The Asylum Match: A Great Milestone for Dean Ambrose?
Next Sunday, the annual appointment with the most violent (in theory) fights lands again in WWE, and on Monday a new type of match was programmed for WWE Extreme Rules 2016. When you think you have seen almost everything in terms of stipulations, like for example the undefinable Divas Extreme Makeover Match from the 2010 edition, the creative team surprises with something new.
Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho will face each other in the first Asylum Match in history (maybe also the last). We don't know if it will definitively or temporarily mark the return of extreme to the company, after the disappointment caused by Ambrose vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania 32, but the rules are clear: similar characteristics to a steel cage match, with the exception that various objects will hang from the structure and it can only be won by pinfall or submission.
Dean Ambrose challenges Chris Jericho to an Asylum Match in the last edition of Raw / WWE
If there is someone with an authoritative voice on this type of matches, it is WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley. On Tuesday, he posted a photo of Ambrose on his Facebook page with the following comment:
"Could this Asylum Match be just what Dean Ambrose needs??" Experience tells me that a great milestone is almost always the result of small breakthroughs - like a hammer that hits that glass ceiling that everyone talks about... until finally, it breaks. Could this match signify another step forward for Ambrose? Could he steal the show - a tough task given the chemistry between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles shown in their last outing?"
Foley seems to have become the official supporter of the "Lunatic Fringe", since weeks before WrestleMania 32, and in a promo with high levels of symbolism, he gave him his Barbie to try to defeat "The Beast Incarnate". This was the trigger for comments that saw this as a return to extreme, as undoubtedly, that barbed wire wrapped bat is one of the most virulent weapons in the history of professional wrestling.
Undoubtedly, Dean Ambrose has all the potential to be the new hardcore legend, or even better: something completely original that brings a less PG touch to the politics we already know. Many of us would settle for that, seeing how the current landscape is. But once again, we get carried away, believing that Ambrose has complete control over his actions. And we have to be realistic. The Cincinnati-native will always go as far as they let him go.