SWE Spotlight: In Profile – SLTD Wrestling meets “All Night” Ian Ambrose

It’s Wednesday, which means only one thing: our SWE Spotlight continues with someone that last week’s interviewee, Chaz Phoenix, mentioned last week as the future of SWE, and that’s “All Night” Ian Ambrose.

For someone that’s only been in the business for 3 years, everyone I’ve spoken to up here talks really highly about Ian, so I jumped at the chance to do the interview. Just six months after debuting, he won the SWE Future Division Championship and held it for a year, becoming the longest-reigning Future Champion in SWE history. Ian was really generous with his time, so enough talk from me, let’s get to the interview!

Tell us a little bit about how you got started in wrestling and who your influences were when you started watching it?

A friend of mine, and fellow SWE Wrestler (next week’s interviewee) Mr News had just started wrestling with the SWE and knew I’d been training off and on elsewhere and really wasn’t enjoying where I was. He asked me if I wanted to head along to Hartland (the SWE Training school) back in 2009, so I went along and it was a complete contrast to where I had been before. Training was tough but the methods of Bravehart, Chaz Phoenix and Steven Magners really helped me get my head around a lot of things. Until then, I had no clue about psychology or crowd work. Then I made my debut in early 2010. My biggest influences when I first started watching were the likes of The Rock, the Hardy Boyz and Raven – I was definitely an ‘Attitude Era’ kid. The more I watched, the more I became fascinated by the work of Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair, easily the two greatest of all time in my opinion.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a wrestler?

When I was around 13 or 14, I played WWF Warzone for the Playstation at a friend’s house and instantly fell in love with it. Within a week or so, I started my VHS tape/DVD collection and became consumed with watching the sport. Over my teenage years I pretty much spent any money I had on it, whether it was going to shows in the UK or America, buying magazines or any trivial piece of merch I could get. I guess it’s a little embarrassing now, but I boasted somewhere in the region of 400 VHS tapes/DVD’s. My cupboards were like a mark’s wet dream so basically the next logical step was for me to follow my hobby (obsession) and make a go of entering the business myself!

Where are people most likely to see you wrestling?

I currently wrestle for Scottish Wrestling Entertainment, the SWE which runs shows all over the East Coast of Scotland, from Portobello to Peterhead. Our main stomping ground is the wonderful ‘City of Discovery’ Dundee.

Where does your name “All Night” come from?

Chronic insomnia…haha! No, basically the whole ‘All Night’ shtick came from the very first promo I did at a training session taken by one time SWE General Manager and former SWE wrestler ‘The Solution’ Ian Black. He assigned us various character based tasks. It was my first promo session and at the time, I was trying to be as ‘Ric Flairish’ as I could be, so I boasted and referred to myself as ‘All Night’ Ian Ambrose. It kind of just rolled off the tongue and stuck.

For anyone that hasn’t seen you wrestle, how would you describe your style?

I like to throw in different moves from various different styles to keep the crowd entertained, whether it’s the Lucha Libre inspired moves I do (such as the flying armdrags, wheel barrows and suicide dives) to the strong style Puroresu strikes. This being entertainment as well as a sport, I like to exhibit the American showmanship aspect, in terms of engaging with the audience. I’ve found this is very important and of course, being British, I try to get European style into my offence when I can.

What’s the one thing that frustrates you about the world of wrestling right now?

Something I’m probably a little guilty of myself in terms of my own persona, but the lack of creative and colourful characters that exist in today’s wrestling world. When guys make it to ‘The Show’, they are repackaged and given generic real people names and are all pretty much interchangeable. Maybe the recession has hit the action figure market hard or something I don’t know? But my point is that when I watch old tapes or watch when pro wrestling hit its boom period, there was a plethora of all kinds of weird and wacky characters of all different shapes and sizes. Now, WWE in particular have opted for a more ‘realistic’ batch of characters with generic looks and behaviour, which has filtered through into the independent scene. Fellow SWE worker E.G Mackie is way ahead of everyone else on the Scottish wrestling scene. He’s by far the most interesting character out there and deserves a lot more recognition than he gets for the work he does.

