Independent wrestling promotions often emulate the themes and characters of World Wrestling Entertainment, but emulation became pure plagiarism last night when fledgling indy league AEW (American Empire Wrestling, presumably) debuted a character that is a complete rip-off of Dean Ambrose.

Calling himself “Jon Moxley,” the impersonator is quite good at mimicking the facial expressions and mannerisms of Dean Ambrose, who is currently on a hiatus from WWE to complete his doctoral thesis in neuroscience.

Fans in attendance at AEW’s “Double Your Pleasure” event last night in Reno booed loudly when they realized “Moxley” was just an Ambrose wannabe, but viewers watching the livestream heard cheering overdubbed by producers.

The lookalike managed to fool many casual fans into thinking he was actually the real Dean Ambrose repackaged with a new name, but sources close to Ambrose confirm he spent last night performing a solo piano recital of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 2 for his chamber music society.

The closest “Jon Moxley” has ever come to mainstream stardom is his performance in the CZW Ultraviolent Tournament of Death, in which he suffered an electrical saw attack to the forehead (see video below).

AEW may be a stepping stone to bigger things for Jon Moxley, but only if he can stop playing copycat and develop a persona that is truly his own. A hip-hop dancer, perhaps. That would be cool.

 

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