WWE Rumors: Injuries Give Dean Ambrose The Chance To Have Stone Cold Steve Austin's Rise To The Top

A great man once said, "Only three things can survive a nuclear holocaust: cockroaches, Twinkies and Dean Ambroses." Oh, wait, Dean Ambrose said that.

I am not sure if that is actually true, and I hope we never find out, but I do know one thing: Dean Ambrose has an opportunity to rocket to the top of World Wrestleling Entertainment much like Stone Cold Steve Austin did back in 1997.

Austin had his classic match with Bret "The Hitman" Hart at WrestleMania 13, which resulted in the rare double turn. Austin became a fan favorite and Hart became a heel, at least in the United States. When Austin got injured later that year, fans clamored for him even more and WWE smartly kept him on TV to sate the appetite of fans for the Texas Rattlesnake.

So when he came back and delivered a Stone Cold Stunner to Vince McMahon, the crowd went bananas.

Ambrose is in a similar situation now. He was off for a month to film the WWE Studios movie Lockdown, but in the storyline he was "missing" after Seth Rollins Curb Stomped his head through a pile of cinderblocks. When he returned at Night of Champions Sept. 21, the crowd once again went bananas.

Ambrose is a combination of Austin and the Rattlesnake's former tag team partner, Brian Pillman. He has the crazy eyes and unhinged personality of the latter, but he couples that with the "I'll attack whoever is in my way just for the hell of it" attitude of Austin. Ambrose has no problem swinging wildly at Rollins and has what has become an unhealthy obsession with beating the tar out of his former best friend.

But on WWE Monday Night Raw this week, he also made it clear that he would take on John Cena if the 15-time world champion got in his way. Austin was the same way. He did not care if the man standing across from him was a good guy or a bad guy. He just had ass to whoop.

Now, Ambrose has the chance to have a similar rise to the top. I am not saying Ambrose will reach the stratosphere that Austin did, but he could easily climb to the top of the WWE mountain within the next several months, and he is already on his way there. On Monday night, he and Cena drove off Randy Orton, Kane and Rollins to stand tall in the ring, but we did not hear Cena's "you're time is up, my time is now" entrance theme to close the show. Instead, we heard Ambrose's.

Also, let's just take a quick sidebar here to talk about how great Ambrose is at his craft. After Triple H and Stephanie McMahon locked him in a room earlier in the night, Ambrose found his way out and hid at ringside under a box that presumably contained more cinderblocks to use on Cena. When Kane lifted the box, Ambrose popped out and went to town.

Fans' imaginations ran wild with humorous theories of how Ambrose turned into Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Did he crawl through air ducts? Does he actually have magic powers? But Ambrose cleared the whole thing up during Miz TV on WWE Main Event when he matter-of-factly remarked, "There was a back door. I'm not Houdini." Amazing.

Anyway, the consensus among fans is WWE was grooming Roman Reigns to take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 31 to cement Reigns as the next major star. Unfortunately, Reigns had emergency hernia surgery just before Night of Champions, so his near-term future is questionable. So who could possibly legitimately challenge Lesnar for the title? Let's look at the list.

Cena? Lesnar demolished him once already. Cena gave it his best effort in Round 2, but Lesnar still walked out with the belt.

Daniel Bryan? Injured.

Reigns? Injured.

Big Show? Lesnar pummeled him into the mat at the Royal Rumble.

And nobody else fits the bill. Any other babyface you could mention is not high enough on the card to justify the match. Ambrose, however, has been near the top of the card for months on end and has the undivided support of fans — and the pops are growing each week.

Ambrose could conceivably work his way up The Authority like a Mortal Kombat ladder until he gets a shot at Lesnar. After all, he is the only man I can think of who would be crazy enough to take on the Beast Incarnate.

Do you think Ambrose can rise to the top? Let us know in the comments section.