wrestling / News

411’s Stone Cold Podcast Report: Dean Ambrose Talks The Shield’s Breakup, Brand Split, More

August 9, 2016 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Image Credit: WWE

-Join me once again after Monday Night RAW for another edition of the Stone Cold Podcast. This time Austin is joined by WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Dean Ambrose!

-Steve Austin welcomes us to another edition of the Stone Cold Podcast and we are live from Anaheim, Ca. Austin welcomes his guest, WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Dean Ambrose. They immediately talk about music and Dean likes country music which shocks Steve. He was expecting Grunge or something like that. Dean says he likes everything, but there is good and bad of everything. He can’t stand today’s country music.

-Austin brings up Ambrose’s early days in Cincinnati, and mentions that his old tag partner also grew up in Cinci. Ambrose says it also gave the world Jerry Springer, and Carmen Elecktra. Ambrose says his mom worked late at a diner and because of that he and his sister became independent. Dean says his father worked in a factory and was out of state for a while. Dean says the greatest accomplishment he has had in wrestling is making enough money to take care of his mom so she could quit her job.

-Austin asks if he had a tough childhood, and Dean says he was happy. Austin brings up the public housing and Dean doesn’t really jump on that and says he doesn’t have a sob story. He was great in school and it all came easy to him. Once he got to point when he could have independent thoughts that is when he stopped caring about school and he hated it once he got to high school. Dean says he was young and stupid when he decided to leave school. His whole deal was “why do I have to learn this?” He basically he thought he was smarter than everyone there, and by time he was 15-16 years old he knew he wanted to be a wrestler.

-Austin wants to know about athletics in school and Ambrose says he was a wrestler. He started in 6th grade and continued until he stopped going to high school. He also loved football, but the problem was he had to go to school and have good grades. He played nose tackle in football and his team was horrible. He was on a small team that never won a game and he often had to play both sides of the ball.

-Austin seems to be getting either annoyed or just wants more answers as he keeps preaching on Dean dropping out of high school. He says that he would have gotten his ass whipped by his parents, and seemingly Dean’s parents didn’t care as much as Austin would hope. Dean got caught up in things that he doesn’t want to talk about as he isn’t sure you can mention it on the air. Austin again goes back to what Ambrose’s childhood was like and if it was abnormal. Dean says he just floats wherever the wind goes.

-Now we get into Pro-Wrestling and Ambrose says he was a fan. He doesn’t have a first memory, but every memory he has is of wrestling being his favorite thing. Wrestling was a perfect cool world to him where good guys fought bad guys. Austin brings up Hulk Hogan since Ambrose did first and Ambrose says he was born in 85 and he just missed out on the Hulkamania era. His guy with Bret Hart because of how cerebral he was. He calls Bret a cagey bastard, and loved how technical he could get.

-Ambrose never knew how to get into wrestling, but he always had it in the back of his mind that he could do it He became obsessed with pro-wrestling and he admits to shop lifting wrestling tapes from Block Buster Video (he does apologize to them even if they are out of business). Soon he was getting tapes from Japan and he started reading books on the history of wrestling. Then ECW came along at the perfect time for him and he fell in love with it. Austin compares Ambrose to Terry Funk and he loved Funk when he was in his prime in the NWA. He loved all the old school NWA Champions, and specifically mentions Harley Race. He loved how he didn’t care the audience was there and knew he was the man and it was up to the challenger to take the title away from him.

-Austin says he was mentored by Race and Flair and asks who mentored Dean. Who mentions he was trained by Les Thatcher and Cody Hawk. He was lucky to have Heartland promotion in his hometown and he saw an ad for Thatcher’s school on a flyer. He started when he was 16, so he kind of just hung out and swept floors, etc until he was 18 years old. The school was old school in that everything had to be perfect before he could move on to the next thing. Some things came easy and others didn’t as he admits he can be clumsy.

-Austin brings up how Dean has an amateur background, but you never see it in the ring. Dean says he always likes to work with guys who will just call everything in the ring. He knows that is harder to do know, but that is his preferred method.

-Austin brings up how Dean quit once and worked at a health club and Dean asks him where he is getting his information. Dean says he always at least worked the weekend, and these two don’t seem to be on the same page at the moment for whatever reason. At times Dean thought wrestling may have been a bad idea as he was scraping around the Indys and Dean says he never had a Plan B.

-At the age of 20, Dean went to Puerto Rico to work and says he learned to be vicious from Bushwhacker Luke. He says in Puerto Rico they didn’t care about fancy movies and just loved blood and guts. He realized then he loved wrestling and he wanted to be together a great body of work in case he died broke and never made it. He stopped trying hard and just decided to just be himself and do what he wanted.

-It was around 2008 when he gained the confidence and he stopped caring if he would ever make it to the WWE. If they didn’t like what he was doing then he didn’t want to be there anywhere. He would watch RAW and knew he was just as good as some of the guys there, and he should be wrestling John Cena.

-Austin asks how the WWE finally noticed him and he says Joey Mercury put in a word with someone from what he knows. He isn’t even sure if the WWE knew what they were getting. He just got a random call one day and he thought one of his buddies was pulling a joke on him. Dean says he was a dick and is lucky he didn’t screw it up. An hour later, Joey Mercury called him and he knew his voice so he knew it was the real thing. Austin gets him to admit that he was freaking out when he got the call. He tells Austin he likes to keep a chill vibe and he knows Austin can be intense so he is trying to balance things.

