What exactly do people/IWC see in Dean Ambrose?

[AegonTargaryen]

What exactly do people/IWC see in Dean Ambrose..so as to deify him?

1)Between July 2014-September 2015, when I had access to neither a TV nor a broadband connection so as to catch up with the WWE on youtube, I hardly knew how skillful either of Rollins, Reigns, and Ambrose were in the ring and on the mic as singles wrestlers, since I couldn't really follow Raw/Smackdown. Prior to that,I had found their mic skills rather dreadful in their promos against Evolution, and I found the whole feud done in order to "shake the ratings up" pretty much lacklustre and lacking in something- that fire of originality that we've seen in an Austin-Bret Hart, and variously, Austin-Rock, or Lesnar-Angle. In fact, I had returned to WZ about 10 months ago and abruptly made a negative comment in a post as to why Seth Rollins was a bad choice to push. I admit, I didn't even know how talented Seth was since I hadn't really seen him as a singles wrestler or even otherwise. But this september, all it took was a little "Seth Rollins The Architect" 2 minute promo thing they had been airing? to cause me to get hooked to him. That promo had HHH eulogizing him and clips of Seth Rollins' moves. I was amazed!

2)Now, obviously, I think Seth Rollins is a modern-day Shawn Michaels, and I say this only as a short analogy to indicate that Seth is pure awesomeness(ugh adjective/noun, I know) - in the ring, as a physique, and overall. I just love him.

3)But now that I've been watching the WWE on TV, I have been giving particular attention to Dean Ambrose, and I am yet to see anything remotely impressive about him. In fact, I find his in-ring skills mediocre, and some of his movements even awkward. I don't know what's more dreadfully bad than his clothesline he does after being Irish-whipped. Boy, it's awful, and he does it in every match, and it just looks bad.

4)Sure he has his suicide dive and a bulldog but apart from that, it's all kicks and punches, and even those aren't impressive. The whole "lunatic" schtick seems absurd since I don't know what's so lunatic about him?? Michael Cole drably keeps chanting "Here comes Lunatic Fringe"..but nothing happens. Basically, he has neither an exquisite moveset, nor exquisite agility that is translucently visible in a Seth Rollins or Shawn Michaels. Nor does he have anything that is characteristically his- a style that defines a Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, or Kevin Owens. I'd like to use Randy Orton as an example. Remember his wrestling style during the VIPER era? He would focus on one particular body part and kick viciously...usually the legs, among other things. That's when Michael Cole chanting "The Viper.." sounded congruous. He was vicious and methodical.

5)His mic skills are okay I suppose. But I think Seth Rollins' are better. I haven't gone through every promo of his after the shield breakup, but just one(Lesnar-Authority-Cena-Rollins from January), and I found Seth totally amusing, his intonation, his cute little smile, even his babyboy being protected by The Authority image. (I chuckled when Paul Heyman says to him..the ADULTS are speaking here).

6)His attire? His movements are all awkward, especially the clothesline he does after being irish-whipped. But each time, I wonder if one can wrestle as freely when one is clad in a jeans? Who the hell wears a jeans and wrestles? John Cena's knee-length thing he wore a decade ago was bad enough.

7)I actually thought I'd like to give Dean Ambrose a chance since I have often read some IWC member here on in the comments section mention how the WWE should push Ambrose instead of Reigns and how he's a main-event level talent. I watched his match against Kewin Owens from Smackdown 4-5 weeks ago. It was a mainevent, but besides KO's usual smart/devious psychology, there was nothing in the match which captivated me. It left me with the feeling of "okay..that was the SD mainevent".

8)I do intend to give Dean Ambrose's wrestling skills/character yet another chance. I already plan on watching Ambrose vs Rollins from two different RAW episodes, as well as a rather lengthy match from FCW. But for now, I'm left wondering...is he really half as talented as Seth Rollins, or even Stone Cold Steve Austin or Brian Pillman?

 

[BuriedByCena]

Dean Ambrose had a lot of hype in the beginning. He was great on the mic and in the ring in the indies. Fans were excited for him because we know what he could do. He along with sheild had a lot of great matches in the ring.

Shield split.

Now WWE is trying to push Roman as the next Cena. The biggest criticism of Cena is his 5 moves of doom and Romans 2-3 moves of doom. WWE's solution to this is to gimp every wrestler on the roster so they all have less than 2 moves to make Roman/Cena look better than they are.

Therefore, fan favorites now also suck in the ring to make Roman look like he can wrestle.

