Dolph Ziggler, Former World Heavyweight and NXT Champion, Released by WWE

Dolph Ziggler’s 19-year career in WWE has come to an end. The former World Heavyweight Champion was one of the many wrestlers who received their release from the company on Thursday mere hours after WWE announced another billion-dollar TV rights deal. Beginning his onscreen career as Chavo Guerrero’s caddie, Ziggler’s first taste of success came as a member of The Spirit Squad in the mid-2000s. After being repackaged as a singles wrestler, Ziggler gradually worked his way up the card and built up a following amongst diehard fans, ultimately culminating in him cashing in his Money in the Bank the night after WrestleMania 29. 

His reign was cut short due to a concussion, and while he’d find plenty of success after the fact (including excellent Intercontinental Championship programs with The Miz and Seth Rollins and an unexpected NXT Championship run) he’d never make it back to world champion status. His last televised match was with JD McDonagh on the May 29 episode of Raw.

There’s already speculation that Ziggler will join his brother, Ryan Nemeth, in All Elite Wrestling in the near future. What do you think is next for “The Show-Off?” Tell us down in the comments! 

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Dolph Ziggler on His Interaction With Hugh Jackman

Ziggler was famously involved in a match with Zack Ryder on an episode of Raw in 2011 when Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, nailed him with a punch to cost him the victory. Ziggler recently posted some behind-the-scenes photos from that night and reflected on the match in an interview with Ryan Satin back in 2021.

“He was so nice and he was a fan,” Ziggler said. “He remembered Brooklyn Brawler coming to a show when he was a kid. He remembered a bunch of different things. He was like, ‘how can we make this awesome?’ Again, that is rare. You could be bringing up someone else and I’d be like, ‘that was okay.’ This guy wanted to make this amazing. He didn’t have to. There were no rules for him. He could do whatever he wanted.

“We figured it out where he’s going to — I see him there, he’s got Broski’s headband on and he’s going to punch me in the face,” he continued. “He goes, ‘so what do we do? I kind of swing by you?’ I go, ‘if you don’t punch me in the face as hard as you can, I’m going to get fired and I’m coming after you. We have 500 cameras out there and a world watching, you got to punch me because we got enough people saying this stuff’s phony, anyways. You got to freaking hit me and make this count.’ I go, ‘don’t worry, you can see by the jaw I can take a freaking punch.’ So, right before we went out I said one last time, ‘listen man if you’re going to halfway do it or miss, let’s switch this right now because I need you to punch me in the face with my hands down and my head [extends neck forward].’ He goes, ‘I promise you I won’t let you down,’ and he cracked me in the face pretty damn hard. It was great.”