Credit: VOCNation.com
Dolph Ziggler’s brother Ryan Nemeth recently spoke about his WWE
release and more. Here are the highlights…
On if his injury
ended his WWE career: “I felt like I was on the way up… main event
of every house show. Feeling good, good responses, good rapport… they loved me
& Maddox together. Everything was going great. Dusty said they were looking
for tag teams in WWE, main roster, & he picked us. Maddox got called up to
be a referee & I was home rehabbing. Everyone would call me asking if I was
debuting & my leg was in a cast & I can’t walk… I’m drooling on
myself. I’m sleeping on the floor every night because I’m sad. So then I would
tell them I come out at the end & I knock out Brock [Lesnar]. I’m happy for
them. There are times I’m like, “everyone in this battle royal or whatever it is
on Raw, I wrestled with all of them & I’m the only one not there.” That’s
the kind of thought you have to acknowledge, accept, & let it go. I’m doing
cool sh*t that they can’t do & I wouldn’t be able to do if I was still
signed. Road Dogg was producing at NXT & he came over & goes ‘You are so
good on camera & have so much personality. If your in-ring skills can
eventually get to where your brother’s is & your brother’s microphone skills
can get to where yours is, we can have tag champs for the next 100 years. Road
Dogg told me that. You know when something makes you feel good? That lasted for
weeks & months. Damn, man. That’s another one I was like, I see my brother
on TV & he’s awesome & doing great… & then Road Dogg & Billy
Gunn are champs. I’m thinking, ‘What the Hell? You guys moved up? You finally
moved up from Performance Center, bro?’ If I was still there doing that, I
wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. If I want to wrestle & take a booking,
I can. I’m wrestling in Australia. I can’t do that signed to WWE. There’s a
tendency to get negative or bitter or ‘Oh, he got signed but I didn’t get
signed. Screw that guy’, you can’t live like that. If someone gets an
opportunity, be happy for them. Maybe you’ll get one… maybe you won’t. But
being mad at someone else isn’t going to change it.”
On future
wrestling bookings: “Rob Terry from TNA & I are going to Australia
next month. Can’t say what I will be doing there but I will be in attendance in
that building May 23.”
On getting released by WWE & how
Dolph Ziggler knew before him: “I was eating lunch somewhere before an
NXT house show. Mr Sakomoto kept calling & texting me like crazy. I called
him back & he told me he got a phone call that he was released. I thought to
myself, ‘We just started going. We had a long-time program written up. We just
had our tag team started on NXT.’ All the creative guys were pumped about it.
There is nothing funny on that show except for us. I thought this ruined
everything… I have to start over again. Great. I have to redo everything
again. This is one of my best friends. He has to leave the country. This sucks.
& then I’m driving back to my house to pack my stuff for the show but, as
I’m driving, I’m stopped at a red light & it hit me. I’m getting fired
today. I totally knew it. Why would they axe Sakamoto? He didn’t have the best
English & I was in the guy in NXT/WWE that all of the Japanese guys
gravitated toward me. For one reason or another, they always became my buddies.
He wanted me to call Canyon Semen to ask why he was fired. I was starting to put
together a lot of clues. Then I had all these calls from Canyon Semen anyway. I
thought, if I don’t answer, he can’t fire me. So I didn’t answer. It was
originally my Dolph’s idea. I told him I think someone really wanted me out of
here for the past 6 months & it finally worked. I won’t tell you everything
he said but he said not to pick up the phone. He gave me the idea not to pick up
the phone. I’ll tell them my phone broke. I called him back eventually,
“So-and-so finally convinced you to fire me, huh?’ & he goes ‘yup.’ He
listed the reasons & I said ‘y’know that’s not true, right? Thanks for
firing me, anyways.’ He goes, ‘Look, Ryan, I know you’re going to be a hit in
the entertainment business & make millions of dollars.’ So I said, ‘Yeah I
know. I told you that. I wanted it to be with you but I guess it will be with
someone else.’ I remember thinking in my head, you’re releasing me from an
entertainment company & the entire time you’re laughing. I hope you look
back in 10 years & go, ‘Whoops!’ I said, ‘One last thing. Will you still let
my brother be world champion?’ & he said ‘Yup!’ & then I hung up on him.
I’m told I’m the blue chip, most hardworking, most entertaining NXT talent… my
brother is World Champ for a second time… you’re telling me I’m done for? Let
him think about that for a while. I handled it professionally & my own
flavor & taste. My brother texted me, ‘Hey. So-and-so called me to tell me
they’re releasing you. A very respectful company called someone who’s not me to
tell me I was being released before they actually spoke to me. I will say I had
some good times there, entertain some people, make a little name for myself, get
some publicity for my book… did some charity. Had some good times. I was
someone’s younger brother. I haven’t been wrestling for 10 years. I wrestled for
a year before they picked me up for OVW. I remember Camacho telling me people
got hired who didn’t even know about wrestling– football players & model
girls. There is no one right way to do it. I have a chip on my shoulder about
the people who say ‘Oh, you haven’t been working the indies for five, ten years,
I shouldn’t have a job.'”
On how his comedy improv helped him in
wrestling: “It did help me alot. I had been spending summers in
college in Chicago, working in improv, training at the place where people like
Amy Poehler & Chris Farley got their start. I was always viewing that,
theater, & OVW as similiar things in my mind. They were both kind of like…
the guy who’s teaching you either way… this old, crotchety crazy person…
like I’m thinking of Rip Rogers in OVW. He was the head trainer for WWE for a
while & was still at OVW. There is always a legendary, cranky old man
figures. Insane people who cannot function in a normal society but have the
tools to teach you how to be good in whatever craft you’re in. There’s always
someone like that. Comedy… wrestling…In wrestling, it was Rip Rogers. &
I’m sure if you interview who passed through OVW, they’ll tell you about him.
Whether it’s guys on the indies now… or people like CM Punk or John Cena, for
sure. It was cool to talk to the guys like Cena, Orton, & all of them &
we had that connection of OVW & Rip Rogers & we would exchange funny
stories about him.”
On how fellow wrestlers supported his book,
“I Can Make Out With Any Girl Here”: “There was a time when someone
bought my book… I think it was the athletic trainer at FCW/NXT… a lot of
people bought my book & I was excited. Brad Maddox took the book, read it,
& started giving it to everyone else in the locker room. I was on a roll
where a lot of people were buying it & I was getting royalties… & then
Brad Maddox was lending it out. No one is going to buy it if you’re giving it to
them for free. Camacho, Rusev, Cena, a lot of people read that book. Sara Del
Ray has it but won’t read it because it’s very vulgar.”
On what
inspired him to start writing: “It is something I have been doing my
whole life. Throughout grade school, high school… I was always excited when
homework involved creative writing. That was my favorite thing to school. If
there was ever a newspaper in school, I always wanted to contribute to it. I
didn’t want to submit interviews or articles, I would want to submit drawings I
did. I would make up fake text messages & submit it to the comic
section.”
On dealing with social media & recent death
threats: “I would rather you un-follow me than threaten to kill me
& my family… I’ve been getting a lot of those recently. I am honored that
anyone would even take the time to type something & send it over the
Internet to get to me so, whether it’s graphic or polite, y’know, I appreciate
it. The attention is nice. But, I have been getting… the last few days or
weeks, a few people I don’t know on Twitter telling me that they’re going to
kill me or they can’t wait ’til I die. So, y’know, I do get extremes. I get
that. I think it’s the same for anyone. There’s people who hate you & people
who love you so… take the good with the bad.”
