Nic Nemeth – 'I Thought I Was Probably Going To Be In WWE Forever'
10/04/2024 04:13 PM
On a recent edition of the “Wise Choices” podcast, TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler) discussed his departure from WWE in September 2023.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On thinking he would be in WWE forever: "Big time. And one, I thought I was probably going to be in WWE forever. Because 10 years in, when I used to have conversations with Vince, he was like, 'One day you'll be working behind the scenes with us, helping us with the show, give back on the live events, and then start helping on the team and coming into the meeting.' So I assumed that all these people that I had caught glimpses of clips online that didn't work with WWE and weren't going to, that I would never get a chance to. And someone like Tanahashi, who I've seen for years. And like, 'Man, what a cool thing. Wouldn't it be neat to get in there?' I go, 'Well, I guess. I'm probably with WWE forever, so I don't know that I'll ever get to do any kind of outside matches.'
"And the fact that I was able to, to go, 'Oh my God, I get a match with Tanahashi.' I wrestled Finley's kid, David Finley who's killing it in New Japan. But really, I didn't come from the independents. And I openly — because I was frustrated sometimes with creatively what I was doing, I would openly started saying, 'I don't know, I don't watch.' So I famously didn't watch. And it was kind of just like leaning into a tongue-in-cheek kind of joke. But also, I not only didn't watch, I said I didn't do independents, I didn't have a ton of people outside of WWE that I was open to or talked to or texted. And one of someone I came pretty close within WWE was Shinsuke Nakamura."
On Shinsuke Nakamura putting him into contact with NJPW: "He goes, 'If you're really getting out of here one of these days' — this is years ago — 'Let me know. I could put you in contact with some people, and I would vouch for you,' and things like that. I go, 'Wow, that's that means a lot.' And years later, I was like, 'Hey, can I still hold you to that?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah, let's go.' And he put me in touch with Rocky [Romero], and we got off and running in New Japan. And it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, which is pretty awesome. Just to be outside the doors of WWE and just see if I can still go and what I can do and do, and just seeing how every other place works."
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