Dean Ambrose retains the WWE championship in a controversial draw against Seth Rollins on Raw

Both men got promo time earlier in the show to harken back to their partnership in The Shield. Challenger Seth Rollins walked through the seats of an empty arena, discussing how he used his partners. WWE champ Dean Ambrose grabbed a handheld camera and spoke about their broken brotherhood.

Both vowed to leave Providence, Rhode Island and head into tomorrow’s brand split draft on SmackDown’s live premiere holding the top prize in the company.

The Commissioner and General Manager for both brands watched at ringside, and the action in the July 18 main event began technical and evenly matched. The crowd was also split.

Brawling and big spots in and out of the ring lead to numerous nearfalls (for a more comprehensive blow-by-blow, head over to live blog here). Both men kicked out of the others finishers - including a really convincing Pedigree that Rollins countered into when Ambrose dived at him off the top.

A Superplex spot resulted in a three count, but a roll through meant both men’s shoulders were on the mat. Mass confusion as Stephanie McMahon believed Seth won, while Shane, Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan argued and tried to get clarification from the referee (who’d taken a bump earlier before the Superplex spot).

Steph grabbed a microphone while everyone else bickered and order Lilian Garcia to give Seth the belt while she made the announcement he was the new champ.

More arguing as Seth celebrated while Raw went off the air lead to an overrun on WWE Network, where Shane declared Dean the winner. As of this writing it looks like the official result is a draw, and Ambrose heads to the draft as WWE champ.

And maybe a rematch tomorrow night on SmackDown after a day of online updates?

Not according to this Tweet, but anything can happen in the WWE Universe (where things are booked on the fly)!

Thoughts, Cagesiders?