WWE News: Dean Ambrose Talks Roddy Piper, Seth Rollins, And More
Considered one of WWE’s top rising stars, the “Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose is not one to mince words or actions on television. From his vile descriptions of the bodily harm he wants to inflict on his opponents, to his daredevil willingness to jump off ladders, he’s captured the attention of the WWE Universe.
In a recent interview with the The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast, Ambrose talked in a more calm manner, giving his honest take on several topics. One of the first things he discussed was the loss of WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and his impact on professional wrestling.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Piper passed away at the age of 61 a few weeks ago. But Ambrose did appear on an edition of Piper’s Pit in early 2014, where he got to share the ring with the Hot Rod.
However, it was watching Piper as a performer that set a trend for Ambrose. The emotion and subtleties that a legendary performer like Piper exuded are a source of entertainment for Ambrose.
“Everybody loves Roddy Piper. There’s so many of these shocking, out of nowhere passing’s 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 ongoing 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.”
A feud that could end up being a modern-day Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper spectacle may very well be Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins. Both guys have experienced a seemingly linear path to success. Starting in FCW together, getting called up to the main roster at the same time with The Shield, etc.
Since debuting in late 2012, Rollins and Ambrose have gone on to wrestle at several pay-per-view’s, main event shows, and more. But while they’re bitter rivals on-screen, Ambrose has nothing but praise for Rollins off-screen.
“Our styles just meshed well. First time we ever wrestled was in FCW. We never crossed paths before. It was maybe one of the first times that people started to pay attention to what was going on in developmental, just from a wrestling standpoint. I had a certain following and he had kind of ran with a different crowd on the indy scene, like Ring of Honor and it kind of was a clash of indy worlds happening in developmental. It just clicked immediately. I felt that stuff that he did was complimenting the stuff that I did. The stretching and they physical stuff in the holds, it was such a physical style I was doing at the time and just kind of meshed with his and it was like peanut butter and jelly, like mixed perfectly together the stuff that we were doing. He is such a smart guy and visualizes and comes up with cool things and then you have just the way that I would like go off-the-cuff a lot of times, we could go out and wrestle thirty minutes and literally not talk at all beforehand, it just meshes well and then you know WWE styles still mesh and it’s hard to explain. There’s just that certain chemistry with people. He’s so good, its like anyone can have a good match with Seth Rollins and we kind of bring out the best in each other from a healthy competitive standpoint and all the great opponents always had that together like Ric Flair/Ricky Steamboat and Nick Bockwinkel/Verne Gagne.”
The fans have loved the Ambrose/Rollins rivalry to this point. We will likely see these two guys match up on several more occasions before it’s all said and done. But there are many more promising superstars in WWE who could make an impact. That is why Ambrose is confident with himself and the other parts of the WWE core being the future.
“I think all of the core group of guys right now, myself, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Cesaro, The Wyatts — I think we all have that competitive chemistry with each other because we are kind of pushing each other and we are the guys kind of carrying the load right now as far as 300 nights a year. We are the guys who are counted on to tear the house down and wrestle 15-20 minutes on Raw each week and I think that’s a real healthy thing across the board.”
[Image via WWE]
