Ryan Dilbert's 10-Count: Dean Ambrose Will Be Key to WWE SmackDown's Rise

1. SmackDown's Lead Lunatic

With the WWE Championship around his waist and SmackDown on his back, Dean Ambrose is set to lead the blue brand back to prominence. 

Unique and unpredictable, The Lunatic Fringe is the off-kilter babyface SmackDown needs. Ambrose fits the underdog persona of the show. He offers an alternative to Raw's top dogs, which will be vital to SmackDown's growth.  

As SmackDown prepared to become its own brand once again, commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan have talked about the show being WWE's dark horse and wanted its roster to reflect that.

After Tuesday's draft, Bryan told Renee Young that his draft strategy was to seek Superstars with heart:

It's as if WWE is trying to sell SmackDown as the more hardworking and passionate show filled with guys with chips on their shoulders. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense that McMahon and Bryan selected Ambrose with their top pick.

Miami Herald columnist Scott Fishman tweeted Ambrose would be good for any brand.

That's true, but Tuesday nights will fit him especially well. Ambrose will appeal to the fanbase WWE is seeking for SmackDown, an audience that values his indy experience and that rallies behind him partly because he's not the prototypical Superstar.

Fans haven't seen a champion drive the ambulance that carried him out of the arena or host a cut-rate talk show segment before. And Ambrose more resembles a man you might discover runs an underground fight club rather than an action figure who has come to life like John Cena.

With Ambrose's former stablemates with The Shield, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, both drafted to Raw, the WWE champ will have more room to flourish. He won't have to be defined as Reigns' sidekick or Rollins' antagonist anymore.

He can develop his own voice and legacy with the help of a roster armed with a number of strong in-ring workers.

AJ Styles will make a tremendous rival for Ambrose. The same goes for Randy Orton. 

Ambrose's frenetic energy will make SmackDown fun. His pedal-to-the-floor wrestling style will make sure SmackDown delivers in the ring each week. 

So often during his WWE run, announcer John "Bradshaw" Layfield has lamented how crazy the idea of him being the face of the company was. Being entertainingly unconventional and hard to forget, though, makes Ambrose the ideal face of a show that will be searching for identity in the coming months.

2. Battleground Hasn't Been Kind to Roman Reigns

When The Big Dog returns from his suspension for violating the WWE wellness policy, he may have to wait until after his first major match back to score a victory.

He will face Ambrose and Rollins in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship at Battleground. That pay-per-view has not been fun for Reigns' fans. He is winless in the three previous editions of the event.

Event	Match	Winner
2013	The Shield vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust	Rhodes and Goldust
2014	Roman Reigns vs. John Cena vs. Kane vs. Randy Orton	Cena
2015	Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt	Wyatt

That is a small sample size, but a pattern seems to be developing.

It's one that promises to continue. The chances of WWE crowning Reigns its new top champion fresh off getting busted for taking an unspecified banned substance are slim. 

Reigns may well be on his way to building the opposite of Undertaker's famed WrestleMania streak.

3. Throwback Video of the Week: Paul Orndorff

As CNN's Nadia Kounang reported, "More than 50 former wrestlers filed a class action lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment on Monday." Orndorff is among the performers on that list.

Mr. Wonderful won't be appearing on WWE TV anytime soon as a result. Fans will have to instead settle on looking back at his career.

Much of his best work came after he turned on Hulk Hogan in 1986. The two had been close friends up to that point, but jealousy overcame Orndorff and shaped him into a more aggressive and callous version of himself. His promos during that period sizzled.

Orndorff remains one of the more underrated stars of yesteryear. His contributions to WWE's rise to a national powerhouse in the '80s isn't mentioned enough.

But don't expect any Orndorff career retrospectives to come out on DVD in the near future, though.

4. The Cruiserweight Classic is a Beautiful Thing

The buzz crackling around the Cruiserweight Classic is well-deserved. The ongoing 32-man tournament has been a compelling, novel addition to the WWE lineup.

Last Wednesday, the WWE Network aired the first matches of the tourney. Gran Metalik put on a high-flying show. Kota Ibushi emphatically introduced himself to the WWE Universe. And Clement Petiot impressed in a losing effort.

These names are unfamiliar to many.

That's a big part of the appeal of the event. Fans go into it knowing they will discover new favorites and see offensive moves they haven't seen before. That freshness has given the tournament a must-see feeling early on.

Add the passionate, focused commentary from Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo, and the Cruiserweight Classic is looking like a winner.

