WWE: Is Dean Ambrose a Future Threat?

Dean Ambrose is a future threat in WWE.

At least, that is what my brother tells me. Over and over and over again he tells me in e-mail.

He says Ambrose is a mix of Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, Mick Foley and the Joker.

"The Joker?" I ask.

"The Dark Knight Joker," he replies.

I knew I had to stop my brother. What names might he have thrown out next? ("You gotta watch Ambrose. He is the perfect mix of the Great Khali and Hornswoggle!")

Sometimes I’d sign on and my brother would be midway through a retelling of an angle Ambrose was involved in at FCW. Knowing I had never watched Ambrose, it didn’t matter. On he went.

It came to the point I had to make a choice: Ask my brother to send me some of his best Dean Ambrose footage or report my brother for spam.

I had discovered wrestling with my brother in 1991. We knew Austin was a star when Eric Bischoff didn’t. Same for Brian Pillman. Same for Cactus Jack.

I began to wonder: What was it my brother saw in Dean Ambrose?

I mean, my brother is married now and moved away. He works full time and rarely has time or interest to watch RAW or SmackDown. Yet, something had happened. Somewhere he had discovered Dean Ambrose and suddenly had time and interest to search this guy’s entire career online.

"Send me a couple of matches and promos," I told him, "and I will watch them and share my thoughts with the Bleacher world."

The First Dean Ambrose Promo

Before watching Ambrose versus Rollins, you should check out a video titled, “Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley) FCW Debut Interview.”

My apologies if you like Briley Pierce, because for the purposes of this column, we will call him the Stiff.

See, the Stiff is poised and tall. He has his suit on and his hair done up. He is every WWE announcer whose name you will not remember.

And here comes Dean Ambrose.

The Stiff scrunches his face and says Ambrose has an “infamous” reputation.

Before Ambrose speaks a word in FCW he places his hand on the Stiff’s head and moves the man around like a puppet. It is amazing how stiff the Stiff remains even as Ambrose shakes him, but that is how professionals behave, I suppose.

Dean Ambrose, should he make it to the WWE and if they use him right, will never be a professional. He will be arrogant; he will be over-the-top; he will be out of line.

In his first promo, Ambrose challenges Rollins and gets a rebuke from the Stiff for being so bold.

The Stiff asks if the behavior of Ambrose is not a bit “unusual,” to which Ambrose replies, “I didn’t get here by following anyone’s lead, and I didn’t come here to fit into anyone’s mold.”

Watch the Stiff’s face. Every time Ambrose raises his voice, the Stiff looks like he’s been punched in the face.

There aren’t a lot of guys in wrestling who raise their voice anymore.

Ambrose finishes: “Get ready to forget everything you think you know about FCW, ‘cause Dean Ambrose is getting ready to blow the doors off everything.”

Regal, who is in the booth, says, “Look at me smiling.”

If only more were like Ambrose, he practically says.

Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose

You can’t script these things. Within a week or so of asking my brother to send me footage (and what he sent me, in part, was Ambrose versus Rollins) both Ambrose and Rollins have recently had matches in WWE.

Both men are rightfully under the close eye of the WWE right now.

It is a testament to independent wrestling, to loving professional wrestling, and to loving the wrestling portion of wrestling, that FCW (and WWE) would have the confidence to give Ambrose and Rollins a 30-minute match (in FCW). Yet, in the video FCW TV 18.09.2011—Seth Rollins versus Dean Ambrose, that is exactly what we get.

The commentators tell a story early. They tell a story of a rivalry that goes beyond the FCW. They say as soon as Rollins signed with FCW the critics began to ask, “Where is Dean Ambrose?”

That, in itself, is a possibility for WWE.

If one of them gets the call up, will the other follow?

Could this be a rivalry that is one day documented from promotion-to-promotion? Could it defy the boundaries of organization and go wherever these men go? Could it bring new energy to the WWE?

Think about the other careers that have followed each other and rivaled each other: Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart; Benoit, Guerrero and Jericho; CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.

Has there ever been a time that this wasn’t good for the wrestling business?

I will let you watch the match for yourself. It is a good one. Rollins has the physical abilities and Ambrose has the mind games.

It might just be a 30-minute window into the future of the WWE.

The Regal Stretch

This is an important match. It proves a necessary for a guy like Ambrose: he can take an ass-whoopin’ like a champ.

