Dolph Ziggler has been in WWE for 15 years and he's still relevant and putting on great moments.
After helping make one of WrestleMania 36's magical moments between Otis and Mandy Rose, the 39 year old has now come over to RAW to challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE title.
It was only in 2018 when McIntyre and Ziggler were the tag team champions and their chemistry was evident from the jump, so their title match at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules has all the recipe for an intriguing contest.
In past interviews with talkSPORT, Eric Bischoff has stated that if he started a wrestling company today, Dolph Ziggler would be top of his list.
Ric Flair has said that when talking about the best wrestler in the world today, Dolph Ziggler has to be in that conversation.
talkSPORT caught up with Ziggler ahead of his title shot and we discussed his wider, storied career.
On having good chemistry with Sonya Deville and stopping it too soon
Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. And sometimes we make it happen eventually over a few months, but right off the bat we had chemistry to where it worked and if this was a year ago, pre-covid times and we were doing live events, five nights a week and getting even more chemistry, we would have been this back-and-forth, just giving each other a look and knowing where the other one is going.
But it was a really cool group, and I mean that all together. Otis has something special going on. Otis and Mandy are something special. Otis and Mandy versus Sonya and myself is something special.
That really could have gone on for a long time but, it's show business and [snaps fingers] they want to go somewhere else and you go 'OK, time to adjust and see what I'm doing.'
We hit it off. All three of them in that group, excluding myself, were young up and comers and they all wanted things to be great.
They all wanted to dig their teeth and nails in and go 'how can this be better? How can this be great?' Sonya was like 'How can I punch her in the face like this!' [laughs].
To see that in their eyes made it so much better. It was like 'they want to make something special here, they're not just throwing in the screw.' So it really could have been a long term thing.
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I just pictured longterm.. Sonya and myself, whenever we talked - and we only had a couple of weeks of it - but you could just feel it between us, we had this goal and something special was happening and I just pictured down the road: Myself, Robert Roode and Sonya coming out, black tie, suit and shades on with all the titles on our shoulders and I said 'this could be something special' but we never got to do it.
But, that's life in show business.
On wanting to working with real life close friends The Miz and John Morrison on SmackDown
Maybe if I owned the company [I could make that stable.]. Hey, my friends are here, I'm just going to be on there team! [Laughs] But that's not how it works.
There was a handful of times where we were working together and we did a couple of backstage things. It was like this is really, really easy to turn into a team just like that [snaps fingers]. As usual, there's other things going on and there's other factors. The goal is something else and you go 'OK, we just showed you the chemistry we have here and what we can do, but no problem.'
It's one of those things and maybe we go back to it, we really could.
In one day, we did like a two minute thing where we talked to each other and then we were a six-man team. We were tagging and laughing and I go 'this is just the first day! This is something that could easily be special without us even knowing.' So maybe we'll go back to it, I would love that.
On the disparity in praise he receives from names like Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair to the success he believes he should have attained in WWE
100 percent, yeah. It's too bad Bischoff and Flair don't own the company because then maybe I'd be Randy Orton! But that's how it goes. Too bad it's not 1997 and I'd go down to Atlanta and and say let's reform NWO [laughs].
Hearing that from them is fantastic. Bischoff has an amazing mind for the business. If you listen to him, he knows facts, what's really happened, he knows the business behind the camera and in front of it.
Ric Flair, one of the greatest of all F'n time and a friend of mine. To get that praise from him, it will never, ever get old because I see him as one of the greatest that have ever done it.
And he's still going today! He's going to outlive us all somehow! The last few weeks, because we've been in Orlando, I've had the chance to hang out with him and have a couple of soda pops after the shows and it is my absolute favourite thing to do.
It kills me when you know there's legends in the business and your name is always on a shortlist [of greats], but you're not necessarily thought of that way at your job. It kills me. Every single day.
But, I find a way to defend it by if you give me five minutes, I'll go make this the best five minutes there is. One day, I'll be like 'hey, listen. I'm done. I'm not coming back anymore.' And they'll be like 'Oh, but we need you for the next 10 years!' And you go 'well, you should have listened to Bischoff and Flair' [laughs] No, I'm just kidding.
One day, you have to be gone to notice what they're missing and I'm rarely ever fricking gone! At some point, you'll find out how needed you are, but I'm not there yet.
I still love doing what I do and hearing that praise because it's stuff like that that keeps you going form the people you look up to.
On if there was ever the thought for his character to more closely portray the decorated amateur wrestler he was
One time a long time ago, I was told the reason I'm not credible for world championships - this is 10 years ago, maybe longer, whatever - the reason I'm not credible enough to be winning world championships is because of my hair.
Not because I get beat up, not that I lose every match, not that I don't talk - it was because of my blonde hair.
So it got cut short and dyed black and I was serious, I went out there and beat the hell out of Santino and it was the dumbest thing I've ever done. I didn't want to do it.
I said this isn't me, we can find a way to introduce more of my shooting background and things - nope. That's what they wanted [the hair cut]. Then after three weeks they said 'oh, our bad.'
Sometimes people don't see [it]. How about I just beat some people up sometimes? Or won a couple matches? Or talked? Or talk like I am right now and defend myself and say hey, I should be out here tying people in knots, winning world titles, getting on the microphone, hopping on a jet, doing a press conference and strutting away with Ric Flair!
And they go yeah, but... I dunno. We should just cut your hair.
Dolph Ziggler explains why WWE have not announced the stipulation for his match against Drew McIntyre yetSo I tried to get out of it as much as I could, but sadly, I guess that's the vision that they have and you have to go with that and try and fight them every single day and I do fight the good fight behind the scenes and in the ring every damn day.
You can watch Dolph Ziggler take on Drew McIntyre at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules on BT Sport or sign up to the WWE Network
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