Dolph Ziggler’s frank assessment of working for WWE

Dolph Ziggler’s promoting his NXT championship defense against Bron Breakker at Stand & Deliver next Saturday afternoon (April 2) in Dallas. Even though the interviews he’s been giving are with WWE-produced outlets, The Show-Off’s been pretty brutally honest.

He stayed in character on The Bump, but still managed to make it sound like his title program with Breakker was the kind of last minute planning we often hear about with WWE. While talking to Corey Graves & Vic Joseph on After The Bell, Ziggler was even more forthcoming. Answering a question about how he manages to keep a level head while being moved up, down & all around the card during his 15 or so years with the company, Dolph said:

“It’s not even, ‘You don’t always get to do what you want to do.’ It’s, ‘You rarely get to do what you want to do.’ You might be a champion one day, and then the next day, you’re not on the show.

“You go, ‘What did I do?’ It’s show business. What have you done for me lately? One day you’re hot, one day you’re not. ‘I got these ideas, everybody’s reacting to me in the crowd? Why am I not on the show?’ and you will drive yourself mad because sometimes it’s not personal.

“It’s like, ‘We need to get this Roman-Brock story on. This is the part, and we need you to do this, this, and this, and you’re gonna have to sacrifice a few other pieces.’ A lot of times, two thirds of the roster is being sacrificed. and you go, ‘That’s going to be you no matter whether you’re new or old.’

“But when you get a high once in a while, it almost makes it worthwhile because you trucked along, and two years went by, or a year went by, and you didn’t even get a win anywhere. You’re like, ‘What am I still doing here’, and I thought, ‘Well, the checks keep coming.’

“They never missed one check, so I appreciate that.”

Not much to add to that. It’s more or less confirmation of a lot of the rumors & reports we hear, and observations & criticisms we make, about the WWE product. A lot of fans truck along waiting for one of those highs too — and they do come. If they sent us checks though, more of us would keep a level head during the lows.

Anyway... thoughts on Dolph’s assessment of working for WWE?

H/T: WrestlingNews.co for transcription