D-Bryan has been gimped to do only kicks.
Ziggler is gimped to do 3 moves.
Cesaro is gimped to do uppercuts.
Ambrose has no moves but his clothesline, kicks and punches.
Del Rio only kicks, punches and arm bar
Ryback nuff said

Basically WWE has killed any of the guys fans would want to cheer for. Vince hates "wrestlers" so he has made them all horrible in the ring.

Dean Ambrose should be getting a lot of hate soon because he is horrid in the ring when we know he is capable of dancing circles around Roman if WWE would let him. But nope. We have to keep everyone else weak and make Roman look strong.

This is why Dean Ambrose sucks in the ring.

 

[J.J.]

It's pathetic how everything is RR fault in a lot of the fans eyes. All of these guys have a set repertoire of moves now and over the course of the years in WWE. Certainly Austin did, definitely Hogan and The Rock. Hell Ric Flair surely did in the last 18 years of his in-ring career.

Dean Ambrose isn't bad, I personally don't see anything special about him that makes me scream I'm a huge fan. I thought next to the New Day match that Ambrose and Owens had the second best match on the card.

 

[Navi]

I'm a huge fan of Dean Ambrose, and have followed him since he was Jon Moxley. He is actually a better wrestler than he comes off in the WWE ring, and can wrestle circles around other wrestlers who have been pushed ahead of him.

His character has always been very dark and complex, and he has only shown about 10% of what he can actually do. For some reason they are holding his moveset back, I have no idea or will even speculate as to why they are doing this. His facial expressions are very goofy at times, but he is a natural on the mic, and why they've shut down his mic work, again I have no idea.

Fans got behind him when the Shield broke up because he was the one to go after Rollins, Reigns should have gone after the Authority but for some reason he didn't really. The Ambrose/Rollins feud last year was one of the best, he had Rollins on the run and scared of his own shadow for months. Fans hated Rollins, so it was natural for them to side behind Ambrose and they've never left.

His booking has been nothing short of horrific, but his fan support wasn't manufactured by the WWE's machine, it's organic. Very similar to Daniel Bryan. Ambrose was seen as the underdog, losing most of his battles, and the fans hated that, so I'm glad to see he finally won last night.

Ambrose is not a power guy, technical wrestler or high flyer, he's a brawler, and his matches all run along the same lines. He would make a fantastic heel but for some reason they want to keep him as a face. I have a feeling heel or face he would get a good pop. He entertains me, and a lot of people have said that the Dean Ambrose you see in the ring, is pretty much the Dean Ambrose you see in real life. That's a scary thought.

 

[Lord_Frish]

One of the many things the WWE has failed at recently is that is they don't let the faces win enough, they don't let the faces kick ass enough. There are two exceptions to this, Cena and Ambrose. I think Ambrose is popular because he does manage to go over heels fairly often. It is almost never the main event heels, but whenever he decides to fight a mid card heel he usually wins.

If you're looking for a wrestling match that has a lot of realism to it, Ambrose is not the guy to watch. Then again, WWE isn't really the show to watch for that anymore either. Ambrose is more like Flair or even HBK as opposed to a guy like Bret Hart. Remember when Bret would run in to the corner chest first? Because why would you turn around instead of just stopping if you could. HBK and Flair would flip over the ropes and oversell like crazy. Ambrose is more in line with the HBK/Flair line of thought. His movement, facial expressions, character, it is all very showy.

The reason Ambrose is getting over and someone like Reigns who also wins a lot isn't because he doesn't win titles or achieve his goals. So every time Reigns does well on Raw we just know he is a failure who can't win the title. We've spent a year watching him fail. We don't want to watch a badass Samoan fail, we want to see him kill someone.

 

[SuperTaco]

Basically WWE has killed any of the guys fans would want to cheer for. Vince hates "wrestlers" so he has made them all horrible in the ring.

I'm tired of seeing this crap. Give real proof that this is actually happening and people might believe you. Otherwise, it's baseless speculation.

Anyone who's been a fan of WWE for an extended period of time knows that they ALWAYS reduce the number of moves to a select few, for basically everyone. It's not because of Roman, or Cena. It's because Vince likes a consistent moveset that can be easily recognized by the casual fans. Each guy has a few signature moves and usually one finisher. If you spread out the timing of those signature moves and mix in lots of punches/kicks/rest holds, you have an easy formula for a match

This formula is sometimes broken for PPV's though. I'm recalling the debut of Kevin Owens vs Cena as an example. Owens was allowed to use a much larger variety of moves compared to most guys. Not only that, but he was trusted in his main roster debut match to use these moves on the face of the company. The result was easily one of the best matches of the year, a rare "5 star".

