Dean Ambrose interview: WWE Intercontinental Champion talks new movie, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and the Royal Rumble

Ambrose will defend his title against Kevin Owens at the upcoming Royal Rumble pay-per-view

Dean Ambrose starring in 12 Rounds 3 (WWE)

One of WWE’s most charismatic and captivating wrestlers, Dean Ambrose is now a bonafide movie star following his lead performance in the recently released 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown.

The 30-year-old has competed all over the world since making his wrestling debut in 2004, and won his first WWE Intercontinental Championship last month.

In anticipation of a busy January which includes a title defence against Kevin Owen at the upcoming Royal Rumble PPV, Ambrose spoke to The Independent about all things wrestling.

First of all, congratulations on the UK release of 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown. Can you give us a basic explanation of the plot?

It’s about a cop who is coming back from a traumatic experience. On his first day back on the job he happens to stumble across an evil plan from a fellow police officer and he decides to do something about it. My character ends up in a police station by himself with just his wit, guile and 20 cops trying to kill him.

This is a very easy movie to watch, and you don’t have to wait for anything to happen. The movie starts and it just goes and goes for its entire length.

How has the overall reaction been to the film, and are you happy with the final product?

I think everybody was surprised with what we were able to accomplish given the time and resources that we had. Our director Stephen Reynolds was able to do so much to make it feel like a big epic movie.

(WWE)

Moving to wrestling, you shall be defending your Intercontinental Championship at the Royal Rumble later this month, but will you compete in the Royal Rumble match itself?

I think I’ll be in the match, I was on the stage at Raw on Monday where Mr McMahon was yelling at me and talking some trash. It’s a whole Mr McMahon ploy this Royal Rumble thing, but I may have to whoop some people’s asses. I’ll just show up and whatever is put in front of me I’ll deal with.

Do you have any favourite Royal Rumble memories from past events?

I always liked the guys who lasted a long time in the match and had endurance. People like Ric Flair going an hour at the 1992 Rumble, or Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog being one and two in 1995 and both lasting until the end.

It’s a lot like my character in the movie, these people are shooting at him all day and he just stays in there. If I’m in the Royal Rumble it will be a lot like that because really you can’t kill me, I’m just going to hang until the end.

There have been strong rumours of new recruits to WWE over the past week, including the possible signing of AJ Styles. Does news like that excite you?

I’m down with that, this is where the best talent in the world is. I hadn’t heard about AJ coming in so that’s really cool. I think NXT has opened up the doors for a lot of guys to come in and create different opportunities.

In North America there aren’t too many big places to go, so you find that pretty much all of the best talent in the world ends up filtering through WWE. It’s a very exciting time.

Finally, you have been in the ring with many of the best wrestlers of all time but is there anybody you haven’t yet faced who you would like to?

I’d love to wrestle Samoa Joe at some point, I’ve never been in the ring with him and I can picture that being pretty cool. Other than that I think I’ve wrestled everybody. That’s what comes when you’re a guy who has been around for a while and who can do it all.

12 Rounds 3: Lockdown

12 Rounds 3: Lockdown is available on Digital Download, DVD and Blu-ray now

Royal Rumble

Watch WWE Royal Rumble, from 1am, Sunday (Monday morning) January 24 on the WWE Network