Dolph Ziggler: I Didn’t Plan On Being NXT Champion, I Just Wanted To Scout New Talent

Dolph Ziggler has made more money by being NXT Champion and it wasn’t even in his plans to do so.

Dolph Ziggler expanded upon his already impressive resume by winning the WWE NXT Championship and now, he is poised to headline NXT Stand & Deliver against Bron Breakker.

Speaking about the sudden shift in his career, Ziggler tells WWE’s The Bump that he had no intention of ever becoming champion, he simply wanted to work with future Superstars and point out anyone that he would potentially see major Superstar potential in. 

“It’s pretty wild. You know, I don’t want to do like in character stuff but like, this is a cool moment. I’m slightly richer,” said Ziggler in jest. “I’m just kidding. It’s awesome. I had no idea I was going to be NXT Champion. I didn’t plan on it. All I wanted to do was check out some new talent scout amount, see who’s got what it takes to go to the next level at some point, maybe report back, say, hey, Raw, hey, SmackDown, hey Vince McMahon, I see something and these guys, these gals, they could do something big in the future. Let me get my hands on them and next thing you know, two weeks later, I’m the NXT Champion. I would say it’s crazy to me, but I guess I got like 30 or 40 titles.”

Comparing this title win to his 2013 World Heavyweight Championship victory, Dolph Ziggler says both moments are unforgettable, but at this stage in his career, he was starting to feel a little stale.

“The difference between those two, [that moment in 2013], I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. I won’t forget this one either because I didn’t plan on it. All I wanted to do was set an example and show everyone what I can do when I want to, and I caught everyone by surprise,” said Dolph. “I felt a little stale. I don’t ever get out of practice. I’m never out of shape. I will never ever be tired, even if I did a two-hour Iron Man Match for WWE, I will always be there to deliver 100%. I felt stale as in, you’d see me for 2 or 3 minutes on Raw and you would go ‘Oh, Dolph is pretty good. Aww, he got beat, okay.’ I said to [Bobby] Roode, ‘We are too good to just be sitting here,’ because you can’t stay complacent. The world’s definition of complacent is nothing like mine. I don’t sleep, I go to the gym, I stay awake, I applaud, I think, and that go we need to make something happen. Because it’s ‘What have you done for me lately?’ People can pat you on the back for something that happened eight years ago, but they want to know what you’re doing right now. ‘Why aren’t we talking about you?’, and you have to make them talk about you. You can’t just hope for the best, because no one else is looking out for you.”

To view the updated card for NXT Stand & Deliver, click here.

Keep track of everything happening on the latest NXT 2.0 by checking out Fightful’s live coverage. We also have a post-show review that immediately followed the conclusion of NXT 2.0.

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