Today The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling takes a walk on the side of lunacy as we welcome WWE Superstar, “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose. Ambrose clawed his way to WWE with a fearless career on the independent scene, absorbing and dishing out punishment in equal measure. He competed in violent environments and unmanageably sacrificed his body with the goal of inflicting as much damage on his opponent as humanly possible. Now as we wind down 2015 and look ahead, we look back with Dean on his affinity for Rowdy Roddy Piper, his feuds with Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins and what is next for a possible future WWE Champion. We are also joined by Dean Ambrose’s trainer Les Thatcher and hear directly from him the kind of student Ambrose was and what he thinks of the progress Dean has shown thus far in his career. Thatcher is also quite outspoken about the current state of WWE, NXT and the overall 2015 wrestling product.
Full Episode Download Link: http://tmptow.podomatic.com/entry/2015-08-28T21_00_00-07_00
Dean Ambrose on His Memories of Rowdy Roddy Piper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSYIUaoNW2Q
How does his preparation differ from other stars in the WWE:
I like to take things moment to moment. I don’t try to be anything that I’m not because that would be in-authentic and I was blessed with certain talents and certain abilities and others I wasn’t. I try to do things I do and do them well and I don’t try to pretend to be anything that I’m not. If I’m in a bad mood, your gonna get Dean Ambrose in a bad mood. If I’m in a good mood your gonna get happy, fun Dean Ambrose that day. I would literally take whatever I’m feeling, that’s just what you will see in the ring. I like to just be myself and I just go out there and kind of just do whatever I want to my own devices and it’s kind of just not just the fans but WWE slowly realized another Dean Ambrose isn’t going to walk through the door anytime soon. So I kind of occupy my own space and kind of carve out my own little spot. Fans don’t want to tune in and see you do the same things every week and when they hear your music for me they like to think that any wild thing may happen when I come through the curtain because sometimes I don’t know. I make as much up as I possibly can as I go along.
Memories of Rowdy Roddy Piper:
Everybody loves Roddy Piper. There’s so many of these shocking out of nowhere passings and it’s so weird because these are the guys that my generation grew up watching, it sucks. Everybody loves The Hot Rod and my favorite Roddy Piper memory is a very specific one because I recently not too long ago watched it. Starrcade 96 when he fought Hogan for the Championship when he came back to WCW, it was a terrible, sloppy match with two old guys but awesome and was such a spectacle. The cool part of it was his entrance. One of the best entrances you will ever see if you really watch it and you are into the story and you really watch what he is doing, it’s like this death march to the ring. You have this on-going decade long blood-feud with Hogan and he knows that he is going to get beat up by the nWo and ganged up on 20-1 and it’s a one man war against the nWo and he’s just coming down the aisle as simple as can be, no flashy entrance or pyrotechnics. In WWE everyone has the special entrance. In NXT they have a dance move that they do and they get in the ring the same way every time and its like their schtick. It was so refreshing to go back and watch that because he comes out and just stares at the ring and burns a hole with his eyes and walks down the aisle as simple as humanly possible. His eyes are just cold and it just tells so much, you know he is willing to go in there in the middle of that ring. He is going to fight to the end. If he walks away with the championship, cool but he’s prepared for this to be the end. It’s very intense and most people who watch it wouldn’t put that much thought into it but get on WWE Network, watch Starrcade 96 and just watch Piper’s entrance it’s such a cool thing.
Comparison to Superstars like Piper, Terry Funk and Brian Pillman:
I really can’t answer that because I try not to put any thought into what I am doing. I go by what I feel, whatever happens, happens. I think a lot of those guys probably thought the same way.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