-Dean again says that he got lucky because he still doesn’t think the WWE knew who they were getting. He decided when he got to Florida that he had to be himself. When he got to FCW he had a great time there. Dusty Rhodes was the booker and he says that the FCW roster felt like bastard children because they didn’t get what the NXT crew gets today. They were on an island and most times you forgot who worked for the WWE. He loved working with Dusty Rhodes and loved getting to learn what it was like to produce TV.

-Austin asks about Dean’s promos and when did the light click on for him. He says it all happened when he got his “I don’t give a damn” attitude. He wasn’t a fan of the promo classes in FCW because it didn’t seem real to him. He always heard about scripted promos in the WWE and he felt it was a myth since they could say whatever they wanted in FCW. Then he got the WWE and they handed he a scripted promo, but Austin cuts him off before we get anything of note.

-Ambrose jumps back to the scripted promo and says that he can talk forever if you give him a mic, but he can’t remember lines. He hated doing promos because it was basically line reading and now he is at a point that Vince will just let him say what he wants.

-They discuss the art of the promo and Dean cuts an old school promo on Austin in anticipation for there match at the Fair Grounds. He loved that old promos would set a narrative for a match and they could play off each other and Austin shots back with a brief promo of his own. Dean says he is open to suggestions from everyone and will often still things. He just doesn’t like having words put in his mouth.

-Austin asks if he has a chip on his shoulder and he says that when he came in as part of The Shield all three of them did. He also started with one when he began his pro-wrestling career. Now the chip comes and goes, but he isn’t complacent. Dean says he has a confidence and he thanks back on the journey. The chip shows up when people say he doesn’t deserve the title. Austin says it sounds like the business is real to Dean and he says that it definitely is, and Austin can relate as it was all a shoot to him.

-They discuss The Shield and Dean says they were all friends. They were originally going to be goons for CM Punk, but that never came to pass. The first day they were given giant riot shields and night sticks. Ambrose was all for it and now in retrospect says that they would have looked like dorks. They decided to go with tactical gear and they figured coming out of the crowd was the best look for them.

-Austin asks what the pecking order was and Dean says they were 3 Alpha Males. He says the locker room is different now as when they debuted there was a division between the current roster and any guys from developmental. Today they were kind of all engrained, so it was harder on them. They made a pact to work harder than anyone and do what they needed to be successful.

-Ambrose feels The Shield was broken up at the perfect time. They were on top and had nobody left to run through so it was perfect, and because they were so hot it was unexpected. It turned Seth into the hottest heel and Austin jumps on that mentioning how Seth and Roman got the first cracks while he took a backseat. Dean again accuses Austin of trying to get him fired up. Dean says he knew that within a year they were going to have a babyface that they didn’t want. What stuck with him was a brawl he had with Seth just after the split and how loud the crowd popped for him. He went to the back and everyone was pumped for him. An unnamed producer ran up and said something (bleeped out due to Dean’s language) and seemingly it was a compliment but was along the lines of he was messing up their plans with his pop.

-Austin asks if Dean thinks he wasn’t supposed to get over like he has. He doesn’t think he was screwed with so he would fail, but he was just left on his own. He doesn’t really understand his character as the Lunatic stuff is what the WWE puts on him so he just works with it. He likes the Us against the World vibe of the character. He loves that being a babyface means he can inspire people and possibly help then through tough times. He enjoys doing the Make A Wish stuff, and Austin brings it back to how Bret Hart did the same thing for Dean when he was a kid. Dean says it did sound corny when he heard “We put smiles on people’s faces” and he understands it now. That is what the big picture it about.

-WrestleMania 32 now and Austin asks what it was like to go out in front of 100,000 people against Brock Lesnar. Dean says it was cool and he went to the ring rather pissed off. He felt like he was pulling teeth to turn that match into something epic. He says that Brock didn’t really want to do anything and Dean was pitching ideas to everyone as he wanted it to the be the craziest match ever. Dean says it was pretty cool to walk out there and not know what was going to happen considering he was in the ring with a man who could kill with his bare hands. Awesome! He says it ended up being a hell of a day.

-Austin asks what the belt means to Dean personally. To him it is a symbol that believing in yourself works and you shouldn’t take crap from people. It is a responsibility and it blows his mind that he is a role model for children, which is something he never thought would happen.

-Austin asks how his relationship is with Vince. Dean says they are boys and that he is very easy to talk to. Vince doesn’t like to be glad handed to and at his heart, he is a trailer park street fighter. He feels that Vince understands who Dean is and he says he is Vince’s favorite wrestler.

-Dean is a fan of the brand extension as it gives more opportunities to guys and creates less overexposure. He talks about how he has had endless 20-30 matches with Wyatt and Owens for no reason other than they needed to feel time. It also gives the guys and girls an extra day off which always helps. He likes being a captain, and he isn’t the same type of leader that John Cena is. He likes to be a leader by example and he just shows by working harder than anyone else.

-Austin asks if Dean is comfortable where he is at now. He feels it is now time to work and that he does have some freedom on the mic. He is the captain of the blue brand and now he can start to build a legacy and championship run. He is excited to get to work as WWE Champion.

-Austin has a challenge for Dean and mentions how he pushed the envelope. He challenges Dean to raise the bar and push the envelope. He wants him to take more chances and step out on a ledge. He says that Dean has rested on his laurels and thinks he needs to find his edge again. Dean is rather offended by Austin’s comments and Dean just sits there cool as he always is. He wants to do more, but at the end of the day you are playing in someone else’s sandbox. He likes that Austin put him on blast and says that he knows the counter for the Stunner.

-That ends things for this rather unusual show. These two would have made for a hell of program back in Austin’s prime. Thanks for following along!