Dean Ambrose: Why WWE Has Found The Next Stone Cold Steve Austin In The Lunatic Fringe

Let’s face it, WWE needs to have this generation’s Stone Cold Steve Austin. The problem with that, is that no one has fit the bill to become a major player like Austin since he left wrestling. Austin was fantastic and was able to give us the greatest moments of the Attitude Era. In an era where defiance was what we all wanted to do, but couldn’t. Yet Austin could. In an era of which work was tough and our boss was horrible, we all wanted to punch the boss and take them out, yet we could not. However, Austin could.

We lived vicariously through Stone Cold. We wanted to be him and we wanted to see this blue collar type of guy showing the white collared guys who was really the boss. After Austin left, there was no one who could bring that for us. Daniel Bryan did well in a similar role, but seemed to be more of an underdog story similar to Rey Mysterio. This brought him in plenty of fans who want to see him succeed. However, he was not the next Austin.

One man has been looking us right in the face as the next Austin for 2 years and yet we are just now truly noticing him, that man is Dean Ambrose. Known as the Lunatic Fringe of the WWE, Ambrose has shown he can do a promo as good as any in WWE history. His wrestling ability has also surprised a lot of people. He is quite technical in the ring truth be told. However, that gets overlooked because he is so fun to watch with his unique style and flair for dramatic moments in a match.

This has led to many fans getting on the Ambrose bandwagon if they weren’t already on it. What is so interesting about Ambrose is that he and Austin are virtually the same character really, but not all at the same time. They also came up in a similar fashion.

Austin was known as Stunning Steve Austin most of his career before WWE brought him in. He had blonde hair and showed he could do well in a tag team environment as Stunning Steve, but showed some singles capability. He held singles gold and looked good in various promotions but nothing really clicked with him. The famous WCW firing led to him being hired by WWE. The company originally called him The Ringmaster upon his debut, and then eventually he was able to get the Stone Cold Steve Austin name. From then on he was one to always question the authority and show that he was just like all of us. He even wore jeans and jean shorts to promote the fact that he was not a suit wearing company wrestler, but an ass-kicker who was his own man. In the ring, the tights went on, but he could fight in anything he wanted and often times did so.

Ambrose came up on the Independent scene, wrestling in various promotions becoming a singles champion quite often. When he was eventually hired by WWE, they saw a good performer but had nothing like him before. So they didn’t know what to do with him. They thought he was ready for the main roster but wanted to gradually grow him, so they stuck him into a faction. The Shield was known to question any authority and do as they chose to, any time they wanted. When he split from The Shield, WWE capitalized on his difference and now he wears a wife beater tank top and jeans as his ring attire, and well, his every day attire as well. He has continued to buck all authority and will not stop.

Like Austin, it didn’t matter if Ambrose was outnumbered or knew he would lose. He didn’t care. Some call that crazy, or in WWE terms, he is a lunatic for the stuff he does like this. WWE has so much potential with Ambrose. Like Austin once had, there is doubts currently with Ambrose.

Currently, the WWE knows that Ambrose has a growing fan-base, but they do not see him as a main eventer yet. However, most fans think he has been since day one. Austin showed promise for the main event for some time. Even as the Stone Cold character, WWE didn’t know what they had originally. It took time for them to see. When they did finally let him lose, they created potentially the greatest WWE Superstar of all time.

Ambrose is similar. WWE wants to build him up, and see what they have. They realize his talent and can see how good he is. The problem is that we have to wait. WWE wants to make him a star however, otherwise he would not be off filming a new WWE Film called Lockdown. He was written off TV this past Monday to not only help the rivalry with Rollins but to give him time to work only on the film. WWE may even realize the movie theatrically, which would allow for a lot of exposure for WWE and Ambrose. If he does well and the movie is good, this could lead to more for Ambrose in not just the film industry but in WWE as well.

Like Austin, it would make sense to be able to do well in a setting where talking in a much needed niche to have….which both clearly do.

Ambrose does not have the body Austin has or had, which is fine these days as WWE is not concerned over finding guys that are muscled up freaks. WWE still takes them but wrestlers are who they look for more so now, not just great bodies these days. You can make a body better, but skills take time to develop and in a world where you need people quick, skills and heart coming in are far better than a nice look at times.

Ambrose brings all you need to be a successful WWE Superstar. Whether or not he stays this good is another story entirely. Most feel that WWE will eventually do a lot more with Ambrose. WWE does see a lot in him, but interestingly enough the guy who we all thought was the top guy in The Shield coming in seems to be the the guy the WWE is looking over out of the three now that the faction has disbanded. Most feel that will change once Ambrose comes back from storyline injury this Fall.

What do you think? Does WWE have their next Stone Cold Steve Austin in Dean Ambrose? Or should the WWE simply try to market Ambrose as the only Ambrose they ever had and not try to make him anything like a character from the past? Let me know below.

[IMG Credits: Google, DeviantArt- naroto_gfx]