WEBVTT - A Deep Dive on Dolph Ziggler 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:09.760 M h. What's up, everybody. Welcome back to another episode. 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:13.440 Happy Wednesday to you all right here on Wrestling with 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:18.320 Freddy and you get story time with Uncle FP. And 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:24.280 today I'm dedicating the entire episode to one man, one 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:29.920 fine man, one fine American wrestling man who has the 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:34.120 worst name in the history of professional wrestling, now stumping 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:39.560 up for the mic of wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:46.440 Tune year, the amazing Dolf Ziggler. I was there when 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.840 they rebranded him from Nikki to Dolf, and we're gonna 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.920 get into all of that today and everything that he's accomplished. 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:55.639 And I love the dude. So this is gonna be 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.720 an ode to the Zigs. So I'm gonna take you 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:04.120 back back, way back to the year two thousand and eight. 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.000 I was a young man with far less gray hair. 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.319 I had already been at w w E long enough 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.399 that I had I had earned a couple of stripes, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.480 I had, I had made a couple of bones, so 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:17.240 to speak. And they were going to bring this guy 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.360 up from f c W, who they once knew as Nikki, 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.240 from the Spirit Squad. And the Spirit Squad was just 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:25.480 a group that took a whole bunch of bumps for 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.640 whoever the baby face was, and it would make the 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:30.959 baby face look great because they just beat up like 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.200 five guys and and he would take huge bumps like 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.960 he would sell crazy and still does to this day, 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.640 second to like Mr Perfect as far as his ability 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.320 to to sell in that style. Bran Gwertz was gonna 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.760 was sitting in front of the entire production meeting. This 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.800 is before a Monday night raw and so it's it's 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:54.520 go Worts, It's Kevin Dunn off on the side, Vincent 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.120 between them, and maybe Bruce Pritchard was there. I feel 0:01:58.160 --> 0:01:59.920 like there were four people up front and the rest 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.720 of us are all in in the by the tables, 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.280 all sitting in a group waiting for the meeting to 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.800 be over because they were three or four hours long. 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.280 Right during during this time period, they talked about the 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.600 debut of this new character and they want to give 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.240 him a name. They haven't even come up with the 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.400 name yet. There's been no discussion. It's the night he's 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.680 gonna debut, and they're just throwing any old name, any 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.360 old whatever they put on their their list in those 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.360 moments are the names they're thrown out, so no thought, 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.080 zero zero thought has been put into this. This was 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.520 the same thing they did to Jake Hagar and I 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.359 think he was a character named Jack Swagger and they 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.720 were like, well, Jimmy Swagger, that sounded cool, call him 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:43.640 Jack Swagger. And I put my hand. I was like, 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.600 that name sucks and we shouldn't do that. And I 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:52.080 was not hurt, nor were my ideas appreciated or wanted. 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.480 I'm sure they were worse. I don't remember what they were. 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:00.919 So Brian, who I love, he throws out the name. 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.440 I think he almost wanted to start with Dolf Diggler, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.240 like Dirk Diggler, and it was Dolf Diggler, and my 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.080 head almost hit the table. The way he would snap 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.639 a pencil in frustration whenever Vince would make him rewrite 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:18.919 a show the day of a show, because that's always 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.760 a good idea to do that. That was my feeling. 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.280 I finally experienced the pain that Brian was experiencing, only 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.200 it was now because of him. And sometimes the company 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.400 would do this, they would rib themselves without even knowing 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.840 they're ribbing themselves, and it was always something to me 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:40.240 that that made him struggle with credibility at times, because 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.480 it was I'm sitting there and I'm hearing this name, 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:47.000 Dolf Diggler, and I remember saying this. I said, who's 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.200 gonna take that seriously? Who's gonna take that seriously? And 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.880 it wasn't. He wasn't gonna be a comedic style wrestler. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.960 He was a serious athlete who could freaking move, and 0:03:57.960 --> 0:03:59.839 and he was gonna be billed as a as a heel. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.320 So I'm confused. I say, Yo, we can't do that. 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.920 And I straight up say, we're basically rip ripping off 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.280 Boogie Nights with Dirk Diggler, which was a movie Vince 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.560 had never seen, and so he didn't even acknowledge that. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.280 But they, okay, we won't do that. And so I 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.480 don't know if it was Brian, I don't know if 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.400 it was Vince. I don't know who the finals say was. