For fans who have only gotten into professional wrestling over the last few years, it might sound strange to hear the name Dean Ambrose knowing that he is now one of the aces of AEW. However, the transformation into the man everyone knows as Jon Moxley today actually began when he made his return to WWE in 2018. During his time in The Shield, and even before his time in WWE, Ambrose was never in bad shape, but he was never shredded with a six-pack or had muscles the size of some people’s entire heads. He worked with a wiry frame on the indies to lean into his scrappy fighting style in the ring, which became a bit more defined in WWE when he was the mouthpiece for The Shield and eventually, the Lunatic Fringe.

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Ambrose suffered a triceps injury at the end of 2017 that kept him out for eight months, and when he strolled out on the entrance ramp of “WWE Raw” in August 2018, he had turned from the Lunatic Fringe to the Lunatic Fridge as he was a whole lot bigger than when people last saw him. Gone was the wiry frame, the messy hair and the clean-shaven face, the new version of Ambrose had a beard, short hair, and enough muscle to throw even the biggest of individuals through a brick wall.

The former WWE Champion got himself into great shape during his time away from the ring, but sadly his final run in WWE didn’t fill him with much excitement, leading him to let his contract expire in 2019, retire the Ambrose moniker all together, and bring a new era of violence to AEW, NJPW, and the wider wrestling world as Moxley.

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