Dolph Ziggler is always willing to step up when WWE calls upon him to do so, even if it doesn’t make any sense.
The former World Heavyweight Champion has been a mainstay in the world of WWE for some time, but despite his tenure with the company, he still feels the frustrations of someone who hasn’t been given many chances.
WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about struggling to find a role in the company, Ziggler recalled his time with the company in 2012, when he suddenly found himself thrust into a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match against then-champion Sheamus at No Way Out.
“So this will, I don’t know, maybe it’ll sound not bitter, whatever,” Dolph Ziggler said. “The rest of the interview is bitter; we will take a little break. But I feel I was never in their conversation to be their guy. I understand that.
“But I go every day. I can try and whittle them down, and maybe in five years; they’ll go hey, we got to let this guy go over. Or hey, in five years, this guy is ready. I know he’s not our top guy, but when this guy has knee surgery, he can slide right in there. And I go, that’ll be my chance, so just always be ready for that. And that happened a couple of times…I got put into a world title match against Sheamus.
“It was in the Northeast somewhere a long time ago. I’m basically wrestling on Superstars or getting beat by somebody in a couple minutes. Sheamus is World Heavyweight Champion and crushing everybody, and I don’t really talk on the show, anything. I get, ‘Who is it? Del Rio or Khali?’ Somebody gets taken out. And they go, ‘You’re gonna wrestle him,’ and we get one week build, and it’s like, I don’t even know what the goal is, just like I’ll see you, I don’t know.
So I go, this might be really bad, no one might care, I don’t know. If you check the footage, 19,000 People are chanting my name against the established World Heavyweight Champion. I’m a bad guy who doesn’t talk and loses every single match. And I go, ‘Whoa!’ There’s a clip of Lawler; he goes, ‘Do you hear these fans saying let’s go, Sheamus?’ I go, ‘Is that what they’re saying?’ But it was a fun match.
“Sheamus is fun, and we do crazy stuff. Anyway, so it’s like, that was really cool. But I was nervous that they weren’t gonna give one damn, because I mean…I deserve to be there, but on a television show, this character did not deserve to be fighting for the title. Story-wise, it didn’t make sense.”
Despite Ziggler’s hopes, the match didn’t change too much for him at the time, and while he may not be the focus of storylines today, he continues to be ready for anything the company decides to throw at him.
“So I was very nervous. I go, ‘Man, they’re gonna hate me, but let’s steal the show.’ We start, we kicked off the show. ‘Let’s tear it down, make them follow us,’ I go. And then, hopefully, maybe I won’t get booed out of the building, I don’t know,” Dolph Ziggler said. “But it was one of the hottest crowds other than working Cena in New York or something.
“But, it was amazing, and we had fun, and we beat the hell out of each other, and we didn’t steal the show, but we kicked some ass and kicked it off, right? And I go, ‘Man, maybe this will be the thing,’ and the next Monday, right back to business as usual. So that happens sometimes, I try and fight it, but I can only do so much. But I fight it screaming and yelling every single Monday, just so you know.”
READ MORE: Dolph Ziggler Thought He Was Getting Fired After ‘Debut’ Match With Batista
What do you make of Dolph Ziggler’s comments? Do you think WWE has underutilized Ziggler throughout his career? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit INSIGHT with a link back to this article for the transcription.