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.080 You'll have to accost them digitally to find out. But 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:29.200 someone says, well, what about Dolph Ziggler, And again, UM 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:34.039 like that, No, that name sucks. You can't, you cannot 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.080 do that. This name sucks. What are your ideas? I 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.480 don't know. I'm probably throwing anything out there, John freaking Wayne, 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.279 I mean anything, just don't Sean Wayne. How about Sean 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.680 Wayne if you're gonna do Dolf Diggler. So it was 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.599 not a long argument. I lost quickly. I guess my 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.480 punishment for fighting the good fight was I was assigned 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:59.040 the segment to direct the or produced. They call it 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.400 the first I'm we're ever gonna meet this wonderfully named 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:10.320 wrestler superstar Dolph Ziggler. So I get the segment and 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.839 Vince tells me what it's going to be, and he says, 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.880 he's just gonna introduce himself. I said, what do you 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.520 I'm laughing, I said, what do you What do you mean? 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.520 What what does he What do you mean? He's just 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.280 gonna introduce himself Every every week, he's just gonna come up. 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.040 He's gonna say, hey, Dolf Zickler. It's gonna shake his hand. 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.760 I go, what what are you talking about. We're not 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.760 gonna just do that. That's a really short segment. We 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:37.880 won't even get uh you know it's not that's not 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.719 worthy to get on television. He goes, honest, he'll always 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.400 be interrupting people in conversation, like all right, so human 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.720 to have a couple backstage talent, having a conversation. He's 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:52.080 gonna come up, interrupt them, introduce himself, and then walk away. 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.240 And I pitch it like that, which is a pitch 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.200 off his pitch, and he laughs as if this as 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.880 if my idea was good. It was not good. He goes, yeah, yeah, 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.560 that's that's right. So now I'm sitting here, this is 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:11.359 an unsavable segment as far as what I'm capable of doing. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.159 There's nothing I can do to make the name work. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.839 There's nothing I can do to make the character work 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.920 because I'm not giving any freedom with who this man is, 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.840 where he came from, what motivates him, all the things 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.200 that make you say, the stuff that's gonna make you 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.000 a healer of baby face, all the words that you're 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.279 going to use in a promo. Because I get the 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:48.719 promo of Hey, Dolph Ziegler, I go up to Nick 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.479 and I kind of lay it out there, and he's 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.000 all for it. Man, He's game. He's down for whatever 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.440 he's hyped to be on the main roster. He's glad 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:04.240 to be it of the the Niki gimmick from the 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:08.080 Spirit Squad. I'm sure he wasn't stoked on the name either. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.760 We spent as little time speaking about it as possible, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:17.000 because I knew I certainly wasn't comfortable with it, and 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.840 I didn't want to make him any less comfortable with it, 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.440 So I said, look, you know, we gotta just sort 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.840 of commit to this and and and and go all in. 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:27.800 And it's one line, so at least you don't have 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.400 to worry about forgetting anything right. And he's like, and 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.480 he's cool, man, he's game like. He started coming to 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:34.760 that to the acting workshops right after that, which we'll 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.119 get into after this. So the first one we do, 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.360 they had a girl and she would come out and 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.800 she would sing so poorly that the crowd would start 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.680 booing and screaming, please, anyone just shut this woman up. 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.520 And then the baby face wrestler would come out and 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.000 slam her to the ground and shut her up, and 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.360 the crowd will go, yeah, hell, you saved her hair 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.120 drums right, very old school in real life. The girl 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.840 can actually sing like she's got pipes, so she has 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.440 to make herself sing crappy to to pull this gimmick 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.520 off week after week after week for as long as 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.800 she was there. And this gimmick worked for her for 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.560 for quite some time, so I have her speaking to 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.360 Jamie Noble. To know Jamie Noble for ten minutes is 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.480 to love this dude. He was a professional wrestler. He's 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:28.120 an agent now, meaning he helps. He helps choreograph the matches, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.480 he helps place the story within the choreography so that 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.959 they're actually they're telling you a story while fighting. And 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.400 when I say that, I mean things like he's working 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.959 on the leg. He's he's hitting him with leg kicks 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.240 when the wrestlers down, he's stomping on the leg, and 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.520 he's his focus is there one because maybe the guy's 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:51.720 got a knee brace on or to his submission hold 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:54.800 is some sort of knee bar or figure four leg 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.480 lock or ankle hook. He'll hook something like that where 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.000 the knee is gonna give, so he's softening it up. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.240 And that's the story that they're telling in the rings. 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.360 So that's what Jamie would do, and he would try 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.719 to sneakily implement little m M A things and successfully 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.120 did so when he was there. Even though Vince hated 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.560 that stuff. Jamie found like slick ways to get it 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.720 in and it always looked great when when Jamie was involved. 