Dean Ambrose Discusses Memories of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Current State of WWE

“The Lunatic Fringe” has a lot on his mind.

Dean Ambrose recently sat down with “The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling” podcast to discuss the current state of WWE, NXT, as well as memories he has of the late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. As previously reported, Piper passed away on July 30 from cardiac arrest in his Hollywood home.

Ambrose had the following to say about 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.”

Ambrose was able to take part of a “Piper’s Pit” while on the main roster during the Jan. 6, 2014 edition of “Old School Raw.” During this segment, all three members of The Shield interacted with Piper:

“The Lunatic Fringe” also discussed how his preparation differs from other WWE superstars:

“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.”

You can listen to the full interview here

(with h/t to WrestlingInc.com)

Editor’s Note:

It is interesting to hear Ambrose talk about doing his own thing and making up a lot of what he does on the spot. As a fan, you can clearly see that each week when he is in the ring. He is currently over with the crowd in a major way, so it will be intriguing to see what WWE does with him next.

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