Dean Ambrose Talks Comparisons To Brian Pillman, Leaving The Shield, His First Match, More

Dean Ambrose recently spoke to Pro Wrestling Weekly about a variety of topics, including his past in the Shield, here are the highlights.

Leave the Shield and being on his own:

It's been a trial by fire, touch and go every day. It was a really abrupt ending to the Shield that none of us really saw coming. So you decide what direction you're going to go in and do it the best you can and as quickly as you can. It's been pretty exciting and fun. We all have a certain reputation from the Shield, passion and energy that we bring every night, so we were in good positions to go our own separate ways whether anyone saw it coming or not.

His feud with Seth Rollins:

I loved being on the same side as Seth Rollins. We knew each other like the back of our hands. It was so much fun every night to go out there and be really good. As much as I enjoyed being on the same side, I really enjoy being across the ring from Seth Rollins. I really enjoy the challenge of facing a guy who's that good. As much as I enjoy punishing him physically, I enjoy the challenge. It's a high level of competition. One mistake or one move makes a difference.

Staying healthy on the road:

You can't always avoid injury. You can do all the stretching you want, which I don't do nearly enough, but the stuff when people gets hurt, it's always the most random stuff. Sheamus is wearing a brace on his hand before matches from tagging in or something. The closest thing I've had to a serious injury was a tweaked knee, taking a backdrop on the floor from Daniel Bryan. It's things you've done a million times before and the one time there's a split-second difference. I don't think I've ever missed a match because I was hurt. I've never had surgery or anything like that. It goes back to proper training and drilling and falling and rolling. I'm pretty fortunate.

Comparisons to Brian Pillman and other superstars:

Everybody is always going to get compared to someone else. I've been watching everything all my life, studying everybody. Something might rub off from somebody, but the list would be so expansive and eclectic. I've never wanted to pattern myself after somebody, I make everything up as I go along. I have no idea what I'm gonna do when I go to the ring, especially live events where we aren't constrained by time or commercials. It's flattering to be compared, but I'm trying to be me.

If he was intimidated in his first match:

I had one box and one bag of stuff, put it in my junker car and drove to Florida before that. My mindset was "well I'm going to WWE, this is either going to be really good or really bad." By that point I wasn't going to sweat it or worry about it, just go out and do what I do to the best of my ability. I wasn't going to be pushed around or intimidated. A lot of guys beat themselves because of the light and the energy. There's a lot to handle. It can be really intimidating and overwhelming, but I wasn't. As far as our first match on TV, WWE TLC, a lot can go wrong and a lot can happen. It had to be a knock it out of the park thing. Roman trusted us, and we went out there and knocked it out of the park. That was the Shield's attitude. Even though we've went our own way now, we carry that attitude

You can listen to the full interview above.