Dean Ambrose sewing his own nipple back on after a hardcore indy match is now part of WWE kayfabe

In an interview very similar to some of the pieces that WWE's website produced in the time that Daniel Bryan was being transformed from a comedy heel and tag team champion into a main eventer, WWE.com has published an interview with Dean Ambrose that extensively covers his pre-WWE experiences on the independent and backyard wrestling scenes.

Anthony Benigno's article, "The Devil and Dean Ambrose", weaves between work and shoot to paint a fuller picture of the man WWE is calling "The Lunatic Fringe".  Tales of Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), fighting Drake Younger in dog collar matches, having worked with guys currently in prison for armed robbery are presented as the backdrop for why Seth Rollins picked the wrong man to betray.

In addition to great flourishes like the story of having a nipple cut off in a match and sewing it back on himself ("And did a fine job, I might add," Ambrose is quoted as saying), there are also grains of truth, like the fact that a good looking, 6 foot four inch, 230 pound guy who can work a microphone like a cross between Jake Roberts and Roddy Piper probably didn't need to be bleeding by the bucket in order to make a pro wrestling career for himself.

Somewhere beneath the characters of Jon Moxley and Dean Ambrose is a man who liked rolling around in broken glass in front of a handful of screaming fans in a country field in Ohio or Pennsylvania.

And that's a large part of why he is so intriguing to so many WWE fans.  There is something different about this guy, something genuine.  And whatever that is is also a little bit off.  It makes him intriguing and relatable at the same time.  And when you combine that with tall and handsome, an incredible understanding of how to tell a story in the ring and the gift of gab, well, the sky is probably the limit for that guy.

That WWE is pushing him as a top guy and incorporating a background that they might usually shy away from in stories on the front page of their website probably means that they see the same thing.