Dolph Ziggler has been under WWE contract for nearly 18 years. He's achieved almost every accolade you can imagine when you get into the WWE.
He's a former two-time World Heavyweight champion, two-time United States champion, two-time Raw Tag Team champion, former SmackDown Tag Team champion, former World Tag Team champion, former Money in the Bank winner, and six-time Intercontinental champion.
Fans were wondering what was left of Ziggler. Yes, he was having great singles matches and in a tag team with Robert Roode, where they did win the SmackDown Tag titles. But he hadn't been featured as a consistent main event player in a while. As he tends to do, "The Showoff" had another ace up his sleeve, and he arrived in NXT and won a triple-threat match on the March 8 edition of NXT 2.0 to become the new heavyweight champion. Ziggler is back in the main event and in a prominent role as he puts his title on the line this Saturday at NXT Stand and Deliver against Bron Breakker from the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The thought of winning another major world title is something that still blows Ziggler's mind.
"When you're a kid, you go, ‘Oh, Hulk Hogan is the champ or Ultimate Warrior’s the champ. I want to face him, and this will be great’," Ziggler told DAZN. "In my head, I go, ‘NXT, let me see what I can do. Let me see if there's anybody worth getting into a fight with or calling them up or getting a match’.
"Even when I was like, Breakker man, there's something special there. He needs a little time’. But man, he is good, special, explosive, and that spear hurts harder than any of them, and I’ve been speared by Goldberg. So I go, ‘There's something special. I wonder if I can get him up to Raw, and maybe we get a couple of matches, we'll see where he's at’. Then the next thing you know, it's a couple weeks later, and I'm the champion. So that's what blows my mind. I have a superior brain to many, not just in the business but in general. So when it comes down to it, I trick the kid into putting his title on the line to where he could lose the title without even getting the pin. If anyone's going to take a shortcut to steal a victory, you better believe it's me."
The thought of NXT hadn't entered Ziggler's mind too much as he was doing his thing with Roode on SmackDown. Then, one day, the 41-year-old had an idea to head to the black and gold brand, work with some of the talent and let WWE Chairman Vince McMahon know who was and wasn't ready to be called up to Raw and SmackDown. Much to Ziggler's surprise, he's been there longer than expected. He's enjoying the ride leading into Stand and Deliver. When the match with Breakker is over, Ziggler wants the wrestling world to remember his match and nothing that will happen at WrestleMania later that evening and the following day.
"First of all, Roode can do anything," Ziggler said. "He's a genius in the ring. He's jacked, and he backs it up and can do friggin anything. Putting the two of us together, I go, ‘Wow, we could be the opening match with (a) brand new tag team. We could be in the main event for 60 minutes with The Usos tearing it down. You name it. We could do it. So we go, ‘Oh, you know, wouldn’t mind checking (it) out. Anyone from NXT ends up having their first match with me anyway, including Robert Roode when he came up. So let's check this out. Let's see if anybody's got some up and comers back and report back to Vince; let him know this guy's ready to go, this girl's ready to go’.
"I just thought it'd be a couple of weeks and seeing where I could fit in and right away in Breaker’s face, and somehow I become the champion a few days later. It doesn't even make sense to me. But the idea of just being there, having that presence, and hopefully helping just even one or 10 percent more people get some eyes on NXT, then I've done my job. I don't want to stop there. I want to go to Stand and Deliver and have people walk out of Stand and Deliver going, ‘Man, I hope WrestleMania can follow that’."
Ziggler is winding down on a stellar pro wrestling career. Many would love to have the career he's currently had. However, he says he feels in the best shape of his life and isn't about to retire anytime soon. Looking at the position he's in, Ziggler views himself like one of the all-time great baseball players, which is a position he loves to be in.
"I’ve always been a bit of a player-coach, Ziggler said. "I enjoy that a lot. So when it down to it, that's like Charlie Hustle. It's Pete Rose, player-coach, and he's still the one leaping in the air and putting it on the line just to get to second base. Player-coach is the way to be. The day someone says (and) pulls me aside and says, 'It looks like you lost a step out there, or you didn't really have it tonight’, that will haunt me forever. Then I will have to go, ‘Ok, I gotta fix something or get the hell out of here’.
"But until then, I'm probably in the best shape of my life right now. I feel fantastic. I can go with anybody. I need people to be able to go with me. I think it's a surreal thing to have me as champ. But long term, this is a big win for NXT and myself, I think."
Breakker has wrestled in NXT for a little more than six months. Fans and pundits view him as a natural in the ring who could someday become a megastar. Despite only working with him for a short time, Ziggler sees what people are saying about Breakker.
"Having been in close contact with him for this one month, and I famously don't watch wrestling or NXT or anything," Ziggler said. "You see something in people's eyes, and whether it gets accomplished or not, you know that he's not ok with an A- match. He's not ok with, ‘Ok, I'm a little tired here. I'll just kind of phone this part in, and we'll get back to it’. He wants to be explosive at all times and prove that he should be there on his own merit. I love that. I can't wait to get hit with that spear, have the wind taken out of me, kick the hell out, and slap him around afterward.
"I think one day, of course, he has the tools and what you would say about anybody ever in developmental, but there's an explosiveness in him that I don't see in two-thirds of our roster."