Dean Ambrose Rips Attitude Era, Talks John Cena Character, and Much More

WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose recently spoke to Justin Labar of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Wrestlezone.com The two spoke in order to promote Ambrose’s appearance at a WWE live event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Dec. 28 at the Consol Energy Center. Ambrose hit on a lot of topics, including his thoughts on the Attitude Era, his dream opponents, and much more.

Labar asked Ambrose about comparisons to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and many others. Ambrose spoke on the comparisons, and even commented on how today’s WWE characters never change, specifically mentioning John Cena:

“You’re always going to get comparisons. Everybody comes out and says he’s the next so and so or he reminds me of so and so.

The thing with me is I’ve studied so much wrestling, so many wrestlers, so many eras and styles for so long. My entire life has been dedicated to being obsessed with this. I have so many influences and stuff in my brain, who knows what’s going to pop in and come out. I don’t really try to pattern myself after any particular person. I pretty much make it up as I go along.

There’s a lot of guys in WWE, you would know who they are, you know you’re going to see the same thing every single match. You know you’re going to hear the same thing every time they pick up a microphone. You know John Cena is never going to get mad at you no matter what you do. You could steal his dog or set his house on fire and he’s not going to get all that mad at you. He’s going to come out and do the same thing he always does. Me, I’m not like that. I get pretty upset pretty quickly.

I don’t like having an entrance or anything like that too set in stone. A lot of guys come out and have the exact little dance or exact little thing that goes off at the right time with the pyro. What if I’m not in the mood to do my little dance this week?”

The man known as the “Lunatic Fringe” continued on his uniqueness, after a follow-up question on if he wants to be a “one-of-a-kind” performance:

“I don’t like my wrestling or entertainment in general to be too clean or predictable for me as a fan. When I say clean, I’m not talking about dirty jokes, middle fingers and stuff like that. I’m actually not even a big fan of that.

A lot of people talk about the attitude era being so great but a lot of it was terrible crap, sex jokes and over-the-top terrible bad comedy. It was Jerry Springer-like. They made a joke about a woman’s breasts. Hilarious, but where’s the wrestling? I look back on a lot of stuff now, and I’m like where’s the wrestling? It’s just a lot of crappy jokes.”

Labar also brought up how Ambrose will work his first WrestleMania as a singles competitor in 2015. While Ambrose wouldn’t comment on his desires for WrestleMania 31, he did talk about some of his dream matches:

“As far as realistic ones, I have some in mind. I’ll keep that under my hat for right now because you never know what’s going to happen.

Unrealistic opponents, if our eras had crossed, we were barely one generation apart, he was at 11:59 and I was at 12:01 — I would have loved to do something with Mick Foley or Cactus Jack or whatever version of him. If we would have crossed paths in like 1994, you would have seen one of the most gross, violent, entertaining spectacles that ever was. That’s been relegated to the dream match world now.

A guy like Bret Hart. I watch his work back now as a professional knowing what I’m doing. I watch back the matches I loved as a kid, and he’s such a forward thinker. He saw the whole picture in his head kind of storyteller. He’s not a wing-it-on-the-fly kind of guy. Even though I’m a wing-it kind of guy, I also really like to see the whole picture in my head a year ahead. Not just the match but the whole storyline a year ahead of time. I have how I’m going to get there, but I have visions in my head and I just see what happens.

Those two guys, being able to put my mind with their minds and create something if we had crossed paths, I’d like to create with those two guys. Those are two dream WrestleMania opponents for you. As far as anything realistic for you to talk about, I’m not going to give you anything, sorry.”

You can read or listen to the entire interview, here.

Editor’s Note

Very solid interview. I love how Ambrose mentions Foley as a dream opponent.