Very few have come along like Ambrose, in that he is a real-deal when it comes to antagonizing his opponent. He will search your mind. He will find your flaws, your faults and the buttons no one else has pushed. He will push them constantly.

Like my brother sending those Dean Ambrose e-mails, he will push them over and over again.

A man of this nature had better be able to take a beating. Because people who have their buttons pushed will push back.

So it is necessary for Ambrose to be able to take a beating. It is a plus, however, that I think he likes to take a beating.

And make no mistake about it—in FCW TV 06.11.2011—Dean Ambrose vs. William Regal, Dean Ambrose gives a beating, but he damn sure takes one as well.

The announcers called it perverse—the relationship between Ambrose and Regal. Ambrose attacked Regal. Ambrose used Regal to make a statement. And though it made Regal want to retaliate, it made Regal happy.

He saw himself in Ambrose. And you can see it if you watch the two of them together. You will learn that the Regal stretch is more than a wrestling hold. Dean Ambrose became a better man, with a deeper story, for his interaction with William Regal.

One of a Kind—A Little Like so Many

It amazes me to think back to the early 90s. Though my brother and I were young and had only been watching wrestling for a few months, you couldn’t hide greatness from us. Probably not from anyone other than the suits and ties who claim to be wrestling bookers.

See, that’s the thing I’ve learned: You just can’t hide greatness. Mix greatness with passion and originality—throw in a measure of he’s-not-quite-right—and you have the makings of a game changer.

We knew it when we saw Austin, Pillman and Cactus Jack. We knew it when Regal would come out with the Blue Bloods and say, “Bloody Sunshine.” Hell, you could hide a Raven under Scotty Flamingo garb or dress him up like a Johnny Polo, but a Raven is still a Raven.

Dean Ambrose is Jon Moxley; Jon Moxley is Dean Ambrose.

And my brother is right: Dean Ambrose is Austin and Pillman and Foley and, hell, the Dark Knight Joker.

He is a little of all of these, but mostly he is himself.

He is an original—skewed in the brain for the benefit of the masses.

It was a strange thing in the days of WCW and WWF. The guys who had the most promise but were rough around the edges were WCW guys. It benefited them to be in WCW. WWF would give you a gimmick outside your personality (which helped those who didn’t have a personality, but hindered those who were a rare breed).

WCW let guys be themselves. Yet, it would be WWF, in the desperate hours of the Monday Night Wars, who would perfect what WCW had brought forth.

Cactus Jack, who had been a poet and a mad man in WCW and ECW, would change the wrestling world when he sat down with Jim Ross. The man who lost an ear and lost brain cells would set the record straight: he did not like pain. He had wanted to be Shawn Michaels.

Steve Austin would come into his own, once again side-by-side with Brian Pillman. Austin was furious when WCW put him with Pillman. Austin was ready for his main event push. Yet, it would be Pillman who would push Austin and Austin Pillman. Many credit Bret Hart for putting Austin over. Maybe match-wise, but it was the re-pairing of Austin and Pillman that created Stone Cold and Brian F’n Pillman. And had it not been for the untimely death of Brian Pillman his name would be mentioned with the Austin’s and the Foley’s today.

And the Dark Knight Joker. You didn’t fear the Joker because he would take a knife and cut you at the mouth. Yeah, okay, that was part of it. But you feared him more—you couldn’t forget him—after he told the story of the abuse that led to his ways. You couldn’t forget it because after it moved you, you discovered it wasn’t real. It was mind games.

There are boundaries most of us set. Things that are sacred or emotional or spiritual. We wouldn’t dare cross those boundaries, but hell if we can stop watching when we see someone who does.

Ambrose has the potential to cross boundaries.

He has the potential to re-create a character WWE is in need of right now. Foley is no more, not how we knew him. Austin is not coming back full-time, and unfortunately we lost Heath Ledger and Brian Pillman way too soon.

It is about timing and opportunity, but if both of those smile upon Ambrose, there is a path for this young man.

Remember when the Joker said, "Want to see a magic trick?"

Well, take a man who is as passionate as he is talented and as talented as he is unstable, put him in a promotion where most guys are polished, if not cautious, and watch him change the business from the inside-out.

I'm not saying it's going to happen.

But I'm saying it could.