LaBar: Going one-on-one with Dean Ambrose

Dean Ambrose is the most entertaining and consistent part of WWE programming each week.

He's unique and stands out. Nobody can talk or react in a situation like him. If you're at a WWE event, the level of interest and surprise is even greater because, as we've seen on WWE programming, he could end up standing next to you. Fans in Pittsburgh will have that opportunity Dec. 28 at Consol Energy Center.

Ambrose spoke with me in an interview about several topics. Many, as you can read or hear, weren't prompted by a question. Ambrose spoke candidly, and his answers would start with one topic and move to another, providing interesting insight.

The link at the bottom of the page will let you hear the audio, and Ambrose would say several times, “I don't know how I got on this topic” or “Was that part of your original question?”

It was a unique exchange with a unique performer.

Q: A lot of comparisons are made with Brian Pillman, Roddy Piper and even Stone Cold Steve Austin. Do you agree with those, and do you like being compared to them?

A: You're always going to get comparisons. Everybody comes out and says he's the next so and so or he reminds me of so and so.

The thing with me is I've studied so much wrestling, so many wrestlers, so many eras and styles for so long. My entire life has been dedicated to being obsessed with this. I have so many influences and stuff in my brain, who knows what's going to pop in and come out. I don't really try to pattern myself after any particular person. I pretty much make it up as I go along.

There's a lot of guys in WWE, you would know who they are, you know you're going to see the same thing every single match. You know you're going to hear the same thing every time they pick up a microphone. You know John Cena is never going to get mad at you no matter what you do. You could steal his dog or set his house on fire and he's not going to get all that mad at you. He's going to come out and do the same thing he always does. Me, I'm not like that. I get pretty upset pretty quickly.

I don't like having an entrance or anything like that too set in stone. A lot of guys come out and have the exact little dance or exact little thing that goes off at the right time with the pyro. What if I'm not in the mood to do my little dance this week?

Q: So you aim for each performance to be one-of-a-kind and must see?

A: I don't like my wrestling or entertainment in general to be too clean or predictable for me as a fan. When I say clean, I'm not talking about dirty jokes, middle fingers and stuff like that. I'm actually not even a big fan of that.

A lot of people talk about the attitude era being so great but a lot of it was terrible crap, sex jokes and over-the-top terrible bad comedy. It was Jerry Springer-like. They made a joke about a woman's breasts. Hilarious, but where's the wrestling? I look back on a lot of stuff now, and I'm like where's the wrestling? It's just a lot of crappy jokes.

Q: “WrestleMania 31” will be your first one as a singles wrestler. Do you have a particular dream match for WrestleMania?

A: As far as realistic ones, I have some in mind. I'll keep that under my hat for right now because you never know what's going to happen.

Unrealistic opponents, if our eras had crossed, we were barely one generation apart, he was at 11:59 and I was at 12:01 — I would have loved to do something with Mick Foley or Cactus Jack or whatever version of him. If we would have crossed paths in like 1994, you would have seen one of the most gross, violent, entertaining spectacles that ever was. That's been relegated to the dream match world now.

A guy like Bret Hart. I watch his work back now as a professional knowing what I'm doing. I watch back the matches I loved as a kid, and he's such a forward thinker. He saw the whole picture in his head kind of storyteller. He's not a wing-it-on-the-fly kind of guy. Even though I'm a wing-it kind of guy, I also really like to see the whole picture in my head a year ahead. Not just the match but the whole storyline a year ahead of time. I have how I'm going to get there, but I have visions in my head and I just see what happens.

Those two guys, being able to put my mind with their minds and create something if we had crossed paths, I'd like to create with those two guys. Those are two dream WrestleMania opponents for you. As far as anything realistic for you to talk about, I'm not going to give you anything, sorry.

You can see Dean Ambrose and the rest of the WWE roster in Pittsburgh on Dec. 28 at Consol Energy Center. Tickets go on sale Saturday.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Ambrose including other topics such as his favorite year in wrestling and why.

Justin LaBar is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7949 or jlabar@tribweb.com.