Dean Ambrose Talks Misconceptions About Wrestling and WWE

Ahead of his return to his home state of Ohio on Jan. 20 for Monday Night Raw, Dean Ambrose chatted with the Dayton City Paper about his career and the state of the wrestling business.

Ambrose, who began performing in Dayton, talked about his road to WWE.

“I trained for a year before I even had a match. One of the first matches I ever had was at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton. From there, I started wrestling in Chicago and then Indianapolis and then Philadelphia, and soon I was crisscrossing the country every weekend in a beat up jalopy for like 50 bucks, just getting experience. By the time I got [to WWE], I had wrestled in so many different places. In that time, I had a giant amount of experience to rely on and became very confident in my job.”

On what it is like working for the biggest professional wrestling company in the world.

“It’s been a whirlwind from the day [The Shield] started on television. We come through the crowd and feel that energy night after night. We’ve worked with all the top stars – John Cena, Undertaker, The Rock, (WWE World Heavyweight Champion) Randy Orton, etc. It’s surreal to be a part of this. You get to travel the world on someone else’s dime and you’re never really home. If you like being at home, WWE is not for you!”

His thoughts on the notion that wrestling is 100 percent fake.

“[The] biggest misconception is it’s fake, it doesn’t hurt and everything is scripted in and out of the ring – those are the big ones. Not everything is scripted. Things change on the fly and you have to react to think on your feet. You only get one chance to get it right since it’s live. Nothing about it is fake. It all hurts. I feel the toll of what all I’ve put my body through year after year, but hopefully I’ll come out on the better end of it.”

You can read the entire interview here.

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