Dolph Ziggler was a mainstay in WWE for two decades but was released by the company last September. It was clear for years that there were never any plans to push him as a top star again, a shame after his first run as World Heavyweight Champion was ended prematurely by a concussion following a memorable cash-in.
Now a free agent, Ziggler - who is using his real name, Nic Nemeth - began the next chapter of his pro wrestling career by heading to New Japan Pro Wrestling. He's since made appearances for TNA and will soon square off with David Finlay for the IWGP Global Championship at NJPW: New Beginning in Sapporo.
Talking to the NJPW website, Nemeth opened up on what it's been like to wrestle outside of WWE after such a long time spent working for the sports entertainment giant.
"The first six or seven years of my career, I would get to every Monday after Wrestlemania thinking, 'Well, this is the day when I’m gone!'" he said with a laugh. "So I would think about, 'OK, I can go back to school, go to law school, be a manager at Chipotle...' You start thinking about all these things and get ready to go so you’re not blindsided by being told you’re released."
"After about 10, 15 years of that, I started realising, 'OK I’m a mainstay here, I’m needed.' But I got to a point where I was ready to go. I’d asked the company a few different times whether I was ready to go, and they told me I was signed, and they weren’t letting me go," Nemeth explained. "So I started asking them, 'Hey, can I start doing this, can I start something else.' So I was prepared to be done and to start exploring other avenues."
It's likely WWE wouldn't release Nemeth because, after AEW launched, the company did everything within its power to stockpile talent and stop Tony Khan from scooping up any big names. AEW is no longer deemed a threat, so that's changed.
We've yet to see Nemeth declare himself "All Elite," of course, but he'd go on to reveal why he was ready to leave WWE.
"I spent the last six, eight months, a year, saying 'I’m going to be in the best shape of my life when all this goes down,' and when it finally got to the point where I asked (WWE) enough and they gave me my release, then it became 'OK, well you asked for this for the last five years, you’d better deliver."
"So, OK, I’ve got this, I’m doing this, I have insurance ready, I’ve been training in the ring, watching different things, and I’m ready to go. So let’s go."
What have you thought about Nemeth's post-WWE work so far?