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.120 But at this point in time. He was a wrestler 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.760 who wasn't gonna get another run, but always gave you 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.440 a solid match and was like people respected him. All 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.920 the wrestlers respected him, and I could see that instantly, 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.600 so he could talk on the mic a bit. If 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.440 you knew him from the old days, he came off 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:38.800 as this like crazy tough, like little Man's complex firecracker 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:42.720 from West Virginia. And I had him talking to Jillian. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.760 I think he was like maybe throwing some game at 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.240 her or something like that, and she was singing, and 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.160 all of a sudden, here comes Dolf. I have him 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.520 basically like in a two shot that's off on the side, 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.240 like from a Japanese horror film, basically so that we 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.679 can pan off a little bit camera left, which would 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.160 be what the actors would see as the right side, 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.160 and that's gonna reveal Dolf. And then I'm gonna let 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.160 Dolph's movement bring the camera back to Jamie and Jillian. Right. 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.320 I'm doing like everything I can to make this have 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.280 some like ounce of quality, Like what what can I do? 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.520 I can't write anything here anyway. Dolph leads back into 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.559 the two shot, which now becomes a three and it's 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.400 it's their cowboys, which means it's that they're at their waists. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.960 And he just comes up and interrupts him. He says, hey, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.880 Dolph Ziggler, shakes his hand and he walks away, and 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.360 and Noble just goes looks at him. I think he 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.600 says like, I know who you are or something like 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.679 I don't remember. I've been trying to delete this. And 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:48.040 he storms off and we get the segment approved. I 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.080 had to get up, I had to get I had 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:55.440 to get approval for a segment that had two lines. 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.640 I had to get approval for a segment that had 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:07.880 to frigging lines. It's not embarrassing, it is infuriating. So 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:13.000 it gets approved. And the like the backstage producer, the 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:17.280 one who's in charge of wrangling your crew and uh 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.200 and getting your tape to the truck. I'm not gonna 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.319 throw him under the bus and and put his name 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:23.920 out there, but I say, hey, you got it. You 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.080 got the segment. He goes, yeah, we got it. It 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.120 never gets to the truck. And I found out later 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:30.880 that it was on purpose. This guy was like trying 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.240 to sand bag me a lot. But it never gets 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.640 to the truck. The segment doesn't air, and I'm catching heat, 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.520 and I'm told by one of the guys that works 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.959 with this, one gentleman in particular, who tried to sand 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.880 bag me, he said, no, it's the it's the writer's 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.160 job to get the to get the tape to the truck. 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.840 I go, that's ridiculous. That is the last responsibility. That 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.400 is the writer's job. That has nothing to do with 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.720 the writer's job, and that's your job. What the hell? 0:11:58.400 --> 0:11:59.839 And then they kind of blew it off and there 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.160 I go, well, it got lost, man, it just got lost, Like, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.160 oh yeah, that's a completely different story. So what the hell? Man, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.400 why am I getting lied to? I don't have time 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.600 to just screaming everybody that needs to get screamed at 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.320 because the show's over. Vince's yelling at me. I gotta 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.280 get into damn limo and fly to the next city 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.040 with him. So I don't even like get my chance 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.079 that the equal and opposite reaction. I only get the action, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.280 and it's all on me. It's like throwing a rubber 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:28.680 ball into a wall and has to take all that 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.400 energy from the wall that you know hurts the poor 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.439 little ball, and instead of getting to reverse that energy 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.679 as you just stuck in the wall, right, and the 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.200 wall is Vince's jet and it's not big enough to 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.400 get away from him. So I just have to hear 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:43.520 you know, what the hell you ruin? This ruined that. 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.559 I'm like, how did? How did I The one person 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:52.120 that can't possibly be the two people that can't possibly 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.320 be responsible for this getting ruined is Dolf and me, 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.280 Like what the hell are you talking about? So week 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:05.720 goes by, they miraculously fine the tape and oh oh 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.360 they found it the next week and now it's gonna 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.640 go in. So they tried to even get me to reshoot. 