Ryan Dilbert's 10-Count: WWE Title Tournament Will Be Big Boost for Dean Ambrose

1. The Lunatic Poised to Earn Major Spotlight

Dean Ambrose will soon be swimming in opportunities. 

Even if he doesn't take home the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series, the tournament to decide the next titleholder will spell victory for The Lunatic Fringe. He is set to clash with a number of top-notch opponents, battle in a marquee pay-per-view match and figure prominently in the next major chapter of the Roman Reigns story.

Ambrose's side of the bracket boasts some of the best in-ring performers in WWE today. He's bound to be a part of at least two strong showings.

Dolph Ziggler awaits him in the second round. And while the debate about whether The Showoff is capable of being a true headliner rages on, there's no argument about his ability to shine in the squared circle.

Add the high stakes of the tournament and Ziggler vs. Ambrose is sure to be excellent.

And should Ambrose make it to the semifinals, the expectation is that Kevin Owens will meet him there. That's a show-stealer in the making. Bad blood has started to develop between these two, as WWE looked to be positioning them for a feud against each other before Seth Rollins' injury forced a dramatic change in plans.

If Ambrose and Owens battle on past Survivor Series, that's a feud that has the potential to be one of the best of Ambrose's career.

Owens' verbal acumen promises to make their banter memorable. Both men excel at brawling and more standard wrestling, so expect a series of quality clashes ahead, including likely a gimmick match at the TLC PPV.

Before that, Ambrose is the safest bet to make it to the finals out of him Owens, Ziggler and the winner of the Neville-King Barrett match. With Owens already holding the Intercontinental Championship, it's not likely he gets a real crack at the world title. Ziggler hasn't been treated like a legit contender. Neville and Barrett sit on a lower tier altogether.

Plus, there is more intrigue surrounding an Ambrose-Reigns final than any other pairing. Their current alliance adds one hell of a subplot.

So expect them to be the last two men standing, and for Ambrose to add another PPV WWE title match to his resume.

Once that bell rings and the two former stablemates face off, Ambrose may end up being what Mick Foley was at Survivor Series 1998—the pathos-generating babyface who lost out to injustice and a corporate faction. On Monday night, WWE teased a potential heel turn for Reigns when Triple H tried to tempt him to join the dark side.

That bit of foreshadowing could either be a setup for Reigns to pull a page from The Rock's playbook and become the corporate champ, or Ambrose may be the one who takes Triple H's offer in secret.

Either way, Ambrose is set to be at the center of a major drama. 

At the very least, he has an IC title-centered rivalry against one of the hottest heels in the company. His best-case scenario is to walk away WWE champ, leaving Reigns in his wake. Ambrose is promised a better position than he has been in the last few months in either case.

Leading up to Hell in a Cell, Ambrose was Reigns' second banana, the supportive friend often forced to stand in the background. Rollins' knee ripping underneath him opened the door for Ambrose to be closer to center stage instead.

2. 0-1 Doesn't Spell Doom

While Tyler Breeze losing in his debut match may have some seeing that as a sign that WWE doesn't think much of him, history shows that not winning right away doesn't mean one won't win down the road.

The usual way to introduce new wrestlers is to have them go on a winning streak against low-level opponents. It's a way to build them up, to paint them as real threats.

WWE hasn't always gone that route, however. These four men lost their first WWE match:

• Chris Jericho (vs. Road Dogg)
• Eddie Guerrero (with Perry Saturn vs. The New Age Outlaws)
• John Cena (vs. Kurt Angle) 
• Daniel Bryan (vs. Chris Jericho)

All four of them went on to win the WWE title. Guerrero is already in the Hall of Fame. Cena and Jericho are locks to join him. Bryan has a strong case for induction, too.

Breeze is a far different specimen than any of those wrestlers, but their stories are a reminder not to rush to label someone "buried." 

3. Throwback Video of the Week: Shawn Michaels

Seth Rollins lost his title off-camera, with no fanfare, no dramatic moment. WWE simply announced that he would have to vacate his championship due to his sever knee injury and moved on to deciding who will take his place.

Michaels relinquished his crown in far more memorable fashion. His "I lost my smile" speech remains one of the most powerful of his career:

WWE would be wise to give Rollins a chance for some mic time during his recovery, to give him his own chance to emote over no longer possessing the world championship.

4. Wide Gap in the Women's Division

The NXT women's division is in a strange place. It's two tiers exist miles apart.

At the top, Bayley is thriving as the gutsy fan favorite with a strong connection to the crowd. Alexa Bliss has morphed into a top-level heel. Asuka is just plain captivating to watch.

