WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose recently took part in an interview with Trib Live Sports in which he was asked his thoughts on being compared to some of the industry greats, his current gimmick and his view on the Attitude Era. 

On being compared to Brian Pillman, Roddy Piper and Stone Cold Steve Austin: “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.

On not being predictable: “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?”

On the Attitude era: “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.”