What I'm basically trying to say is: Guys always have their moveset gimped when they get to WWE. Roman has nothing to do with it.

 

[Saeros]

I'm tired of seeing this crap. Give real proof that this is actually happening and people might believe you. Otherwise, it's baseless speculation.

If by "tired of seeing this crap" refers to the part about real proof the WWE kills off anyone the fans want to cheer for then the fact that theres such a big list here should speak volumes

Dolph Ziggler
Dean Ambrose
Damien Sandow
Bray Wyatt
Cesaro
Jack Swagger
Fandango
Wade Barrett

All of those at various points over the past couple of years had massive momentum but had the rug pulled from under their feet for no real reason other than they were getting over on their own. Take Damien Sandow. When he was the Miz's sidekick he was at times getting the loudest or near loudest cheers, laughs, chants whatever you want to call it. He had a decent feud with the Miz and the fans were behind him...then....nothing. They just dropped him down the card for nothing. Instead of running with the popularity he had made for himself they just decided "nah".

Wade Barrett had a fantastic thing going with the "Bad News Barrett" skits. People loved it. Same thing as above, the gimmick was dropped for no reason. A unique gimmick was taken away from him and he got the boring and overused "king" gimmick. Its such a dull concept now. We've had Harley Race, Jerry Lawler, Mable, Haku, Randy Savage, Sheamus, Booker T, William Regal and now Wade Barrett. How many people can you remember off the top of your head that had Barretts bad news gimmick with a catchphrase that caught on?

Cesaro is one of the more obvious. It was reported on some sites earlier this year that security actually started taking signs away from people supporting him or saying "cesaro section" How much more pathetically obvious is that? They then realised they couldnt stop it and let the signs in. I can understand them doing this for people who dont work for the company but this is just pathetic to try to ruin the popularity of your own employee, especially after all the crap Vince said about him not connecting with the fans. Maybe he would if they let him.

Fandango had the world dancing thanks the the UK fans, why not run with it and see where it goes? Hang on, no, lets keep him insulting audiences and make no one do the dance anymore then have our authority figures doing it now and again and take everything away from a character you just got one of your biggest stars to put over.

WWE always says on the WWE Network and in interviews they listen to the fans and give them what they want...Yet they dont.

 

[Prince Vee]

I reckon the OP haven't seen much of Dean Ambrose in his time in FCW and CZW. He's a pure entertainer if you know and he has a good in-ring psychology which is entertaining enough. He's crazy and yes I get that he isn't someone who'll make you gob-smacked by his moveset or matches. But he's sort of an underdog and people love him. And his Mic Skills are extremely underrated and I always feel like WWE had intentionally put a bar against him holding the mic.

He had a variety of movesets but unfortunately, most of them are being used by other stars so it seems like he had been curtailed. His feud with Seth Rollins was electrific and he did share some good deeds with having consistent performances.

Honestly speaking, I didn't fancy the idea of Dean Ambrose the Lunatic Fringe, while he was in the shield. But he made my verdicts about him to change. Surf around internet to look back at his matches and I wager you'll like him!

 

[Mustang Sally]

Sure he has his suicide dive and a bulldog but apart from that, it's all kicks and punches, and even those aren't impressive.

For sure. Whenever I read a post from a forum member who claims to 'really know' wrestling, even as he loves Dean Ambrose while detesting Alberto Del Rio, I marvel at all the ways people have of judging what they like.

Of course, that's a good thing. Not everyone appreciates technical, scientific wrestling moves, which is their privilege. When one looks at ADR or Rusev, guys who wrestle in technical fashion even while remaining heels, I shake my head that there are so many fans who think their performance is lousy.

Yet, many of the same folks love Dean Ambrose, who doesn't seem to have a pure wrestling move in his body. Again, there's no problem with this.....plenty of wrestlers don't 'wrestle'...... yet I find myself being unimpressed with Dean, even while I rather like him in some ways.

However, do people really go for the expressions on his face? When he dove head-first into the crowd last night after winning his title, the look on his puss seemed to indicate he was having a stroke, no? All rubber-mouthed and wide-eyed?

His ring repertoire consists entirely of brawling tactics yet, given the lack of a 'wrestler's build' it doesn't seem those moves would have much effect in a 'real' fight. Yet, he bludgeons people and they fall down. That's show business.

To my mind, that move in which he leans backward over the ropes and rebounds to clothesline his opponents has seen enough use. That the move forces opponents to stand there and wait until Dean gets through telegraphing it makes for a bad tactic, imo. Still, people love it.

