WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler will look to re-capture the World Heavyweight Championship for a third time at the company’s July pay-per-view event, Money in the Bank, being held July 14 in Philadelphia.
But the week before that, the Show-Off will make two stops in Maryland — a Saturday live event in Ocean City and a taping of “Monday Night Raw” Monday at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore so that Ziggler can get himself and fans ready for his title bout with Alberto Del Rio.
In an interview with the Carroll County Times June 27, Ziggler talked about his recent concussion, winning and losing the World Championship, the evolution of his character and how he thinks his somewhat smallish stature in a world of giants has made him a better performer.
Q: First of all, let’s talk about you coming back from your recent concussion. Was this the first one you had suffered?
A: Yeah, I mean, I think I had one other one in college, but nothing this bad ever, in my life.
Q: Can you describe what you remember about getting it and the days and weeks after getting it?
A: Yeah, sure. I had a bad headache for a solid two weeks afterwards. I was diagnosed with retrograde amnesia which meant I ended up losing a day and a half, two days of my memory instantly, even though when the incident happened, there was like five more minutes of match that I went through and actually executed very well.
Q: For you personally, was that frustrating for you, not being able to compete, having just won the World Championship?
A: Yes. I can’t imagine anything in my career that’s been any worse than that. I was lucky enough to cash in my Money in the Bank, become World Heavyweight Champion, at this amazing “Monday Night Raw” with this crowd that was electric and I don’t know that we can ever reproduce again, and to have one week of some TVs go back, have a concussion, be out five weeks, have one title defense and lose it, I’ve never been more frustrated in my entire WWE career when that happened.
Q: You were saddled with some pretty, well, let’s call them interesting gimmicks early in your career — Chavo Guerrero’s golf caddy and then part of the Spirit Squad — what was your original reaction when you were approached with those ideas?
A: Ha, honestly, now that it’s over, I was bummed out, it sucked. I worked my whole life, I broke records in college wrestling, at the time, Kurt Angle was still with the company and they told me, ‘we see you as a young Kurt Angle, clean-cut kid, we really like your work ethic, you go all out every time, you practice harder than everybody else and we’re going to go somewhere with you,’ and then one day I got pulled in a room and they said ‘You’re going to be a cheerleader.’ And I went, oh, crap. Luckily, that group of five guys, we became great friends, we had a blast, we ended up wrestling some of the biggest stars and greatest legends in the business.
Q: Talk about working with AJ and Big E Langston. Do you guys travel together?
A: Yeah, we do, not even all the time, but some of the time the three of us do travel together, and it’s been kind of cool because AJ’s another one who, as a child, wanted to do this — like when I was five, I wanted to do this and I’m doing it now — I think when she was 8 or 10, she decided she wanted to do it and she’s doing it. So that’s brought us together. The two of us, maybe outside of work, never would’ve bumped into each other or said a word.
Q: So you haven’t been wrestling on TV the past few weeks. Can fans in Maryland expect to see you back competing in the ring July 6 in Ocean City and July 8 in Baltimore for Raw?
A: I would say so. Going along with what happened to me at the Payback pay-per-view, so of course I haven’t been in too many matches lately, but the thing is, for the last four years, I’ve been in 30 minute matches two and three times a week on TV. So I mean, I have a blast doing them, the crowd loves seeing them, but maybe this is a blessing in disguise, it’s a nice little break so you don’t see me in one of those matches I have every single night, it gives a little break and by the time we get to Ocean City and Baltimore, then it should be back in business, back to the old me, stealing the show, going out there begging for people to out-do my match.
