Mike Johnson of PWInsiderElite.com commented on the backstage reaction in WWE to Dean Ambrose leaving the company:
“I can say this that after the Dean Ambrose news came out on late Monday early Tuesday there was a buzz of activity backstage at SmackDown as anybody that had a contract coming up in the next years or two was pulled into rooms and spoken to by management about signing longer form deals and all the wrestlers were sitting there looking at each other going, ‘Will you look at this?! This is crazy!’”
“So there definitely was I think the realization that people could potentially leave to go to AEW. You know WWE might have been paying attention to it before and monitoring it as Triple H said, but there was definitely a cause and effect between Dean Ambrose making the decision that he’s leaving and that news coming out and everybody buzzing about it and yesterday at SmackDown people being spoken to about deals.”
During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray commented on the situation:
“Man, I can look at it from the office’s point of view. I can look at it from the wrestler’s point of view. The thing that screamed out to me [from Mike Johnson’s report] was if it was a work why would WWE be trying to sign everybody to longer term contracts?”
“It sounds like this situation has them nervous. Because if they’re scurrying to sign everyone to longer deals what would force them to do that?”