Yet, as I said before, there's something about him I like.....perhaps it's his enthusiasm and energy.......but I'm surprised people have taken to him as they have. Usually, even fans who don't care for the fine points of pro wrestling don't clamor for people who don't look & act the part. In Dean Ambrose's case, they do.

Oh, well. It takes a lot of people to make up a sports entertainment company, I'm guessin'.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

I see a guy who is way too over the top. Maybe he's supposed to be that way, but it gets annoying. His interviews irritate me, honestly. I think he's a talented guy but he needs to take it down a notch. In the ring, I enjoy what he does. He's a loose cannon in there and that makes pretty much everything he does a lot of fun to watch. I don't think he will ever be the top guy, but not every wrestler is supposed to be there anyhow.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I don't think Ambrose is the end all-be all but, then again, neither was Stone Cold Steve Austin. In terms of athleticism and/or technical ability, there are guys on the roster who could wrestle circles around both of them, but what ultimately has gotten them over has more to do with their persona/personality/charisma than what they do inside the ring. Which, to be fair, there have been guys in the past with tons of technical ability and/or athleticism who've gotten pushed that didn't go anywhere because they had the personality day old roadkill.

I have no problem with Dean Ambrose being pushed, I'm just surprised it's taken as long as it has. At the same time, these sorts of threads always pop up whenever someone is getting pushed, about to get pushed, or will be getting pushed, most especially if he's someone that's perceived as an "internet darling." It's happened with Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, Rollins, Cesaro, Owens and now Ambrose. If they make it to the main roster, it'll almost certainly happen with Balor, Bayley, Samoa Joe and others. Although, to be fair, these threads also seem to pop up whenever someone who isn't an "internet darling" is getting pushed. You can take what Big E said in terms of his predictions for TLC and apply it to wrestling at large, though it can be especially applied to someone getting pushed: "There will be matches. People will watch. People will complain."

It wouldn't have bothered me to see Owens retain, I'd have personally preferred it, but it is what it is. I do like the guy quite a bit, but I do agree with the notion that he should take the lunatic fringe stuff down a few notches. I dig that he's passionate and can call upon it at will, but I think all the various little twitches, sorta half sarcastic/half dry humor does bring him down a bit and makes him seem a bit less serious. He wasn't really like that during his days with the Shield and I thought it was a great fit for him. He still had that "I don't give a shit" kinda aura without it being so severe that it sometimes borders on parody.

 

[GothicMatt]

I was going to say i dont think its Vinces fault tbh i was going to aim the blame to HHH as he is the CEO but saying that it has to go through Vince first and it seems very predicable lately, and the wrestlers do seem to have a small move set which isnt fair and they dont seem to be really listening to the fans, even in the Attitude Era wrestlers had more of a move set than they do now and its really sad, But Dean Ambrose is brilliant in the ring and on the mic it just seems like everyone else is saying is that his moveset is being held back

 

[ISkye]

I don't think a different move set would make him any more entertaining for me. Being over analytical on a guy there really isn't much to will probably make you hate him. Dean is the type where I just have to sit back and enjoy the show. It is kind of a good and a bad thing though. Sometimes I have to step back out of my bubble and just be a more casual viewer in his case.

 

[Azane]

All I care about in Dean Ambrose is that he lives his character, he puts so much work and effort into doing "The little things" facial expressions, manerisms, and other things that make him legitimately believable as this chaotic force. His Wrestling style is the unimpressive brawler type with a few good moves, but he's focused more on telling the story of the match, and he does it great.

 

[pipebomber]

what I see that people like in Dean Ambrose is that he isn't reigns. Seriously I think that's it. Im no Reigns fan, I would even say in comparison I too am a Dean Ambrose fan, but since the split of the shield I have not liked the direction Ambrose has went in. I particularly hate is check-behind-him-after-an-irish-whip-as-to-properly-place-my-obviously-fake-near-fall-from-the-ring thing he does every match. I wouldn't mind it if he saved it for big matches, but when done every match, it looks cheesy and fake. what other wrestler nearly falls out of the ring from a simple irish whip all the time? at least he doesn't do his stupid ass scoot 619 as much any more.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

I have no problem with Dean Ambrose being pushed, I'm just surprised it's taken as long as it has. At the same time, these sorts of threads always pop up whenever someone is getting pushed, about to get pushed, or will be getting pushed, most especially if he's someone that's perceived as an "internet darling." It's happened with Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, Rollins, Cesaro, Owens and now Ambrose. If they make it to the main roster, it'll almost certainly happen with Balor, Bayley, Samoa Joe and others. Although, to be fair, these threads also seem to pop up whenever someone who isn't an "internet darling" is getting pushed. You can take what Big E said in terms of his predictions for TLC and apply it to wrestling at large, though it can be especially applied to someone getting pushed: "There will be matches. People will watch. People will complain."