But those women don't have enough quality competition. If they aren't facing each other, they have to battle raw, unproven, flawed prospects.

Dana Brooke is a painfully bad actress. Peyton Royce and Billie Kay come off as generic, too easy to forget moments after the bell rings. And Eva Marie is not ready to be on TV at all. She's a clumsy student just figuring out to work the tools of the medium.

Contrast that with Bayley and Bliss and it feels like NXT is two leagues in one.

5. Racism in Wrestling

Comedy Central's The Nightly Show tackled race issues in wrestling with the help of Virgil.

Beyond the entertainment value, this is a conversation-starter. Stereotypes posing as character traits has long been a wrestling tradition. 

WWE has in many ways improved in terms of better representation of minorities, though. Notice how old all the examples (Kamala, Virgil, etc.) are. And while some may argue that The New Day asks the trio to shuck and jive, the gyrating, loudmouth braggart is a role assigned to white wrestlers as well, from Rick Rude to Fandango.

6. Cesaro's Arsenal Keeps Growing

It's pleasantly surprising that WWE hasn't dubbed Cesaro "The Swiss Army Knife." He has a long list of ways to attack.

His move set is one of the most robust on the roster. He continues to pull out new weapons, adding depth to his bouts in the meantime.

The King of Swing has begun to use a unique pinning combination where he slips his leg over his opponent's neck and folds them up on the canvas.

Cesaro hasn't yet busted out all the moves he used on the indy circuit. Instead, he is slowly introducing them, consistently keeping things fresh. That's a sound strategy, one that needs to be copied.

As he battles on, expect him to whip out the Ricola Bomb and an Unidentified Flying Opponent at some point.

7. The Inverse for The Ascension

Konnor and Viktor went from front-runners at NXT to also-rans at WWE. They are the longest-reigning NXT champs. At WWE, they haven't even been in the championship conversation.

Credit: WWE.com

That split between what they were at the developmental brand and what they are now is most clear with a look at the numbers. 

The Ascension have lost 20 out of their last 25 matches and 32 out of their last 40. At NXT, though, they lost just seven times total. That includes a 15-win streak.

WWE has viewed them far differently than the NXT writers did. The best chance they have of going on a streak is to string together losses. In non-six man matches, they already have one going with six defeats in a row.

8. Standout Tournament Matches

The march to crown the next WWE World Heavyweight Championship promises to deliver some in-ring greatness.

Cesaro and Roman Reigns are set to battle in the second round. So are Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler. By the end of it, fans could have also seen a promising showdown between Alberto Del Rio and Reigns, too.

That makes it hard not to start thinking back to some of WWE's best tournament bouts. It was often before the finals that the tourney's classics emerged, as one can see from this list of recommended matchups: 

• Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect: King of the Ring 1993
• Steve Austin vs. Marc Mero: King of the Ring 1996
• British Bulldog vs. Owen Hart: European Championship Tournament, Raw, Feb. 26, 1997
• Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin: Gold Rush Tournament, Raw, May 2, 2005
• Charlotte vs. Natalya: NXT Women's Championship Tournament, NXT TakeOver

Bulldog and Owen were tag team partners when they faced off. That added a compelling dynamic as their partnership imploded in the pursuit of gold. Ambrose and Reigns could well tell their own version of that story at Survivor Series.

9. The Boss as a Mocking Tool

Fans keep chanting for Sasha Banks. WWE keeps using that as a narrative tool rather then just listening to the audience.

On Monday's Raw, Natalya taunted Naomi by mocking the "We want Sasha!" chants from the crowd. That's a technique Brie Bella used before her.

It's an odd thing for a babyface like Natalya to do. She's trying to stir up tension between the members of Team B.A.D. and in a way scoff at vocal fans. How is that productive for her character?

Shouldn't she be saying, "Yeah, I want Sasha, too. I want to face the best" instead?

Why not actually give the fans what they're demanding? Natalya doesn't benefit from using chants about another wrestler. And WWE doesn't benefit from continuing to keep the wrestler fans keep emphatically requesting on the bench.

10. On Kevin Owens Making Up for Seth Rollins' Absence

WWE needs a top heel with Rollins gone for at least half a year. Brock Lesnar isn't around enough to fill that role. Bray Wyatt could be losing more momentum if WWE has Undertaker and Kane run over him.

Luckily, the roster features a virtuoso heel in Owens.

James Montgomery wrote for Rolling Stone, "Dude is a treasure…not to mention a different breed of heel than Rollins ever was. So expect the company to lean on him hard in Seth's absence." That would be the smart move, recognizing that the bruiser has the hot hand and making full use of it.

All match statistics courtesy of CageMatch.net.