Ziggler Was Nervous Returning To WWE After His Hiatus
In an interview with The News-Press, Dolph Ziggler admitted that he was actually nervous before returning to WWE after his two-and-a-half hiatus away from the ring. Here are highlights:
On his feud with Kofi Kingston: “It’s something that’s happened for a really long time. Sometimes it’s been just for bragging rights. Sometimes it’s been for the intercontinental title, the U.S. title. But in this situation, Kofi-Mania was running wild at Wrestlemania and now he’s jumped into this elite level as an up and coming, possible greatest WWE champion of all time. … I genuinely am happy for him. It just kills me that it’s not me instead of him. What I do (at wrestling matches) is usually steal the show and walk out with someone’s girlfriend afterward, too. But what I focus on now is winning that title from Kofi, because it means more to me beating him to prove how good I am.”
On what it’s like fighting Kofi: “We know each other really well because it’s been years. … We’ve had a couple hundred matches. I have to know everything that he does and every counter that he makes … so I can stay one step ahead. He may be the champion, but I’ve made a career out of being a ring general, someone who knows what they’re doing all the time, always has a plan and is one step ahead of all opponents.”
On coming back after his hiatus: “It was the first time I’ve had a vacation in almost 14 years. I needed a little time off and I asked for it. It was like 2½ months or something. And by the way, during that 2½ months, I still worked out once or twice a day and got a ton of stand-up comedy in. I was doing a ton of traveling. I was a little bit nervous getting back in the ring. But someone who’s an old pro like me, who’s done it for so long, the muscle memory was still there. Everything worked out. Maybe about two minutes in, I was right back to being me and getting everything accomplished in there and jumping high and running the ropes and going, ‘OK, here we go!’”
