Prior to his departure from WWE, it appeared as if Dean Ambrose was starting a feud with Nia Jax. We saw them go face-to-face and Nia even pushed Dean out of the ring.
This feud never led to anything though and it is a weird moment when looking back at it.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio (subscribe here), Dave Meltzer spoke about what happened between Dean and Nia.
Here is what he said (h/t to Sportskeeda for the quote below):
“I would’ve known if I hadn’t been told it, but I’ve also been told it: Nia Jax was there to bury him. The reason they pulled the plug on that was because there was a feeling that if they buried him with Nia Jax, it would reverse and he would become a martyr. I think that’s the reason that they didn’t bury him too much, because they didn’t want him to become a martyr that would make him super-hot when he came out. But, in fact, that ended up happening anyway.”
Dean admitted during his appearance on Talk Is Jericho that he felt like it was WWE trying to bury him before he left:
“Now I’m getting hot. It’s not because I was taking a bump for Nia, I’m totally cool with that. I did it. It’s 2019. She’s a very powerful woman. She did great in the Royal Rumble the night before. If this existed outside of me leaving, that’s a totally different conversation. But the fact that this was a re-write done with an hour before the show began, it felt like a middle finger. My skin was hot and I was like, ‘Let’s go talk with Vince!’
On a related note, check out the backstage WWE reaction so Dean Ambrose’s comments about the creative team.