to star in Vince McMahon's traveling circus of sport and entertainment, but he has an aura about him that cannot be crafted in a marketing meeting.

At Fastlane, the former Shield members will share the ring with Brock Lesnar in a Triple Threat match to determine the No. 1 contender to Triple H's WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

While that match may prove to be an extraordinary one, it could also be majorly detrimental to Reigns.

As fans witnessed at the Royal Rumble on January 24, fans reacted much more to the prospect of Ambrose winning the WWE Championship than they did Reigns. That is a strong indication that the fans are more interesting in backing him than the guy the company is banking on to lead it into the future.

And it is not the first time that has been obvious.

The biggest detriment to Reigns on his quest for sustained main event greatness is the fact that WWE Creative continues to book him and Ambrose together, be it in tag team matches or talk show segments. The difference between Ambrose and Reigns in terms of their personalities and acceptance by fans are constantly on display, there for the whole world to see and take note. 

It is readily apparent that Ambrose is everything that the company so desperately wants Reigns to be, and it seems far too willing to trot it out there. Then, in the same breath, WWE wonders why Reigns is not connecting as it had hoped he would.

With so much invested in Reigns and another major marquee WrestleMania bout on the horizon, booking Reigns in the same match with the infinitely more popular Ambrose, fresh off a Match of the Year candidate against Kevin Owens, is a major misstep on the part of WWE Creative.

So Reigns will arrive at Fastlane and be completely overshadowed by Ambrose, and the company will once again wonder why its work in getting Reigns over as a lead hero in its live-action morality play has failed to this point.

The answer has been obvious for quite some time.