1)I don't have a problem with him being pushed either. I actually want to like him and think he'd be as good a choice to be WHC, if not a better choice, as sheamus.

2)I missed out on anti-IWC threads on Punk, Ziggler, Rollins and Cesaro. I do remember GSB having created a thread entitled "he's got the whole world bored" ? or something, and in that instance, I sort of found myself in concord with him because I couldn't/haven't so far seen anything special about Bray Wyatt besides his slightly better microphone skills/voice than most WWE wrestlers. As for bryan, even though I hated the YES chants and his mic skills, I'd be the first person to acknowledge that he was extremely entertaining to watch in the ring and probably the best technical wrestler they had apart from Cesaro.

3)But like other posters said, with Ambrose, you have to sit back and watch him for the character and all the little things he does, instead of expecting a 5-star match. So I guess, just like Sally, I'm going to have to live with him doing the lean-underneath the top rope-rebound-clothesline, and flying clotheslines and what not in all of his matches.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

As with most wrestlers that come from the indy scene, that's the most important thing that people like about him.

But let's be more on point. Personally, I think that people like Dean because he is just natural. He plays his psycho-like gimmick well and it comes off naturally. He feels comfortable doing it and people realize it. He is a fun guy to watch. His facial expressions are fun, his promos are fun, his matches are good and he hasn't even had a serious 1v1 storyline, apart from the one with Seth back in 2014.

Yea, I would say Dean has charisma. Knows how to work with just about anyone and I think that people appreciate that.

 

[showtyme27]

I think Dean Ambrose is a decent enough worker in the squared circle although I have to agree with the OP that He is at least IMO vastly overrated. As Jon Moxley and even in FCW I thought He had a little more control over His expressions, character and moveset. He has always had a over the top persona which works for Him in a way but I feel that this "Lunatic Fringe" gimmick is a tad bit too much for My personal taste, but with that being said He is WAY over with the majority of The WWE Universe so I can see why there has been little to no tweaks to His general personality or overall repertoire.

I feel like Dean would have been right at home in ECW or WWE's Hardcore Division, but in this PG Era of WWE wrestling He seems slightly out of place at least IMO. There are several moves He has yet to utilize that could round out His moveset and make Him much more interesting to the Hardcore technical wrestling fans. I have no problem with a brawler but Dean is just WAY too repetitive with His strikes and signature maneuvers, if He brought back The vastly superior version of The Dirty Deeds(Headlocked Implant Driver), Midnight Special(Over the shoulder belly to back piledriver), His elevated version of the Regal Stretch, Headshot Regal style Knee Trembler, Hook and Ladder(Double chickenwing face buster), MoxiCity(Winds of Change/Blackhole Slam), OneHitter(Vertical Suplex DDT), Multiple Kitchen Sink Attack, Ect... I believe even with the obvious flaws in His character almost every fan could enjoy His run atop the Mid Card.

If booked properly I think His feud with Kevin Owens has the potential to elevate both of their careers to the next level much like HHH and The Rock or Stone Cold and The Rock did for one another, I thought Kevin was deserving of an lengthy reign but wouldn't mind a competitive back and forth feud where They trade wins for the Title. Love the more aggressive version of KO on RAW this week and I am praying They keep His character moving in this direction as I am very excited to see how this feud will progress and if both Men will rise to the occasion and force The Intercontinental Championship and The Mid Card back into prominence.

I also believe Dean needs to tone down His character slightly, He was pitch perfect IMO when He was originally placed in The Shield and when He was the antagonist of William Regal, Seth Rollins, Ect... in FCW. IMO His antics have gotten to the point where He has a persona more at home in the 80's or early 90's just too cartoonish and overly gimmicky. Simply put something needs to change for Me to except Him as a believable main eventer.

A lot of people have compared Him to Stone Cold but I just don't see it, maybe I see a little bit of Brian Pillman or even "Rowdy" Roddy Piper but all three of the Men I just named at least IMO were superior to Him in technical wrestling ability and overall control and believability of their character and I don't even think He comes close to touching any of these Guys on the mic and IMO is WAY overrated when it comes to His promo/Mic skills.

IMO Dean still has not only a lot to prove but a lot to improve upon in the ring and on the mic but I do believe He has the base talent and hardcore rabid fanbase to pull it off and become a huge star. I guess only time will tell...