Disclaimer: This feature is an opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Sportskeeda
As soon as Dean Ambrose’s appearance on the podcast concluded, many speculated if Ambrose had damaged his career in any way, based on his unsociable demeanor and bizarre answers.
The former WWE World Champion (at the time) revealed only strands of his complicated life story when speaking with Austin. Ambrose looked out of place—his "it" factor not apparent in this format. The exchange offered fans insight to Ambrose's past and mindset, even if it was terribly awkward at times.
A month after the interview, Ambrose was replaced by AJ Styles as the Champion.
Ambrose has since returned to the mid card and will be used as a stepping stone in his feud with Baron Corbin. We recently re-examined the appearance on our podcast, the “Dirty Sheets.”
We came to the conclusion that the podcast was massively responsible for killing his push and pinpointed several areas where he lost both the audience and WWE higher-ups, as we re-listened to the entire thing once again on the air, pausing to analyse mistakes that Ambrose made.
Shockingly the appearance was so bad, that our Podcast ended up being twice the length of the original and unintentionally ended up being one of the hilarious podcasts we have ever done. You can listen to the podcast below, actually titled, “The beginning of the end for Dean Ambrose.”
Here are the five main areas where Ambrose killed his career.
#1 Being a poor role model
During the interview, Ambrose alluded to being involved in criminal activity and not having an interest in school. He didn’t elaborate on the “bad things” he was involved in during his younger years, but openly confessed to stealing videos from Blockbuster video.
#2 Messing up his own back-story
Austin clearly had a narrative he was told to go with, with Ambrose being a rag to riches success story. Instead, Ambrose turned things around on himself and painted a picture of himself as a frustrated, restless high school student. It was a time of apathy.
"By the time I got to high school, I didn't care," Ambrose told Austin.
This wasn’t a time to live the gimmick. This was a time to be the company man and go along with what they wanted their WWE Champion to be and the story they were trying to tell to benefit Ambrose.
#3 Burying most of the audience
When Ambrose spoke about not liking school, Ambrose said he asked his teachers, "Why do I have to learn this? So one day I can have your crappy job?” Several times during the interview he was critical of the 9-5 working lifestyle and made his desire to avoid it very clear.
This is an acceptable goal, but to refer to a working class life as “crappy” would not have endeared Ambrose to 90% of the audience. If he had been a heel, it would have been a perfect promo, but he was the babyface champion of the WWE.
#4 Attacking Brock Lesnar
Austin asked about Dean's match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32. He wanted to know all about the experience wrestling The Beast in front of such a huge crowd. Ambrose said that he went to the ring that night "pretty p*ssed off" because he had no idea what was going to happen.
He went out there without much of a plan and felt like he was pulling teeth to turn that match into something epic. Austin asks if it was a disconnect in styles artistically.
Dean replied that "Artistically, Brock didn't want to do anything. You know what I mean? Brock's gonna Brock. I had a vision for that match to be the craziest thing imaginable. I was trying to pitch everything to everybody and I put so much effort in and other people did too and I was met with laziness."
Burying the highest paid star in the company was certainly one of the worst mistakes Ambrose made on the podcast.
#5 ZERO chemistry with Steve Austin
Throughout the podcast, Steve Austin and Dean Ambrose could not get on the same page.
Austin failed to get Dean to convey his back story the way he wanted. Ambrose even questioned Austin’s research and sources. Austin would question Ambrose’s work ethic and even his demeanour when criticising Ambrose’s lack of enthusiasm about receiving his call to come to WWE.
At the end, Austin even questioned if Ambrose was complacent and asked him to raise his game, which Ambrose claimed to be offended by. It appeared that Austin gave up on Ambrose halfway through and just began to give him a rope to hang himself with, and Ambrose complied.
God only knows what Vince McMahon was screaming into Austin’s earpiece. To the surprise of nobody, there has not been a Stone Cold Podcast since this one.
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