Retro Wednesday: The Mick Foley - Dean Ambrose Confrontation

For a number of years, Dean Ambrose had been creating buzz wrestling for independent promotions. His passion for the business, impressive wrestling skills, and eerie character that is a unique blend of Jake Roberts and Brian Pillman, led to the WWE signing Ambrose to their then-developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).

Interestingly enough, his televised debut match was against his current faction partner, Seth Rollins. He also competed against Rollins and his other current faction partner, then called Leakee, in a triple threat match to crown the number one contender for the FCW Heavyweight Championship.

Ambrose continued to impress during his FCW tenure, with one of his most memorable matches being against William Regal on an episode of FCW TV. During this hard-hitting match, Ambrose gained an incredible amount of respect from the FCW roster, as well as increased his cult-like respect from the wrestling world.

However, is was the infamous confrontation that really put gave Ambrose the buzz that he was hoping for.

During a meet and greet with Mick Foley at the WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess event, Ambrose interrupted the warm and friendly atmosphere to slander Mick Foley about his hardcore style. During his rant, he begin to tell Foley that he is held accountable for leading 14-year-old kids astray, as well as calling him a criminal that is scot-free for his actions. This even led to a Twitter war between the two, with WWE capitalizing on it by "sending Ambrose home."

This confrontation led to many suspecting a feud between the two, which never managed to get off the ground due to Foley's inability to wrestle. However, Ambrose would gain enough steam from it to garner anticipation of his WWE TV debut.

That night happened to be during a triple threat match between John Cena, Ryback, and CM Punk at Survivor Series, 2012. Ambrose, and other NXT members Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns?later known as The Shield? took out Ryback during the match and immediately made an impression on the WWE Universe.

Now, Ambrose is US Champion, and The Shield is the hottest group in pro wrestling in quite some time.

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