What's the story?
According to PWInsider.com, Dean Ambrose was seen back at his home in Nevada yesterday, and he is now recovering from the surgery he had on his damaged elbow a few days ago.
Apparently, Ambrose should be back in action for the WWE within the next 2 or 3 months if he is lucky.
The WWE Grand Slam Champion has apparently been suffering from the injury for months, but he hurt it further on the latest episode of RAW this past Monday, during a six-man tag in which he was on the losing side with Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins against Samoa Joe and The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus).
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Therefore, this was the straw to finally break the camel's back and WWE decided to encourage Ambrose to have the surgery on his triceps in order to fix the problem.
In case you didn't know...
From August, Dean Ambrose has been tag-teaming with his Shield buddy Seth Rollins, which saw them win the Tag Team Titles The Bar at SummerSlam (The Bar have won them back since).
Later on in October, the two reunited with Roman Reigns to properly have The Shield back together again.
The heart of the matter
Ambrose's triceps puts the breaks on The Shield reunion for now.
This is a big blow to WWE's creative plans, as it was speculated that Ambrose was going to have a massive heel run soon by turning on Rollins (and Reigns), leading to a WrestleMania 34 feud and match between The Lunatic Fringe and The Architect.
If Ambrose is to be out for two or three months, he could still make it back for WrestleMania in New Orleans, but there likely won't be enough time to build up any proper storyline.
Also, WWE were selling a ton of Shield merchandise at the moment, and the trio had been the forefront of RAW itself as well as RAW live event shows over the past month or so.
What's next?
Ambrose will likely return to RAW in February or March.
Author's take
I am hopeful Dean Ambrose won't be gone for too long.
I must say though that his injury was not unexpected as the guy has been wrestling for WWE continuously over the past 5 years at the highest level.
Considering Roman Reigns, who was not on the December 18th edition of RAW when Ambrose worsened his elbow injuries, is the Intercontinental Champion, there are lots of options for him heading into the Royal Rumble.
It is almost guaranteed that Reigns will go up against WWE RAW Universal Champion Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 34, as it has been rumoured since last year.
Hence, WWE will have no problem adjusting any plans for him with Ambrose out of action.
However, Seth Rollins was mainly tag-teaming with Ambrose, and supposedly going to face Ambrose at WM 34, so it is hard to what WWE will do with him now while Dean is gone.