Ambrose's WWE career has seen him characterized as unstable and unpredictable. Referred to as "The Lunatic Fringe" since his time in The Shield (taking the nickname from Cincinnati radio station WEBN, which itself got the nickname from the 1981 song), his gimmick is portrayed as a wildcard. Ambrose's gimmick has been compared to that of WWE Hall of Famers Roddy Piper and Stone Cold Steve Austin, drawing comparison to Brian Pillman and Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. Despite expectations that Ambrose would become one of WWE's next top villains even after The Shield turned into fan favorites, Ambrose's post-Shield run as a heroic character gained popularity, with him being cheered over fellow Babyface (heroic character) Roman Reigns when they faced off in three world title matches (Payback and Survivor Series in 2015 and Fastlane in 2016). Ambrose's popularity over Reigns has been especially reflective on the live event circuit, where Ambrose was drawing better on WWE's "B" circuit (usually in smaller markets) than Reigns as champion on the "A" circuit. Ambrose was voted as the Most Popular Wrestler of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers in 2014 and 2015.
Jonathan David Good was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 7, 1985. Much of his wrestling persona is based on his own real-life upbringing in Cincinnati's East End, where he spent most of his childhood in public housing. His father, who worked in Indianapolis 70 miles away, was largely absent in Good's life and Good has gone on to say that his biggest accomplishment since joining WWE was being able to buy a house for his mother away from the rough neighborhoods in Cincinnati. An avid wrestling fan who idolized Bret Hart as a child, Good used wrestling as an escape from his rough upbringing by immersing himself in wrestling videotapes and reading stories about wrestling's earlier days. A year after beginning to train as a Wrestler, he dropped out of high school, which he later compared to Peter Gibbons from the movie Office Space coming to work and "checking out".
Good is also known for his work on the independent circuit under the ring name Jon Moxley between 2004 and 2011. He worked for various promotions including Full Impact Pro (FIP), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Ring of Honor (ROH), Evolve Wrestling (EVOLVE) and Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), winning the FIP World Heavyweight Championship once and the CZW World Heavyweight Championship twice.
Good began working for Les Thatcher at the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) as a teenager by selling popcorn and setting up the ring before beginning to train at the age of 18 (Thatcher refused to train Good until he was 18 years old) as a professional Wrestler under Thatcher and Cody Hawk. Using the ring name Jon Moxley, he made his debut in June 2004. Less than a year into his career, Moxley teamed up with Jimmy Turner as Necessary Roughness and on May 11, 2005 they defeated the team of Extreme Desire (Mike Desire and Tack) to win the HWA Tag Team Championship. After Ala Hussein and Quinten Lee, who made up the team Foreign Intelligence, defeated Necessary Roughness for the HWA Tag Team Championship, Moxley started teaming with Ric Byrne in a team known as Heartland Foundation. They defeated Foreign Intelligence for the title on August 19, but were stripped of the championship for unknown reasons the same day.
In 2006, Moxley started challenging for the HWA Heavyweight Championship and he assembled a stable called The Crew which over time had Wrestlers like Sami Callihan, Dick Rick, Eric DarkSide and Pepper Parks. On May 9, 2006, Moxley beat Pepper Parks to win the HWA Heavyweight Championship and held the title for more than four months until he dropped it to Chad Collyer on September 12. Moxley regained the HWA Heavyweight Championship on December 30 by defeating Parks, but lost it on January 2, 2007 to Brian Jennings.
Moxley competed in two matches for Ring of Honor (ROH) in 2007. On February 23, Moxley teamed with Alex Payne in a losing effort against Bobby Dempsey and Rhett Titus in a dark match. On June 22, Moxley lost to Mitch Franklin in another dark match.
Moxley started working for Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) in 2009 and on November 28 he defeated B-Boy via submission in a dark match. Moxley continued to work for Dragon Gate USA in 2010 and on January 23 he defeated Darin Corbin in a dark match. Later that night, he attacked Lacey until Tommy Dreamer made the save. Moxley then teamed up with Brian Kendrick on March 26 in a match against Paul London and Jimmy Jacobs in which Moxley and Kendrick won. Following the match, Kendrick and London put Moxley through a table. On March 27, Moxley made his pay-per-view debut with Dragon Gate USA in Phoenix, Arizona, facing Dreamer in a hardcore match taped for Mercury Rising, which Moxley won. At the May 8 Uprising pay-per-view taping in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Moxley suffered an injury where his left nipple was nearly severed during a match with Jimmy Jacobs.
Moxley made his debut for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) on October 23, 2010 at Halloween Hell in which he defeated Devon Moore. On February 5, 2011, JAPW debuted in South River, New Jersey and Moxley became the newest member of the United States Death Machine.
