OVW Alum Andreas John Ziegler On Calling Dolph Ziggler His ‘Uncle,’ How It Came About

Andreas John Ziegler has joked about Dolph Ziggler being his uncle, and he clarified how the whole thing came about and Ziggler’s reaction to it in a new interview. The independent talent spoke with Solo Wrestling and talked about referring to Ziggler as his uncle and how Ziggler reacted to the whole thing.

“So, I’ll peel the curtain back a little bit here,” Ziegler said (h/t to Wrestling Inc for the translation). “When I was a kid I was really into wrestling so what I did was when I went to school, I told everybody that Dolph was my uncle. What happened was I actually ended up meeting Dolph at a stand-up comedy show in Wisconsin in probably 2019 or 2020 – it was before the pandemic – but when I met with Dolph, I told him that story, that I was going to train at OVW and he trained there too. And he was like, ‘Use it, kid. Use it to get over.’ Ever since then, he was super cool. He tweeted at me like, ‘Best nephew in the biz,’ which at the time was super duper cool for me because I was like, ‘Well, I might as well use it.’ ”

Ziegler has worked for NJPW Strong, most recently appearing for them at NJPW Autumn Attack. He also worked for OVW in 2021 and has appeared for Control Your Narrative.