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.960 I was like, no, we have it, just air it, 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.560 and uh I was oh so mad. So they air 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.480 it and it's the first time you see Dolph and 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.120 he goes in and he does his Dolph zig look thing, 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:26.440 and I remember sitting there going he's dead before his 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.160 career even got started, Like that's that's crazy, like this, 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:35.320 you can't do business like this. So flash forward now 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.480 a couple of months. He's done the introduction thing over 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.720 and over and over again. He's had a few matches, 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:50.439 and the dude is good, real good. He starts coming 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.199 into like the acting workshop because he knew a lot 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:54.720 of the young cats that were in there. He was 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.160 he was within that that group, the Muses and all 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.679 those guys and Cardonas and all that. He used to 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.520 pull some pretty great pranks on Cardona. But uh so 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.400 he starts coming in there and he's doing scenes from 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.480 bad Boys to soap Dish, to Clue all the way 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:17.440 to Malice with Alec Baldwin and he does the speech, 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.880 the monologue, the promo that was famous in that movie 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.280 where Alec Baldwin is like, I am board certified in 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:30.200 fifty seven of fifty states. When you see that mother 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.880 praying to God? Who do you think she's praying to? 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.640 And then he ends it with you think I have you? 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:37.680 I don't remember the line exactly, was like you asked 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.720 me if I have a God complex? I am God? 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:44.200 And it's so overdramatic, but it's Alec Baldwin. So when 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.200 he commits to it, it works, right. Dahl says, I wanna, 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:49.880 I want to try that that monologue, and he freaking 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:54.520 kills it. He freaking kills it, So I don't know. 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:58.880 Ten years later, I'm way out of the company and 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.600 this fool pull that exact promo on Instagram in black 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.240 and white, and he's just, I mean, nails it. This 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:09.720 dude's had it in his hit Sorry for ratting you out, 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.680 but he's had it in his head for ten years, 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.400 just rolling it around. How many different ways can you 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.920 do it? In ten you I don't even know? And 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:20.760 he just killed You could see it on his Instagram 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.200 if you probably scroll way down and he just kills it. 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.880 And then I start watching the storyline they have for 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.480 him with him and miss where he's gonna straight leave 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.480 the business if MS can beat him, and the promos 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:37.840 he's putting out are high level, and I'm sitting there like, dude, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.000 what this guy is killing it? And at this point 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:47.200 he's become one of the more respected wrestlers in the 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.880 in the world, Like wrestling magazines had him as like 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.480 a top ten dude at one point, most improved, hottest 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.320 wrestler coming up, Like all these magazines had love for him. 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.400 And I'm sitting there, you know, ten year is removed 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:04.200 from the company, and there's people out there screaming Dolf Ziggler. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.080 There's people out there with Dolf Ziggler signs with DZ 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.560 signs with all these girls out there with hearts and 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.720 d Z, I love you, marry me, take me to 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.680 the prom, take me, take me some, take me anywhere. Dolf. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:25.320 And he got so over with the worst name in 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:32.520 wrestling that the name became special and you just naturally 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.200 call the guy Dolf and it doesn't feel weird and 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.000 it doesn't sound weird. I put him as a character 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.480 in my supermanga Baseball three baseball game, except I don't 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.880 do gimmick infringement, so his name is Zolfdiggler, not Dolf Ziggler, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.920 because we don't rob people's creativity on my xbox. But anyway, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.680 I'm sitting there and I'm like, this man's work, and 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:57.840 let me tell you something. If you don't watch wrestling, 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:03.320 just YouTube Dolf ziggler greatest matches or Dolf Ziggler's best moments. 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:09.720 This dude's work is so clean, so clean, and he 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.359 comes off like a new school Mr Perfect right, which 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:15.679 I feel had to be a huge influence on it, 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.400 because he sells, meaning when he takes damage from his opponent, 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.920 he sells very much like I mean, almost identical to 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.919 Mr Perfect. Kurt Handick. Rest in peace for those who 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:39.159 don't know everybody listening knows. I know, you know, his 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.239 promos caught up to his wrestling, But his wrestling was 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.240 so amazing, and I remember the moment. I remember the 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:52.920 exact moment when he was gonna become World heavyweight champion 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.879 because I was freaking in guerrilla when it happened. So 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.639 check this out. We get to it was a it 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.520 was a Friday Nights or SmackDown was on Thursdays then, 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.240 but we all recognized it as as Friday Night SmackDown 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.840 now and we shot it on Tuesdays. It wasn't a 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.280 live show, so it was the show no one cared about. 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.840 The the child that the parents neglect. The show was. 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.960 The scripts weren't even read till the day of the show. 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.200 And it's not because the scripts were late. They were. 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.840 They got in the same day as Ross. It just 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.399 no one cared about it. It was this secondary licensed 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:29.520 show that was like, well, we can just put it 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.199 on this network, we can put it on that network. 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:33.120 We can We'll never move Raw, but we can move 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.199 this show anywhere. Whoever is going to give us the 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.159 biggest check and they would just do one year licensing deals. 