WWE United States Champion Dean Ambrose recently sat down with Vaughn Johnson of Philly.com to promote Sunday’s Money In The Bank PPV. During the interview, Ambrose talks about the event being in Philadelphia, his history with the city, his wrestling career, the Money in the Bank ladder match, and more.
On being a part of a Money in the Bank ladder match Sunday: “I feel like I’m stepping into a very unpredictable situation with six other extremely capable, extremely talented, extremely smart and dangerous individuals. A lot can happen both bad and good. Unfortunately for them, none of them are as smart or as dangerous as me and I’m going to make sure that I’m going to be the one walking out with the Money in the Bank briefcase.”
On wrestling for Combat Zone Wrestling and living in Philly before going to the WWE: “I was in a lot of really crazy matches and a lot of stuff that you’ll never ever see on WWE television. I put my body through a lot of abuse for very little money for a long time. I really kind of fell in love with the city. I liked the vibe. I liked going to South Street and hanging out and I liked going to Fat Tuesday and I liked being able to eat giant slices of pizza at four in the morning. I liked going Penn’s Landing and hanging out.”
On if he was intimidated going into the WWE, and what were the major adjustments he had to make: “I wasn’t intimidated when I got to WWE. I kind of felt like that I had put myself through so much to get here that there isn’t anybody that’s going to take this away from me. I knew what I was capable of. I had the confidence in myself to just know that I’m going to be the guy here and that I am good as anybody else here.”
“There was a lot of adjustments and a lot to learn like learning how to work for cameras as oppose to just working for an audience. I’ve wrestled in front big crowds for big shows before and I’ve wrestled on television and pay-per-view before, but until you get to Monday Night Raw where there’s 30 cameras, it’s a whole different ball game. Then I had no idea what I was doing.”
On getting better as a wrestler since he’s been in the WWE: “I feel like I’m 10 times better of a wrestler than I was when I first got here. You have so many good brains to pick here in the dressing room with Hall-of-Fame guys. I can pick Arn Anderson’s brain or William Regal’s brain or Jamie Noble.”
“Joey Mercury is a guy that I learned so much from during my time in FCW. He’s one of the smartest wrestling minds that you’ll ever find anywhere and me and him had a really good connection and I was able to really learn a lot and step up my game from working with him.”
You can read the entire interview here.
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