Dolph Ziggler Is Fine Not Being the Royal Rumble Favorite

– Dolph Ziggler did a conference call to promote the Royal Rumble this weekend. Some highlights are here:

On being a part of the Royal Rumble: “The cool thing is, as a fan or as a competitor, the idea is pretty cool honestly. The fact that you don’t know who’s coming out next, you don’t know who you’re going to be in the ring with, even if you do have an idea or know what your number is, by the time you get out there you never know who could be looking at you, who’s coming after you, what’s going to go down. Is somebody going to be hurt? Is somebody teetering off the edge? It’s a pretty exciting time whether you’re a fan or a worker here in WWE, or both like myself. That concept is so cool because everyone gets excited for the countdown, everybody gets excited for the music, and there’s always that chance that maybe this could be the year that you get the chance to headline Wrestlemania.”

On if he thinks he’s a favorite to win the Rumble: “I don’t think I’ve ever been the favorite to win anything. Even when I was champion. But also that’s kind of how I’ve lived my life. Knowing that I’m not supposed to be champion, knowing that I’m not probably favorited to win any Rumble for the last ten years. I live for that because I know how good I am and the fans know how good I am at my job. So be it the really exciting part is, I’d love to be in against Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, any of those guys. Because no matter who they are or what they’ve done, I know my conditioning, I know how great my body feels, I know how good I am at my job. And if all three of those competitors can say the same thing, then I’d love to go head-to-head with them because I don’t know if they could handle me.”

On if he has a lucky number in mind that he hopes he draws: “It’d be stupid to not think that there’s not an advantage to coming out last. The chip on my shoulder would not want me to come out last. I’d want to come out number one, out-last everyone, and win.”

On if he prefers to play a heel or babyface: “My favorite thing to do is to take reality and plug it into the ring. Everyone knows how frustrated I am with the position that I’m in, so they’re starting to realize the frustration that I have out in the ring. I don’t know if a cheesy baby face is something that I’ve ever done, but thanks to the fans they’re the reason I’m still around. If I had lost every single day and nobody gave a damn about me, I wouldn’t be working here. Without them I wouldn’t have a job, but I do — and being cheesy sucks. Everybody knows that. You want to be a winner, who is good at his job, who doesn’t have to kiss up to anybody, who doesn’t need friends right behind him to win matches, to be someone who does it on their own, with a chip on their shoulder, and the fans watching.”

On his emotions leading up to his title vs. career match with The Miz: “Leading up to it I got everything prepared that I could. I had my agent find some roles for me in the upcoming month. I planned for my retirement, I told my parents I might not be going to work on Monday. I got everything focused in my head, that I had things ready to go. I hated doing it, but I felt like I needed something to change, I needed to go away, I needed to find a new career, or I needed to win and start winning. It was a very emotional match for me, and honestly as much as I was focused on having a game-plan, when I heard the announcement that my career was on the line in the ring against the title, it actually really hit me and put shivers down my back. I knew that I had to deliver right there. If you don’t think I did, then you’re not a fan of the business.”