Dean Ambrose: 8 things that you probably did not know about him

All three members of the Shield have managed to make a name for themselves as singles superstars. Seth Rollins won the Money in the Bank briefcase, the United States Championship and the WWE championship while Roman Reigns is tagged as the next John Cena. Although these two are well placed to reach the top, Dean Ambrose has been winning over the fans with his stand out gimmick and mannerisms.He hasn’t won many big matches or titles after the Shield’s split but Ambrose has great group of fans behind him. But how well do you know the lunatic fringe? It is a question worth asking at this point of time and here are some things that you probably did not know about Ambrose.

#8 Selling drugs and surviving in the street

Ambrose had to sell drugs when he was young

Ambrose had a rough upbringing. He grew up in the east side of Cincinnati. According to him, his Neighbourhood was a stretch of government housing where he was forced to look after himself. He learned to be independent due to the same but it was a struggle every day. At times, he had to sell drugs to avoid getting beaten and on other occasions, he was pushed around by people.

“It was easy to get the feeling like all the garbage from the city ran down and washed up there, so that gave me a chip on my shoulder very early on,” Ambrose said in an interview. Amidst the struggle, Ambrose found an escape in professional wrestling.

#7 Paul Heyman changed Dean\'s life

While Ambrose was struggling to cope with his surrounding, wrestling proved to be his escape route. He started watching wrestling tapes that he got and he was immediately hooked when he saw Paul Heyman on television. Heyman, who was running ECW at that time managed to grab the attention of young Ambrose who was just 12 years at that time. Ambrose didn’t need much time to fall in love with ECW and he started cultivating a love for the business through the Extreme style that Heyman presented.

Ambrose started learning about the business even before he got into it. Tapes and magazines proved to be his teachers at that point of time and he also had a favorite wrestler as well. (Which we will see in the next slide)

#6 The wrestler he idolized

Ambrose was a big fan of ECW but his favorite wrestler resided elsewhere. As a youngster, Ambrose idolized Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart. The reason for the love was pretty simple: Hitman fought against all the odds and always endured. It was a quality that Ambrose needed to survive in the streets and when he found those in Bret Hart, Ambrose looked up to him.

“He could take a beating and survive -- he never got tired and in the end he always outsmarted the big goons. I probably didn't realize why at the time but I could really relate to that,” Ambrose said about his love of Bret Hart.

#5 Dean Ambrose had sold popcorns and setting up rings

Ambrose, who was impressed by the wrestling business soon wanted to be a part of it. He went to Les Thatcher’s office to get some training but Thatcher rejected him as Ambrose was under 18 and didn’t have any money. The lunatic fringe was in no mood to give up and went to meet another trainer Cody Hawk.

Cody took Ambrose under his wings and allowed him to sell popcorns and set up rings. Along with this, Ambrose started learning things from Cody. Ambrose then managed to sneak into the wrestling classes as well. And the best part was that, Cody taught Ambrose for free.

#4 Dean Ambrose\'s old wrestling names

The real life Jonathan Good made his professional wrestling debut in 2004 under the name Jon Moxley. He stuck on to the name for a major part of his career and had also wrestled under a ring name Moxley Moxx. In 2006, Ambrose appeared as Jon Moxley in WWE. He wrestled in a tag team match alongside Brad Attitude against MNM. It wasn’t anything memorable and he lost it.

He was named Dean Ambrose when he started working in Florida Championship Wrestling back in 2011. He then attained fame under the same name and most of the people have now forgotten the names that he had during the early stages of his career.

#3 Dean Ambrose First feud in WWE

Ambrose made his FCW television debut with a feud against Seth Rollins. Rollins and Ambrose were then engaged in a series of matches which laid the foundation for everything that they did in the main roster. The first match between the two was a 15-minute Iron man match and it ended in a draw. A 20-minute match followed but it also ended in a draw. Afterwards, the two men competed in a 30-min match which failed to produce a winner as well. This match was however sent to sudden death rules in which Rollins prevailed.

Ambrose and Rollins then engaged in a Triple Threat match to determine the No.1 contender for the FCW World heavyweight Championship. However, both men lost out the match and the third man who won it, later went on to be known as Roman Reigns.

#2 Hardcore legend in independent circuit

Before entering WWE, Ambrose made a name for himself by competing in hardcore matches. The inspiration he drew from ECW was there to be seen in the promotions he worked for and most of Ambrose’s matches were bloody ones. He mostly competed in Combat Zone Wrestling, Full Impact Pro and Dragon Gate USA.

In these promotions, Ambrose repeatedly worked in Death matches that took a big toll on his body. Ultraviolent Three way dances, three stages of insanity death match, Dog color death match and many others are there in Ambrose’s resume. WWE might not be looking to for such a style, but no one can take this history away from the lunatic fringe.

#1 The actual plan for his debut

Dean Ambrose made his official debut in WWE as part of the Shield. It was a debut that shocked the entire wrestling community but this was not the original plan that WWE had for Dean Ambrose. WWE wanted Ambrose to make his debut on WWE television with a feud against Mick Foley. They even made a video for the same where Ambrose was seen arguing with Foley on an Airport.

Ambrose then took the feud to Twitter where he made nasty tweets about Foley’s family. Ambrose even went on to say that he wanted to make Foley’s children homeless. He got a lot of heat for his comments but the feud was called off when Foley failed to clear the medical tests that were required.