During a recent interview with Sunday Night’s Main Event, WWE superstar Dolph Ziggler discussed everything from his own career to WWE as a whole. Ziggler recently returned to the company and took part in an extended feud with Kofi Kingston over the WWE Championship, but came up short in his attempt to win the big one.
On his time away from WWE:
“I asked for a specific time away to be off of television, because I thought my character had kind of done the same thing over and over, and maybe lost eight or nine and a half times out of 10, and we needed to get something fresh and different with it, so I asked for 90 days to go away,” Ziggler said. “I can’t sit at home. I’m a psychopath; I’ve been living out of a suitcase for 15 years.
“I also got to do some stand-up sets and do some other different things, and work with my brother on writing some other stuff, sketches, and improv stuff. I just needed to be away from television, character wise. I’ve been very lucky for 14 and a half years only missing a month, a month and a half off. The cool part was I have this other job where I can get better at that, while I’m refreshing my character.”
On his creative control:
“It was something that came up. I was kind of given that backstage I would say. You need different wrinkles and different chunks of your character. I couldn’t just leave for three months and come back saying ‘hey I’m a plumber nor, or I’m a vampire.’ You can’t do that. There’s been too much time affected character wise.
“That’s why I still had to come back as me, but also with the connotation of being genuinely jealous in real life of Kofi Kingston going to WrestleMania and winning the WWE title. So to that extent, I got to say ‘hey I hate this guy, and I want to take him down.’ The germ of that idea was from me.”
On being frustrated in WWE:
“It’s show business, of course it’s going to be frustrating. When you think you deserve to be champion, and you are not, and there’s a locker room full of 60 people who all think they should be champion and they’re not, it’s frustrating to the 59 people who are not champion. That’s life and you get used to it and you go here is where I can win my battles. I can go out there and show everyone how good I am, so if the right time happens, or the money has been put into the bank and needs to be withdrawn, I’m the guy for it.”
On being full time in WWE:
“I am full time, on the weekends, live events, TV, pay-per views, everything they ask me to do, I am there for it. You know what I really love doing? Is those weeks where I don’t go home. It’s a Saturday live event for WWE. Sunday live event for WWE. Monday live event for WWE. Tuesday SmackDown TV, and Wednesday when everyone goes home and I know everyone is going home, I love catching that early flight out, hitting a workout, and like what I’ll be doing in Appleton, Wisconsin on July 10 and 11th Wednesday and Thursday two stand-up comedy shows. Friday I go home for half a day to go pack and wash my clothes and go right back out to a WWE live event.”
Transcript courtesy of Wrestling Inc