5. New Day Reigns

The New Day will soon be No. 1. Per WWE.com, the popular team is just days away from breaking the record for longest reign as WWE tag team champions.

JP Yim/Getty Images

Before Battleground, The New Day will move into the top spot for most days as champ.

• Brian Kendrick and Paul London (334)
• The New Day (331 as of Wednesday)
• The Colons (275)
• John Morrison and The Miz (247)
• Team Hell No (246)

WWE has mentioned this accomplishment from time to time, but it hasn't put nearly enough focus on it. This should be presented as a history-making moment. There should be hoopla and historical comparisons, video recaps of The New Day's title run and interviews with other tag teams about what this all means.

Trumpeting up records is too often something WWE fails to capitalize on.

6. Donald Trump, The Phenom

After the first day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Monday, there were plenty of bizarre moments to talk about. How Donald Trump entered was one of them.

The presidential nominee (and WWE Hall of Famer) drew comparisons to Undertaker when he used blue lights and wrestling-style theatrics. Thanks to some crafty WWE fans, Trump's arrival went from just odd to hypnotizing.

Alexandra Martino tweeted one of the many mash-ups of Trump and Undertaker's entrances:

If Hillary Clinton needs ideas on how to top that, she should look to Goldberg's entrance for inspiration.

7. After the Deletion

The Hardy vs. Hardy feud continues to be an exploration of the wrestling medium. Matt Hardy defeating his brother, Jeff, in a Final Deletion match on TNA Impact Wrestling on July 5 was not the end of the story.

An epilogue followed that fantastically offbeat match.

TNA aired footage of Jeff dreaming about the defeat and Matt relishing his victory. The nutty, cinematic circus rolled on with fans seeing the aftermath of the bout. That's something one doesn't see in wrestling enough.

Feuds end without a reflection on how they changed the rivals. Not with the Hardy war.

WWE need not have someone's child watch a match in a home theater a la Matt, but letting the story linger past the climax like it did on TNA is something to emulate at times.

8. Introducing The Demon

Raw pulled from the NXT reserve early in the WWE draft on Tuesday night. The flagship show snagged Finn Balor with the fifth overall pick.

Fans who regularly tune in to NXT know just how exciting The Demon can be. Those who missed out on Balor's reign as the king of WWE's third brand should look back at his best work from NXT:

• Finn Balor vs. Adrian Neville: TakeOver: Rival
• Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens: Beast in the East
• Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens: TakeOver: Brooklyn
• Finn Balor and Samoa Joe vs. Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder: TakeOver: Respect
• Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe: TakeOver: London

He never had a true classic at NXT, but so many of his bouts were great. His talent suggests his best is yet to come.

As a part of Raw, he is poised to take on top-flight performers like Cesaro and Seth Rollins. Bet on his list of greatest hits growing in a hurry.

9. Don't Forget About Alicia Fox 

Eva Marie and Summer Rae went before Alicia Fox during Tuesday's draft. Raw selected her long after the televised portion of the event ended. Her name wasn't called until the run of afterthoughts at the close of the draft. 

Hopefully, that's not an indication of where she will stand in the women's division. 

With half of WWE's women heading to SmackDown, a deep part of the roster is suddenly anything but. And while the company showcases newcomer Nia Jax and fan favorite Sasha Banks, it has to figure Fox into the mix as well.

Long asked to play a sidekick for the Bellas, the fiery Fox has often been overlooked. Although she's not the worker that Banks is or the special attraction that Jax is, Fox is too talented to not be a major part of Raw's revamped women's division. 

Her turn as an unhinged hothead in 2014 was one of the most underrated performances of that year. She entertained as she screeched or threw things. That's the Fox who needs to return.

Charlotte, Banks and the rest of the division are going to need quality foils. Fox has what it takes to be just that. 

10. Russo on Raw

Vince Russo, a former writer for WWE and TNA, has never been shy about criticizing the current wrestling product. He had his magnum opus of disparagement after last week's Raw.

Russo trashed the show in a video for The Brand, where he said, "It's the worst show on television. The worst thing, bro." He called Raw "unwatchable" and said he would rather stare at a screen showing Kim Kardashian's butt for three hours.

This all reads like hollow hot takes. Russo can't seriously believe any of what he's saying. Raw has its flaws, but three million people wouldn't tune in each week if it was as bad as he says.

TV has much worse to offer than even the most putrid version of Raw. Clearly, Russo hasn't seen Mr. Robinson.