Dolph Ziggler Reveals He Pushed to "Move On" Months Before WWE Release
Ziggler was cut in September 2023.
The rest of Dolph Ziggler's career starts now. Following his WWE release in September 2023, Ziggler returned to professional wrestling at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18, taking in the action with his brother, AEW's Ryan Nemeth, at ringside. Things turned physical when new NJPW Global Champion David Finlay confronted Ziggler, giving him a shove that led to a brief brawl broken up by security. Shortly after this transpired, Ziggler aired a custom vignette on his socials, rebranding himself under his real name, Nic Nemeth, and using the monicker "WANTED MAN." Nemeth is expected to feud with Finlay in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Dolph Ziggler (Nic Nemeth) Pushed For His WWE Release
The Show-Off has been prepared to steal the show elsewhere for quite some time.
"I was prepared [for my WWE release]. For the last six, eight, ten months going, 'At some point, I have to make a change here,'" Nic Nemeth, formerly known as Dolph Ziggler, told Busted Open Radio. "As you get ready to go and see you don't have a chance to be in a pay-per-view match and steal the show. You don't have a chance to have a six-minute match to steal the show. You have a match and it's three minutes and you don't get an entrance and everyone knows who is winning. Can I find a way to have that work?
"Once that started happening, even a couple of years ago when [Bobby] Roode and I were tagging, I was thinking, 'At some point, I have to be ready to go. Will my shape and stamina still be there?' I have been preparing so long and getting things ready to go, it wasn't 'What? What do I do now? I'm free.' I was planning for half of this entire last contract going, 'I know at some point, I'm being paid way too much to sit at home so I'm gonna have to get out of here.'"
Nemeth's last true spotlighted storylines came in Summer 2017 when he feuded with Seth Rollins over the WWE Intercontinental Championship. During that time, Nemeth held gold and headlined pay-per-views, all the while elevating fresh main roster call-up Drew McIntyre. After losing the Intercontinental Title to Rollins, Nemeth fell back down the card.
He eventually worked his way back to a featured position in Summer 2019, challenging then-WWE Champion Kofi Kingston for his prize. The same fate came that following summer, as Nemeth's history with McIntyre was revisited in a singles title feud.
"I always wanted to be ready to go, just in case they said, 'I know you've been doing 90-second matches, can you do 30 minutes with The Undertaker?' You're damn right I can," Nemeth continued. "I was ready to go anyway. I just wanted to have every option available."
While many were shocked at Nemeth's release, it turns out he himself was pushing to explore pastures new long before the pink slip came.
"It wasn't out of the blue. I had sent emails to the boss over the last few months saying, 'I have to move on to somewhere else, can you let me do this?' Eventually, without exact back and forth, that's how it worked out," Nemeth added. "It wasn't weird because it was so six, eight, ten months in place going, 'Here it comes.' Now, I have 90 days sitting around, which broke my heart, but I just got extra workouts."
Nemeth returns to the ring on January 20th when he competes for Puerto Rican promotion WWC.
