Nic Nemeth looks back on his worst in-ring sell.
Many pundits have touted Nic Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziggler, as one of the best sellers in the professional wrestling business. During a recent interview with SHAK Wrestling, however, Nemeth recalled one of his less impressive sells, which he says came during a WWE live event.
“I was constantly being told by veterans that I’m giving too much to everyone and to not be so explosive when I take someone’s finisher or a move because it’s not doing myself a service, it’s helping somebody else out,” Nemeth said. “So I actively tried to not take a tackle as good as I could. It was like I hesitated and fell. I go ‘This is already wrong, I can’t do this.’
“Then somebody, I want to say it was like Kofi [Kingston] because I’ve taken 500 of his Kofi kick finish. I think he did the kick and I just kind of half [heartedly] was like ‘Ow’ and fell down. I got up and I’m so embarrassed that I had to stop myself from going ‘What!?’ like I got knocked out in an MMA fight. Because so many veterans pulled me aside, like old school, Hall of Fame guys, going ‘you have to do this’ and I tried it. I just couldn’t do it.”
Nic Nemeth Encourages Performers To Be Better Than Everyone Else
While the old-school veterans urged him to be more selfish, and less explosive in the ring, Nemeth’s boss at the time, WWE CEO Vince McMahon, instructed him to continue with his usual approach to selling, as it often made other performers look even better. Sometimes, though, Nemeth listened to neither of them, opting to go his own route.
“Sometimes, you can go above,” Nemeth added. “Like if you feel in your head ‘I got something special here, I can make it better,’ and you fight with the boss and it’s not going that way, you go ‘Screw it.’ Most of the time, you listen. Once in a while you just feel it and go do it, a lot of times when it comes to a promo it can help and it can work. But when it comes to your work, be better than everybody else, don’t worry about that, don’t apologize, and don’t listen to sh*t.”
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