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.240 To to the best of my memory, I think that's 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.080 what they would do. Maybe it was two years. Yeah, 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.800 I think it was two years, and no one cared. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:48.520 It sucked. It was one of the reasons why when 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.119 I think I said this in another episode when I 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.159 came back the second time, Stephanie told me she was 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.840 disappointed that I that I left the first time I left, 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.119 and that she was getting they were getting ready to 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:04.240 give me SmackDown to run the show. Whether this is 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.200 true or not, this is what This is what she said. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.160 And I remember in my head thinking like I would 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.480 have quit even sooner, Like, no, who wants that job? 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.120 You don't care about that show. It's like a developmental 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.719 place for for people to get over and then you 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.800 pluck him and put and put him on the live show. 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.000 So it was that's what we were going through. And 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.679 I had a lot more time to do my promo 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:33.240 class on Tuesdays than on Mondays because again they just 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:35.560 didn't care. So I got a lot more time with 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:38.840 the talent, and Ziggler would be in there all the time, 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.920 and I'm telling you, man, like he was doing two 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.320 person scenes, one person monologues. He was trying stuff that 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.080 other people wouldn't try, and he would grow man. He 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.840 was growing, but nobody would give him the big promo. 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.240 They gave him a mouthpiece. They gave him Vicki Guerreiro, 0:19:55.040 --> 0:20:01.200 and Vicky is a staple and a foundational p for 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.919 a lot of Latino fans and fans in general because 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.760 of the connection with Eddie, who everybody loved. No matter 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.320 who you were, where you were, nobody ever goes minutti 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.680 Guero wasn't that good? Like that sentence has never been 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.040 uttered outside right now in pure jest. And if I 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.000 ever hear anyone say that, I will ridicule them into oblivion. 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.000 So she had a lot of credibility. Chavo then came 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.199 with that, and they were sort of the mouthpieces for 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.280 dolf in the in the early goings. Every once in 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:32.840 a while he would get to speak a little bit, 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.080 maybe on the road and the house shows. He was 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.840 getting more opportunities because there's no cameras there and that's 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.200 a good place to experiment. But to my knowledge and 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.880 while I was there, it just wasn't. He didn't get 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:48.760 that much to say. So He's gonna wrestle Edge and 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.359 I have the next segment after the match. It's like 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.560 an in ring thing with with Santina Morella, and I 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.199 think Coslaw, who is this big Russian dude who was 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.080 like a legit tough guy from Eastern year. I don't 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.320 know if he was Russian, but like Eastern Europe where 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.439 you would say things like hey man, hey Coslave, I 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:10.040 bet you broke a lot of arms over there people 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:12.320 owed money and he'd be like, no, come on, don't joke, 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.399 don't joke, and you'd be like, oh, oh, oh, shitt 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.560 he actually he's actually bussed arms, my man, bro Hey Coslve, 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:21.600 I love you man. Watch this Richard prior tape with me. 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.760 I loved Goslve. He was he was great, but he 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:29.640 lived in real life. So anyway, I had that bit 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:31.879 and it was like a comedy bit because Santino was 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:33.760 it it and he always killed. You didn't have to 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.679 write for Santina. We did. But anything he wanted to 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.359 change unless Vince said no, he would just change and 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:42.560 crush it and it was always way better. I'm in 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.560 there waiting to go and they're doing the big finish 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.160 and they probably had a good eighteen minute match something 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.680 like that. Edge gets the wind and he comes backstage. 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.840 Ziggles is still selling in the ring, you know, from 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.120 the from the spears. Oh god, I got spared. And 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.600 Edge comes back in and he looks at Vince and 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.840 Vince goes well and Edge goes, yeah, man, that kid 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.640 can work. He called him a kid. He goes, yeah, 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:10.240 that kid can work, and Vince goes he's good and 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.040 Edge goes, yeah, man, he's real good. And he walked 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.359 out and I was like, holy crap, dude, Like that 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.080 was that's a big that's a big, big deal for 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.159 a top guy a to just say, yeah, I'll wrestle 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.800 his dude on TV. Even though he's gonna get the win, 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.120 he's still gotta it's a let's see what you got. 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.679 So he's gotta let Dolf get some get some action 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.159 on him, right. So a lot of guys wouldn't do it, 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.720 but Edge and and like movies and stuff, he's credited 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:40.360 as I think Adam Copeland. Um is this humongous Canadian 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.080 Viking dude. He's like six six, super handsome. He's got 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.280