Dolph Ziggler Talks Longevity In WWE, Discusses What He Learned During His Hiatus From WWE

Dolph Ziggler reflects on over a decade on WWE TV.

Dolph Ziggler recently spoke to Mirror in the UK about his longevity in WWE. Ziggler has been on TV consistently since the fall of 2008. Before being handed this character, he was a member of the Spirit Squad in 2006.

“A lot of it is luck because injuries, no matter how good you are, can put you on the sidelines,” he said. “No matter how good you or your opponent are, you can step on the mat wrong and tear your ACL. So a couple of those add up, and they don’t trust you anymore and you can’t do certain things.

“But also being able to adjust at all times and being ready to go whether you’re being a glorified enhancer talent or someone that’s told ‘we’re going to revamp the entire tag-team division, starting today, with you and this tag partner that you’ve never wrestled with, and you’re going to do 45 minutes tonight and it’s going to go on and on, go!’ and you can do it and not have them go ‘he wasn’t really ready for that’. You’re always prepared for any possible role. I can talk on TV, I can make it funny, I can do a behind the scenes interview on the fly, I can go talk to investors, to kids, to an anti-bullying rally. You can do all those things, something Miz has made an entire career out of, I can do that, plus the good wrestling.”

Dolph did finally take some time off earlier this year after he was on hiatus until After WrestleMania, when Kofi Kingston needed an opponent for a WWE Championship match at WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia. Ziggler spoke openly about learning a lot during his time off. 

“I learned shit. I learned that I needed a vacation after 14 years,” he quipped. “After about 11/12 years non-stop, and being one of the people like Kofi and Seamus and Miz that did five days a week, every week for a couple of years in a row, and then we’re doing the rallies and PR.

“I said I’ve been too lucky with injuries, that fans have now seen me every single Monday or Friday – or whatever our schedule was – I worked 10 years in a row without a break. Miz gets a break to do a crappy movie. Someone else gets one because they get hurt, someone for something else, I thought ‘they’ve seen me so much, I’m taken for granted, there’s no excitement to seeing me 200 times in a row.’

He continued, “So I go, ‘I have to go away.’ For a year or two, I kept getting told ‘sure’ and then right as I was getting ready to go, they said ‘we need you’. I’ve never heard ‘we need you’ more than anything from any other company my whole entire life, but it’s so great to hear, to know that I’ve made an entire career out of them needing me to be here.”

Currently, Dolph is a member of the WWE SmackDown brand, teaming with Robert Roode. you can catch them every Friday at 8 PM Eastern on the Fox Network.