WWE NXT 2.0 World Champion Dolph Ziggler was recently interviewed by Pwinsider and commented on preparing for his match with Bron Breakker at WWE NXT Stand & Deliver, his Money in the Bank cash-in back in 2013, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his preparation for NXT Stand and Deliver: “I prepare the same, and every week and all of our talent, whether they’re booked on WrestleMania or Stand and Deliver or not even on the card, we have so many appearances and so many things, we’re constantly doing press just to get the word out, a bunch of community outreach and anything you can think of, so it’s a very busy week. I’ve had weeks going into like a ladder match at WrestleMania where three of the days I didn’t even have a 45 minute window to get to the gym or to get food or something. We’re busy as hell but I’m going to take a page out of my stamina, it’s still from high school to college through now, so I can get to WrestleMania week and I can do more mental focus and just do a couple of light workouts. Skip the jump rope, get the heart rate up, get everything going because I have pushed it for 11 straight months, now you coast it down a little bit so those legs don’t give out, you constantly do the cardio, constantly do the stamina checks and I’ve been doing a lot of fasting and jump roping, just to get my body acclimated and ready to go just in case I’m so busy for those 5 days there that my body and mind are ready to go no matter what.”
On his Money in the Bank cash-in back in 2013: “It’s surreal. Once in a while, when someone sends me the clip I’ll check it out – I get goosebumps, and I’ve been here 17 years, bitter, over it, doesn’t give a damn, doesn’t watch wrestling, doesn’t care, backs it up in the ring, and I had that moment when my music hit, and this whoosh of like, bee stings hit my face and arms, I went, “Holy crap, what is this?” But my favorite part is, if you do a little homework, I was a losing bad guy who lost all the time, but I always made a good showing, and for some reason, I found a way in a ladder match to come away with that briefcase, and when I got that contract with Money in the Bank, I lost even more than I was losing then, I was still this bad guy who hated on the fans, and to have that reaction, not just cause it’s a fun weekend, it’s WrestleMania, we’re all fired up, it’s just overseas fans that are excited – these people, these fans in that arena, without them, I wouldn’t have even been in the position to win the contract let alone have a chance at becoming World Champion.
“So when my music hit and I cashed in, to go, “Yes’! He’s a bad guy, he loses all the time, he barely talks but d*mnit, he’s our guy, we helped make this happen, this is such a load off our shoulders,” and right away, when I almost lost, they go, “Of course, of course Dolph will be the first guy to cash in and blow it because he loses,” and then it takes them on that entire roller coaster ride for 2 and a half minutes…it is one of the crowning achievements of my life. It is beautiful and it is beautifully done and Del Rio and myself crushed it I think, I’m very proud of that. But the fact that without their support cause, the company made it seem, “Don’t cheer for this guy, don’t care about him,” and they said, “Screw that, we watch how good he is, we’re going to do it.”