What are your memories of your first match?

To be honest the adrenaline high I was on for the ten minutes I was out there made it a bit of a blur! Thankfully, there are some pictures and clips out there documenting me in the horrible, horrible ring gear I wore! The match itself went fairly smooth and I received a lot of positive feedback, despite being greener than a Christmas tree. My opponent ‘Tenacious’ Johnny Lyons made the people hate him, which made them give a damn about me and made me look a whole lot better than I was at that point, so I owe a whole lot to him for giving me a relatively positive opening match.

You started training in 2009. What was it that drew you to work with Bravehart, Chaz Phoenix and Steven Magners?

They have a wealth of knowledge and have three different perspectives of wrestling. Commonly, they all strive to get the best out of who they train and work with. They deserve a lot more credit than they get and with their different in-ring styles, you learn something new every time you step in the ring with them. I’ve not had the opportunity to face Bravehart yet but hopefully somewhere down the line; I’ll get the chance to. As for Chaz Phoenix and Steven Magners, I’ve had a few tussles with them. Right now, me and my tag-team partner Sam Ross are chasing their tails for the SWE Tag Team Championships, which should be entertaining for the fans!

Of all the matches you’ve had so far in your career, which one stands out most to you and which one are you most proud of?

For me personally, I have to say one of my more recent matches. It was a triple threat ‘Anything Goes’ match for the SWE Future Division Championship between myself, Martyn Stallyon and ‘Tenacious’ Johnny Lyons. We were originally scheduled to be having a steel cage match but due to unfortunate circumstances the match had to be changed. We had a ton of added pressure on us because the entire show had been sold on the fact we were having a Steel Cage match and we didn’t deliver on the cage. However we did go out in the main event and deliver everything we had and more to those fans who went home extremely happy. It was a privilege to look up into the balcony at the Ardler Complex in Dundee and see all of our peers watching and congratulating us after the match, which pretty much went off without a hitch.

Who’s been your favourite opponent to get in the ring with and why?

Martyn Stallyon and ‘Tenacious’ Johnny Lyons are, in my opinion, the two best out there right now. Martyn Stallyon isn’t the most physically gifted, but he’s the most physically earned wrestler out there. He works endlessly perfecting his vertical leap and is an athletic phenomenon. Because of all his hard work, he had the opportunity to wrestle Chavo Guerrero at Hell for Lycra IX this year and they went out and tore the house down. We came through the Hartland Training School at the same time and he is one guy I’ve always had chemistry with yet not had nearly enough matches with in the ring. Hopefully, we’ll get to have a series of matches somewhere down the line. ‘Tenacious’ Johnny Lyons was my first ever opponent back in 2010 and over the course of this summer I worked very closely with him, having an extremely enjoyable series of matches and also tagging with him a couple times. Johnny is one of those guys who never has a bad match and could probably work a 5 star match with a broom handle. Our matches had positive reviews and I am extremely proud of every single one of them!

Of everyone you’ve met and worked with, who would you say you’ve learned the most from?

In this business everyone has travelled different paths, explored different avenues and seen different mile markers so the way that the system is networked, you’re constantly learning different things from everyone you come into contact with. I’ve learned valuable lessons everywhere I’ve been, from driving to venues all over with Kevin Williams in my early trainee days, to ending up at hotel bar in the middle of the night with Randy Valentine. I wasn’t even staying at that hotel, so I ended up being ushered out by the night porter! I’m still relatively young in my career, so I know I’ve got a lot to learn, but so far it’s been pretty amazing!

I’ve done a couple of interviews with Scottish wrestlers and Damian O’Connor’s name comes up quite a bit in terms of training. What do you think he does differently from others?

