Dolph Ziggler on How His WWE Return Came About, Why He Took Time Off, Where New Character Came From

– Dolph Ziggler appeared on Sunday Night’s Main Event and discussed his return to WWE, why he took time off and more. Highlights and the full podcast are below:

On his time off and how his match with Kofi Kingston came about: “Well I mean, a lot of people online tell me that it is very last-minute, but as someone who has worked closely with the boss and the company for 15 years, it was set up for about three months. But I asked for a specific time away to be off of television, because I thought my character had kinda done the same thing over and over and maybe lost eight or nine, or nine and a half times out of ten, and we needed to get something fresh or different with it. So I asked for 90 days to go away. And I can’t sit at home. I’m a psychopath, I’ve been living out of a suitcase for 15 years. So I also got to do standup sets and do some different things, and work with my brother writing some other stuff, and sketches and improv. But also, I just needed to be away from this, the TV show on television, character-wise. Because I’ve been very lucky for 14 and a half years; I’ve only probably missed a month, month in a half in 14 and a half years, to where I needed to be off TV for a little bit. The cool part was, I have this other job where I can go get better at that while I’m refreshing my character.”

On his involvement in his new character: “It was something that came up from, I was kinda given that backstage, I would say. You need different wrinkles … but I also couldn’t just be gone for three months, and come back and say, ‘Hey, I’m a plumber now!’ Or, ‘I’m a vampire!’ You can’t do that. There’s been too much time invested character-wise. So that’s why I still had to come back as me. But also, it’s a connotation of, I am genuinely jealous in real life of Kofi Kingston going to WrestleMania and winning the WWE Title. So to that extent, I got to say, ‘Hey, man. I am jealous of this guy. I want to take him down.’ So that part, the germ of that idea was from me.”

On the status of his current run: “I am full-time, on weekends, live events, TV, PPV. Everything they ask me to do, I am there for it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Sunday Night’s Main Event with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.