At an FCW house show on October 21, Ambrose challenged WWE Wrestler CM Punk, who was making a guest appearance, to a match in which Ambrose was defeated in a 30-minute match, but was later paid tribute to by Punk. Ambrose's behind-the-back attack on WWE Wrestler and FCW commentator william Regal set up a match between the two on the November 6 episode of FCW, where Regal pinned Ambrose to win the match. Following the loss to Regal, Ambrose became obsessed about wanting a rematch and regularly taunted Regal by using Regal's finishing moves to win matches. Ambrose started appearing at WWE house shows in December 2011. At WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess in April 2012, Ambrose had a confrontation with veteran hardcore Wrestler Mick Foley, claiming that Foley needed to be held accountable for leading a generation astray. Ambrose continued his Verbal assault on Foley through Twitter and WWE reacted by "sending Ambrose home" from the SmackDown taping. Ambrose challenged old nemesis Seth Rollins for the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship on the June 24 episode of FCW, but Rollins defeated him. Ambrose finally received a rematch with Regal on the final episode of FCW on July 15, which ended in a no contest when Ambrose kneed Regal's head into an exposed turnbuckle, causing Regal to bleed from the ear, but after the match nonetheless applauded Ambrose and allowed him to deliver a running knee lift, which prompted the FCW locker room to get in the ring to separate Ambrose from a fallen Regal while commentators questioned whether Regal would ever be able to wrestle again.
In November 2012, Ambrose made his main roster debut at the Survivor Series pay-per-view event alongside Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, as they delivered a triple powerbomb through an announce table to Ryback during the triple threat main event for the WWE Championship, allowing CM Punk to pin John Cena and retain the title. The trio declared themselves The Shield and vowed to rally against "injustice", while they denied working for Punk, even though The Shield would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries, including Ryback and the WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane). This led to a six-man Tables, Ladders and Chairs match being set up for the TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view event on December 16, where Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns defeated Team Hell No and Ryback in their debut match. The Shield continued to aid Punk after TLC, both on Raw and at the Royal Rumble in January 2013. The night after the Royal Rumble it was revealed through footage that Punk and his manager Paul Heyman had been paying The Shield and Brad Maddox to work for them all along. The Shield then quietly ended their association with Punk while a feud with John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus led to a six-man tag match on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. The Shield had their first match on Raw the following night, where they defeated Chris Jericho, Ryback and Sheamus. They continued to feud with Sheamus, who formed an alliance with Randy Orton and Big Show to face off The Shield at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, where The Shield defeated the trio in their first WrestleMania match. The following night on Raw, The Shield attempted to attack The Undertaker, but were stopped by Team Hell No. This set up a six-man tag team match on the April 22 episode of Raw, where The Shield emerged victorious. Four days later on SmackDown, Ambrose made his singles debut against The Undertaker and lost by submission, but immediately after which The Shield attacked Undertaker and performed a triple-powerbomb on him through the announce table. On the April 29 episode of Raw, The Shield defeated Team Hell No and WWE Champion John Cena in a six-man tag team match. Later that week, Ambrose picked up his first singles victory by defeating Kane on SmackDown.
Ambrose made his televised debut on the July 3 episode of FCW where he challenged Seth Rollins, another prominent independent Wrestler. Ambrose and Rollins had their first match for the FCW 15 Championship in a 15-minute Iron Man match on the August 14 episode of FCW which ended in a draw with neither man scoring a fall, so Rollins retained the title. A subsequent 20 minute rematch for the title two weeks later resulted in a similar 0–0 draw. A second 30-minute rematch for the title on the September 18 episode of FCW went to a time limit 2–2 draw and the match was sent into sudden death rules, where Rollins scored a pinfall to win the match 3–2. Of note, an entire episode of FCW was dedicated to hyping and showing the third match in the series. Ambrose finally beat Rollins in a non-title match in the first round of the Super Eight tournament to crown the new FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion. However, Ambrose was unsuccessful in the tournament final as Leo Kruger won the fatal four-way match. Ambrose also cost Rollins his FCW 15 title by attacking Damien Sandow during his title match with Rollins, causing a disqualification in the deciding fall. Ambrose then unsuccessfully challenged Sandow for the FCW 15 title, before Leakee defeated both Ambrose and Rollins during a triple threat match to determine the number one contender to the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship.
Good is widely known to be a private person and does not use social media, stating in 2014: "I don't feel the need to open myself up to the opinion of everybody in the world with a phone or computer. I just don't get that; being connected to everybody on such a superficial level like that. It's not really for me". His official Twitter account has no recorded activity and its biography reads: "They made me get a twitter.....Fine....Enjoy".
In August 2014, Good began filming the Lionsgate-WWE Studios co-production Lockdown. The film was released on September 11, 2015.
1 ^ When Ambrose won the title, it was known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. It was then shortened to WWE Championship in the lead up to the 2016 WWE draft, where he was drafted to SmackDown with the championship. After the Raw brand created the WWE Universal Championship, the WWE Championship was again renamed to WWE World Championship.
Good resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is an avid fan of his hometown Cincinnati Bengals and Cincinnati Reds. In 2013, he began dating WWE announcer Renee Paquette, better known as Renee Young. They were married on April 9, 2017.