Damo is tremendous. Again, he’s someone I’ve only worked with once, but I absolutely enjoyed it. He took time after our match to go through everything with me, both positive and negative and a lot of guys won’t do that. For me, he’s one of the best heels I’ve worked against. I’ve watched the match back several times and we literally stood in the Menzieshill Community Centre in Dundee for 5 minutes in the ring without locking up because the crowd were so hot, they hated him! Heels like that make it easy as hell and it’s so enjoyable to perform when a crowd is so against them.

You’ve been recognised as the longest reigning SWE Future Division Champion. Just explain to our readers who might not know, what the Future Division Championship is and how tough it was to hang on to your belt for a year?

The Future Division is basically a no limits type championship. Any size, weight or shape can compete for it and it’s full of the most innovative wrestlers on the roster. It’s not just about high flying and backflips; it’s about creative offense and show stealing matches. I was lucky enough to hold onto it for a year and most of my best matches have happened when the SWE Future Division Championship has been on the line. From the 6 man Ladder Match at Hell for Lycra VIII, to the series I had with E.G Mackie after I lost the belt, and most recently, the Triple Threat ‘Anything Goes’ match with Martyn Stallyon and Johnny Lyons. That belt seems to bring the best out of people.

Is there anyone you haven’t had the chance to wrestle yet that you’d love to work with?

In the SWE, there are lots of guys who I’ve had very little ring time with who I’d love to compete against in the future, but the one person I’ve never had the opportunity to work against in a one-on-one match is Bravehart. He’s the alpha-face and current SWE Heavyweight Champion, so I think our different styles would mesh well together.

What’s it like to walk around backstage and see wrestling legends like Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper and Chavo Guerrero Jr? Do you get starstruck or nervous around them and how do they interact with the boys at the shows?

It’s an absolute honour and it’s all thanks to being part of the SWE. As a wrestler, I feel it’s important to talk to them and treat them as peers rather than run around backstage and behaving inappropriately, acting like a mark. It doesn’t reflect well on the company as a whole. To me, it’s about work when they’re here, so absorbing any information I can in regards to work and ring psychology is my biggest priority. When we’re out eating or on at an appearance, it’s also great to kick back and hear all kinds of awesome road stories they’ve got from over the years.

Let’s pretend for a second that I’m Vince McMahon. I call you up and say “I want to give you a match at Wrestlemania against any wrestler in the world, from the recent past or present”. Who would you want to face on that stage and why?

KENTA, because WWE needs a little Puroresu.

If there was one thing you’d want to be remembered for, what would it be?

Giving nothing less than 110% to the fans, whether it’s one man and his dog at the Highland Games, to 500+ at the Bonar Hall in Dundee. Always striving to have match of the night, and being a safe and enjoyable opponent to work with.

And finally, have you got a message for all your fans?

‘brose before hoes 😉

When I did the interview, it came across like Ian’s a really humble guy, who’s working hard every day to improve his craft. You’ll find that with a lot of wrestlers if you ever spend any time talking to them. Ian wasn’t any different. You can tell that he’s destined for big things the way that some of his colleagues have talked about him and for someone who’s still relatively green in terms of in-ring experience, that can only be a good thing. I also couldn’t have timed the interview any better with his final message for his fans, because Step Brothers was on TV this Monday! Haha..

Ian’s going to be in action for SWE this weekend as they hold two shows in Dundee over the weekend. The shows are called “SWE Superstar Challenge”, so if you’re in the area, be sure to check out the official SWE website at www.sweonline.co.uk. They’re also on Twitter @swe_online. Ian’s also on Twitter @IAmTheBrose. Follow him to keep up-to-date with his upcoming appearances and also, just for general banter!

The SWE Spotlight will continue next Wednesday, with someone that Ian spoke about earlier in the interview, the mysterious “Mr News”. All will be revealed, but not til next Wednesday, so make sure you come back then for the latest instalment of our SWE Spotlight. Until then, feel free to leave your comments on the interview below and we’ll see you back here next week!