Bad News Barrett vs. Dean Ambrose: Winner and Reaction from 2015 WWE Fastlane

Bad News Barrett is one of the most decorated Intercontinental champions of all time, and he was able to add another star to his list of conquered foes—if somewhat indirectly—Sunday night, defeating Dean Ambrose at WWE Fastlane via disqualification.

The WWE Universe Twitter account snapped a photo of Ambrose taking the belt despite losing: 

WrestlingRumors.net explained the ending:

RingsideXcess.com praised the match, but questioned the crowd: 

Barrett has won the title on five occasions, and he did so most recently by defeating Dolph Ziggler in January. Ambrose entered Fastlane having never won the prestigious IC title, and he made it clear he wanted to change that.

Ambrose is no stranger to singles gold, as he was the longest-reigning United States champion in WWE history at 351 days. He defeated Barrett in a non-title match prior to the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, and after falling short of his goal to main event WrestleMania; he set his sights on the British Superstar once again.

WWE's Lunatic Fringe has often brought up his desire to win the Intercontinental Championship in order to have his picture added to the wall of champions at WWE headquarters.

Unfortunately for Ambrose, Barrett was unwilling to put his title on the line at Fastlane, or at any other point for that matter:

Because of that, Ambrose was forced to make the match happen on his own terms. Following Barrett's win over Damien Mizdow on the go-home edition of Raw, the unhinged Superstar tied Barrett's hands to the ring post.

He then took control of Barrett's hand and made him sign the contract, which made their clash at Fastlane official.

Following the incident, Barrett questioned the validity of Ambrose's creative signing methods:

Regardless of legality, the match occurred at Fastlane, and it was predictably entertaining. Both Barrett and Ambrose have all the makings of main event Superstars, and although they aren't in that position currently, they showed Sunday why that may change moving forward.

It can certainly be argued that Barrett and Ambrose deserve better than battling it out in the midcard, but WWE is cyclical as far as pushes are concerned. They may not be in an ideal spot right now; however, they didn't hesitate to make the best of it.

Since it doesn't appear there is room for them to move higher up the card for WrestleMania, it seems quite possible that their feud will carry on. There are several other talented Superstars without a firm direction too, though, which means the IC title match could be a multi-man affair.

If Barrett and Ambrose are at the forefront of it, then there is little doubt that it will be entertaining regardless of the creative team's commitment level.

Barrett was able to escape Fastlane with his Intercontinental Championship reign intact, but it is far from safe with the biggest show of the year on the horizon.

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