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Dolph Ziggler On Pursuing His Interests Outside of Wrestling, Having Freedom in Media Appearances

October 17, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
WWE Smackdown Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler has had a number of interests outside of pro wrestling that he’s pursued, and he discussed them in a new interview. The WWE star spoke with XeniaDidThat, and you can see some highlights below (per Fightful):

On having more freedom during media appearances: “A lot of people have different — if you’ve earned their trust and respect over 15 years — I used to have to ask like, ‘Hey, I’m going on to FOX News Is this okay that I do this in two weeks?’, and I got to a point where I built the trust, they sent me on PR tours to different countries, Romania, Turkey, several different places and they trust me [to the point where for] two weeks, I’m by myself with a handler, and I’m just constantly doing PR for WWE and over 15 years, I clearly earned the ability to be like, I don’t have to tell them I’m going to do something because I’m not gonna be like, Vince McMahon sucks. That’s why we should get out of Syria.’ There’s no reason for that. I could give an educated answer. I can make a snarky joke. I can change the subject. I can do any of it. For 10 years, it was myself, The Miz, Kofi Kingston, and Sheamus, they sent us to everything and we got so sharp that they go, ‘Hey, we got to get some other guys to get these reps.’ So, I’m allowed to have this long leash and do whatever the hell I want. I mean, I also back it up in the ring. So like, what are you gonna do?”

Dolph Ziggler on his interests outside of wrestling: “I have so many different interests and when I find one, I want to — I need 10 more years of doing this before I’m good-good… You got to get better. So I do the political stuff, I read nonstop, I do all these different things hoping that one day, I can go do FOX News, maybe have a late-night talk show on the internet, maybe go do stand-up comedy, maybe have a podcast where one of these guys will tell jokes, talk about wrestling, but then we go to a stand-up tour and I just want to keep [being a] modern-day renaissance man, that just makes you a good person, I think, you’re doing the most that you can because you don’t know if you’ll die tomorrow, or not.”

“I want to go out [with] everyone going, ‘That dude made the most of his 24 hours.’ You brought that up a little bit ago. I don’t sleep much, I haven’t for a long time, but I don’t want to sit at home. I don’t want to vacation. If I go to a comedy tour for 16 dates in 30 days, it’s in between wrestling and I just don’t go home I don’t ask for time off.”

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Nic Nemeth, Jeremy Thomas