Dean Ambrose Ratings, WWE Brand Split and More from the World Title Mailbag

Crazy Dean Ambrose is world champion, and wrestling hipsters couldn't be prouder.

He even gets to carry Raw with Roman Reigns serving a suspension. If that's not enough good news for team Ambrose, the NBA is in its offseason; no more competing with Stephen Curry and LeBron James for ratings.

In a related story, Raw's viewership sank last week. Uh oh.

Every Ambrose Has its Thorns?

"

When Dean Ambrose doesn't move the dial will we get the same narrative that Roman gets or we will blame creative as a special exception?

— IbushiRoad (@VicVenomBytes) June 29, 2016"

It'll be interesting to see how the ratings are affected with Dean Ambrose atop WWE. With Roman Reigns out of the picture, WWE now gets to see if there's any correlation between Ambrose's drawing power at a hole-in-the-wall house show, per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Wrestling Inc), and television ratings.

So far? Not good.

After a post-Money in the Bank bounce, Night 1 of the Dean Ambrose show resulted in an 11 percent drop in viewership from the week before, per Showbuzz Daily.com (h/t Wrestling Inc).

I've long since said that given the various methods of consuming content, Nielsen ratings alone do not tell the whole story. Still, the anti-Reigns hardcore contingent held his feet to the fire when ratings were down, while blaming WWE Creative when ratings were historically low with Seth Rollins as champion, per James Caldwell of PWTorch. 

Now that a third and final former Shield member is a world champion during a ratings slump, expect more of the same creative blame game.

Ambrose just doesn't feel like a champion at the moment. There was very little momentum headed into his shocking cash-in, and I feel like people are just waiting for the moment when it's announced that Ambrose's world title run was all just a big prank to be featured on Swerved.

Even Stephanie McMahon's sudden hatred of Ambrose seems forced. If Ambrose crashes and burns as a TV ratings draw, the Internet Wrestling Community will blame Brock Lesnar for beating him at WrestleMania, they'll blame that chainsaw for not working, they'll blame Roman Reigns for being suspended, they'll blame Triple H for being Triple H and they'll blame WWE for "dropping the ball."

They'll blame everything but the potentially inconvenient truth that Ambrose—and for that matter The Shield—is years away from being a consistent main event draw.

Question of the Week: A Roman Controversy?

WWE was wise to jump out in front of the Roman Reigns storyline. This is the Reality Era, where fans often use real-life storylines to hijack live events. These storylines will swallow WWE programming whole if the promotion isn't proactive.

When Reigns returns, the heckling from do-good pro wrestling fans who don't make mistakes won't be as awkward. With this storyline front-and-center, his return will be more heavily anticipated.

With Reigns' suspension now part of a storyline, he'll become a more three-dimensional character. If Reigns uses this rough patch to turn heel, as an embittered WWE Superstar who is now being vilified by the same fans who played dumb when Dolph Ziggler failed a drug test, WWE's viewership woes could be alleviated. This is the type of reality-TV drama featured on shows like Love and Hip Hop, which routinely whips WWE on Monday nights.

Without Reigns, viewers will have to sit through the type of arthouse wrestling that only attracts a demographic of angry males on Twitter who watch Chikara. Hang in there, casual fan. When Reigns returns, so will the drama, and it's going to get good.

Two Champs?

Bringing back a second world championship will be a mistake long-term.

If this brand split is anything like the last, WWE will not be able to keep both shows exclusive. As the brands begin to co-mingle, this will eventually result in one championship being seen as the lesser of two titles, which will further damage the prestige of both secondary championships.

If WWE does bring back a second championship, however, I think the first champion should be an established veteran who holds on to it for a lengthy period of time. WWE will get more mileage out of building up a young crop of talent if they are chasing and consistently competing with a John Cena or Randy Orton.

More times than not, a first-time world champion sounds a lot more exciting than it really is. Much like the harsh lesson being learned by Ambrose, there needs to be considerable momentum for fans to stay on board.

Dolph Ziggler's cash-in was such a great moment because he held on to the Money in the Bank briefcase for months, WWE developed a stable around him and he slowly turned into a top-tier talent. With Ambrose's win coming on short notice, he's in one of those awkward positions where fans have to get used to the idea of Ambrose as a world champion while he is holding the title.

A long-term feud, overcoming obstacles and a high-profile pay-per-view showdown are all elements that can make a strong champion. And at least in the beginning, it can help establish a second world title.

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.