When Dean Ambrose announced he was leaving the WWE in 2019, everybody was shocked, He had been a main eventer in the company since his debut in 2012, where he, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns debuted at Survivor Series, attacking Ryback and helping CM Punk keep his WWE Championship.
From that day on, the trio became known as “The Shield”. They dominated every team they came up against until their split in 2014, when Rollins planted a chair firmly in the backs of Reigns and Ambrose. After beating teams like The Wyatt Family, Evolution and DX, their reign ended after two years on top and the trio went out on their own as singles stars.
Dean Ambrose found great success on his own, winning multiple singles titles including the WWE Championship in 2016. He was a made man, assumed to be a WWE lifer due to his success, status in the company and the fact his wife (Renee Paquette) also worked for the company. He was known to have good relationships with the likes of Vince McMahon and was living his dream of wrestling for millions of dollars.
However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows and by 2019, he was done. He told the WWE he would not be re-signing with the company in early 2019, leaving WWE to announce his departure four months in advance via WWE.com – something they had never done before and since that fateful day. The announcement read;
“Dean Ambrose [Jonathan Good] will not be renewing his contract with WWE when it expires in April. We are grateful and appreciative of all that Dean has given to WWE and our fans. We wish him well and hope that one day Dean will return to WWE.”
He left the company in April, having not been a part of that years Wrestlemania and left the company. While he had every intention of going off and wrestling on the independent scene, he was drawn in by Chris Jericho and the new All Elite Wrestling promotion. He promptly signed a deal with the company and made his shock debut at Double or Nothing 2019, attacking both Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega at the end of their historic match. He has since won 3 AEW Championships and is considered the biggest star in the company.
Dean Ambrose’s last match in WWE, however, was a slap in the face to all he had accomplished in the company despite the presentation seeming like it was making a huge deal about him leaving.
Dean Ambrose Last Match
Dean Ambrose last WWE match took place at a special event named “WWE The Shield’s Final Chapter” on April 21st 2019. The match saw Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins – the legendary trio known as The Shield – take on the trio of Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin.
The event came four months after Dean Ambrose announced he was not renewing his WWE contract. It was a surprising announcement, as Ambrose had been in the company for nearly a decade and was one of the top stars on the roster. He was a former WWE Champion and one of the most popular wrestlers the company had, leaving a big whole for the WWE to fill.
Despite the fanfare surrounding the final bout of the Shield, Ambrose felt insulted by WWE. The match was turned an entire show that was televised on the WWE Network, when originally it was set to be an untelevised house show. It was made in dedication of the legendary team and was a one-of-a-kind event.
Despite tickets being sold as the place to see Dean Ambrose wrestle for the last time, he was only paid a paltry amount for being the star of the show.
Despite tickets being sold as the place to see Dean Ambrose wrestle for the last time, the now-named Jon Moxley revealed he was only paid a measly $500 to wrestle a final match with his Shield brothers. On his interview with Chris Jericho on Talk is Jericho Jon Moxley revealed his was paid only $500 dollars for The Shield’s Final Chapter and saw it as a way of screwing with him one last time by Vince McMahon.
On the podcast titled The Emancipation of Jon Moxley, the former Dean Ambrose said;
Thing is, literally, they turned this into a special, flew in writers and camera men and everything, put it on the Network, basically for me… ” Jon Moxley said about The Shield’s Final Chapter.
“Five hundred dollars. Got paid five hundred bucks for that sucker. [Laughter] I can just imagine Vince and like Carrano and them, at the, “What are we gonna pay?” “Five hundred bucks, screw him!” Which is like, the minimum… what you get just to show up and not work.” He said, before adding.
“If you show up to TV and they don’t use you, you get five hundred bucks. Or like I think that’s what extras get.”
After leaving the WWE, Dean Ambrose reverted back to the name he used on the independents before he signed with Vince McMahon’s company. He became known as Jon Moxley and has found untold success all over the world.
He has won championships in AEW, NJPW and GCW (among others) and is considered one of, if not the, biggest American wrestling star today outside of the WWE.