In the world of wrestling there are all sorts of characters; the good, the bad. And then there are the legends, like the one Dolph Ziggler strives to be.
Born Nick Nemeth, the WWE superstar, former US, Intercontinental and World Heavyweight Champion, said he fell in love with wrestling at five years old when his father took him to his first WWE event.
"It was Hulk Hogan versus Harley Race, and at five years old, I loved it," Ziggler said. "I asked my dad if I could start wrestling and two months later, I started wrestling."
Ziggler wrestled all through high school, and in college, he broke the all-time record for wins at Kent State University. But the glory of the win wasn't enough for Ziggler, who always hungered for the spectacle of wrestling that he first saw when he was only five.
"I love the entertainment part of it," Ziggler said. "I love it so much that in college, I always tried to bring some type of sports entertainment to our wrestling programs."
And just as he dreamed, following in the ranks of wrestling heroes like Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect, Ziggler went on to become the WWE superstar he always dreamed of being. Now, he and the rest of the WWE superstars and divas are making their way to Phoenix for the WWE Raw Supershow at the US Airways Center on January 23.
Ziggler, a Phoenix resident and Sun Devil fan, took the time to chat with College Times over the phone and answer a few questions about his career, his goals and the WWE industry.
College Times: You had a very accomplished career at Kent State. How did you make the transition from college to professional wrestling?
Dolph Ziggler: I just worked hard. Transition from college wrestling – where it's kind of boring and you're not really showing emotion – over to the entertainment aspect [of professional wrestling], it's two totally different animals. You working just as hard but you make more of a spectacle of it.
You've obviously worked very to get to where you are. What are your thoughts on how far you've come in your career?
Well, I don't want to say that I'm surprised. I've set goals for myself my whole life and I'm still setting goals and reaching for them. I'm happy that I keep progressing but I'm never satisfied with where I am, I always want more so I'm constantly learning every day [...] I am always trying to up my game or try to identify more with what's going on. It's about evolving and that's what I try to do.
What are some of the goals you have in mind going forward?
Of course, I want to be champion, I want to wrestle a main event at Wrestle Mania and another very realistic goal of mine far down in my career is that I want to be know as the greatest ever. Not everybody wants that. Some people want to be champion, but in ten years when people say my name, I want them to be saying ‘he was the guy who was the best ever.'
The WWE comes with a lot of drama between characters. Does that continue outside the ring?
Well, we are all working in a common goal of putting out a product that makes our fans want to keep coming back. So no matter what's going on, everybody is very professional and we basically out-do each other purely for enjoyment of the fans and the enjoyment of the product.
When you held the WWE Intercontinental Championship title, what did having that title mean to you?
That was a huge goal that I had set for myself. I had come up short the year before. I though for sure that it was mine and when it didn't happen I was actually very frustrated. Now, coming back into the picture of the title and then actually getting it ... I honestly thought it was long overdue and it was well-deserved and I was very happy to take that and make it [a step] towards becoming the WWE Championship that it once was. I thought I brought some prestige to it.
WrestleMania is coming up in April. It will be The Rock versus John Cena. Who would you pick to win that fight?
Both those guys are in awesome shape. Cena is like our franchise guy. He carries the company on his back and he's out there every single night doing everything he can to give back to the fans. The Rock, he's awesome at what he does, but he's kind of moved on and he's a movie star now, so I've gotta go with the hometown guy who is out there in the trenches with us every single weekend as opposed to the guy that comes back a couple times a year.
