Dolph Ziggler Says If It Wasn’t For The Spirit Squad He Wouldn’t Be Nearly As Good As He Is Today

Dolph Ziggler reflects on his time as a male cheerleader in WWE.

Dolph Ziggler is the only member of the Spirit Squad still competing at a high level in professional wrestling. Kenny, Mikey, Johnny, and Mitch have all gone their separate ways with Ken Doane, once considered to be the breakout star of the group, recently announcing his retirement.

Reflecting on his time in the Spirit Squad, Dolph Ziggler told Ryan Satin on the Out Of Character podcast that had it not been for that year as a Spirit Squad member, Dolph Ziggler would have never been as good as he is today no matter what.

Ziggler says that working with legends like Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair on television and at house shows allowed for an invaluable number of experiences that some Superstars don’t get to ever have.

“Once you start to realize, not just on television, being in the ring was Shawn Michaels. Vince McMahon, Triple H, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, anyone you can imagine — getting those few minutes on TV, that juicy TV time is amazing and you learn, but our live events on the weekends where we got Ric, and Shawn, and Hunter rotating in and out tagging us tagging against us three, four nights a week and the main event of the show. That is where you learn so much.

“No matter what, at first, you’re crushed, and then you get to like, ‘I’m in the ring with Shawn Michaels. I’m in the ring with Ric Flair and I’m putting him in a Figure Four right now. This is unreal,’ as a kid. So when you get to those points, those long main event matches, because of that Spirit Squad one year, I am ten times better than I should have been no matter how hard I tried. Because of that experience with all those legends, there’s no way you can ever replicate that in a school or even on television or just wanting to be a cool character instead, there’s no way.”

Elsewhere on the same podcast, Dolph Ziggler further explained his relationship with Vince McMahon that grew because of all that time working so closely together. Learn more here.

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