Dean Ambrose Credits Cody Hawk For Building Him Into The Wrestler He Is Today

Dean Ambrose speaks highly of his first wrestling trainer.

Fresh off getting the internet buzzing with his “Jon Moxley Return” video, Dean Ambrose made an appearance at the Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion 2019 Awards. Ambrose was there to introduce Cody Hawk, who was receiving the Trainers Award.

In his introduction speech, Ambrose credited Hawk for giving him guidance and building him into the wrestler he is today.

“By the time I’m 16 years old and I walk through the doors of the Heartland Wrestling Association and meet Cody Hawk, I’m a very directionless, troubled young man with just about every kind of problem and social anxiety that you can imagine. I hated my teachers, I hated my coaches, I stopped going to school. The only thing that I liked was wrestling. I was obsessed and hellbent on breaking into this industry, I just didn’t know how I would start. I knew where I wanted to go but I didn’t know how to get there,” recalled Ambrose. “Enter, Cody Hawk. He was different than any other teacher or coach I ever had. He treated me with respect and more importantly than that, he took me seriously. Whether it was out of the goodness of his heart or whether he saw that drive and desire, for whatever reason, he took me under his wing and I became the Cody Hawk science experiment for the next few years. From day one with Cody, however much work and effort I was willing to put in, he would match it. He didn’t just show me the path. He walked the path with me.”

Ambrose continued, “After two-three years and thousands of hours of Cody putting his work in to develop me as his science experiment, eventually, that 16-year-old kid is doing 60-minute broadways. Eventually, I’m wrestling all over the country and all over the world. I was fortunate enough to have eight successful years in WWE. I’m of the belief that everything I’ve accomplished in this business and everything I have in my life, I share with the people who helped me along the way. Cody Hawk is at the top of that list.”

You can view Ambrose’s entire speech, and Cody Hawk’s acceptance speech, in the video above.