Dean Ambrose Appears at Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion, Discusses Being Mentored By Cody Hawk

– Dean Ambrose made an appearance at the 2019 Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion Awards this week to present an award to Cody Hawk. As Wrestling Inc reports, Ambrose presented the Trainers Award to Hawk, who mentored him when he was a teenager. Highlights from Ambrose’s peech are below:

On being mentored by Hawk as a teenager: “I am very excited to be here tonight to present the Trainer Award to Cody Hawk. I’m very grateful for this opportunity. I think the best way for me to explain to you the gravity of Cody Hawk’s legacy as a trainer, I think would be to tell you a little about my story, and that starts in Cincinnati, Ohio many, many years ago. My formative years and my early teenage years are not a period of time that I remember fondly. So, by the time I’m 16 years old, and I walk through the doors of Heartland Wrestling Association, and meet Cody Hawk for the first time, I’m a very directionless, very troubled young man with just about every problem and social anxiety you can imagine. I hated my teachers, I hated my coaches, I had stopped going to school. The only thing I liked was wrestling and I was obsessed, and I was hell bent on breaking into the industry, I just didn’t know how I would start. I knew where I wanted to go, but I didn’t know how to get there. Enter Cody Hawk. Now from day one with Cody Hawk, he was different than any other teacher or coach I’d ever had, anybody in a mentor type position. Cody treated me with respect and I think more importantly than that, Cody took me seriously. So, whether it was out of the goodness of his heart or he saw that desire and drive, or whatever other kind of cliche, for whatever reason he took me under his wing and I became the Cody Hawk science experiment for the next few years. And the important thing that I want to say, that I want to emphasize, if we’re going to take one thing away from this, it was from day one with Cody, however much work I was willing to put in, however much effort I was willing to put forth, he would match it.”

On Hawk’s influence on his career: “After two or three years and thousands of hours of Cody putting his hard work into developing me as his science experiment, eventually that 16 year old kid who walked through the door is doing 60 minute broadways, eventually I’m wrestling all over the country, eventually all over the world, was fortunate to have 8 successful years with WWE. And I’m of the belief that everything I’ve accomplished in this business and everything I have in my life, I share with the people who helped me along the way, and Cody Hawk is at the very tip top of that list.”