Dolph Ziggler Talks His "Gradual" Downward Spiral In WWE
Dolph Ziggler recently spoke with NBC Sports to promote tonight's WWE Tribute to The Troops. The full interview is at this link and below are highlights:
Is there a certain point in time that you can point to where you say "this is where the downward turn started" or was it a gradual process? [being unhappy with the placement of his character right now]
"It was very gradual. It went from 'Wow, we have something special here with Dolph. The crowd is feeding off of him whether he's a good guy or a bad guy.' But after a while, a really good match here and there or a special moment here and there is not enough to create a star. So after a big match and then just going back to being Dolph, it's hard to not be Dolph.
"I've been very lucky in that I've been able to make the most out of those situations. Anytime people see me or the character, you can kind of see how they mesh together and I'm pretty sure there's nobody who blends that gray area with the character better than me. And that's a fact."
A few months ago when your entrance gimmick started I thought it was a bit odd, but then I started to realize that a meta-type character who understands his placement on the card and understands what the crowd pops for is perfect for this era. What are some things you're looking to explore with this character in the coming weeks?
"We've opened the fourth wall a lot with this business and we've let reality become a huge part of it, which is awesome. Being able to interact with fans every single day gives them the ability to know what's going on behind the scenes a little bit and you can actually use that as part of your character.
"It would be stupid to let them in on all of these different aspects of the show and then pretend that I win every night because then we're basically calling them stupid for believing that. But if I go 'Hey I don't win all of the time, but I'm really good and you know this and I know this' and one of the nights could be the time that we go with it and that's very realistic in this world. It's one thing to joke around with fans, but to disregard huge aspects of a career would be a mistake."
Is there something that you would change about your character right now?
"Yeah I'd be about three inches taller, so I could be a 10-time world champion (laughs). I'm a big 80s hair metal guy, like a David Lee Roth or someone like Nikki Sixx or Vince Neil to where I could put on a big show and be awesome at wrestling, but in this character right now where I focus on throwing that all away because I see the transparency in characters and my character hates on them.
"It's a special place that I get to go and I walk to the ring with disdain for the fans knowing that they sit there and bury everything that we do, but then they cheer for who their supposed to because they're such hypocrites it's so great."
Source: NBC Sports