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This Saturday afternoon, WWE NXT 2.0 will present Stand and Deliver from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, streaming live on the WWE Network and Peacock. The main event will see Bron Breakker challenge one of the company's longest tenured talents in Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler sat down with PWInsider.com to discuss his excursion into NXT, the PPV this Saturday, surviving in the company as long as he has and much more. Transcription by Billy Krotchsen.
Mike Johnson: Hey everybody, it's Mike Johnson and it is Wrestlemania Week, this coming weekend in Dallas, TX and possibly one of the more intriguing shows will be the first WWE NXT 2.0 show on the road, that being NXT Stand and Deliver this Saturday morning on Peacock and the WWE Network internationally. The main event features our guest, the WWE NXT Champion Dolph Ziggler as he defends against former champion Bron Breakker. So Dolph, interesting week as always for anyone who works in the WWE but this is probably one of the more unique WWE Wrestlemania weekends you have. I think your intrusion into NXT the last couple of months has been pretty interesting. Thoughts on the NXT excursion thus far?
Dolph Ziggler: It's awesome, man. A big surprise to me is that I'm the NXT Champion right now. I cannot tell you how unprepared I was for that, which is funny. I spent my whole life preparing to be the best. I just...it's wild. I went to check out NXT, to check out the talent, do a little scouting and it turns out I got right into the mix. I think Bron Breakker has one hell of a career ahead of him, I don't think he's quite ready to go but holy crap is he explosive. I've been speared by Goldberg numerous times and it felt like my chest caved in. This kid hit me like a linebacker in their prime in the NFL and when I got up I said, "Man, I can't wait to do this again."
Mike Johnson: Saturday afternoon it's you and Bron at Stand and Deliver. How do you compare the mental and physical preparation for a big WrestleMania or SummerSlam? How are you approaching this show compared to what we'll see at AT&T Stadium later that night or on Sunday evening?
Dolph Ziggler: 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.
Mike Johnson: You've had such a long tenure in WWE that I think some people will forget the early days for you in developmental in places like OVW. How do you compare the atmosphere and the contingent of talent that are in NXT 2.0 right now to your experiences cutting your teeth in OVW in the early days of Nicky?
Dolph Ziggler: It's wild - it's night and day, and I think I missed out on the really wild west times by a couple of years, but it's almost like the movie Major League where you have that plane with the duct tape on the wing and someone shaved their head, and some people follow the rules and some people aren't showing up for practice, it was crazy wild west stuff and you still got the talent out of it, but now it's like an Olympic training facility where you have the best of all coaches and teachers and minds, are all over you and constantly with their finger on the pulse of what's going on - what's hip, what's cool, what works, what doesn't, it's a huge, huge night and day difference. I famously do not watch wrestling, but the few weeks I've been at NXT, I have followed and watched everybody and I go, "Man, I wonder if anybody here is going to be ready to go in 6 months or a year or who knows what, who's got some fire in their eye," and I sat down my first 2 weeks there and went, "This is a hell of a show." Everyone is outdoing everyone, trying to get their name heard, their match seen, and I really appreciate that. It's competition to see who can outdo who else and I go, "Man, I've been living my career like that."
Mike Johnson: So what were the origins of you and Bobby Roode going to NXT? Did you go to the company and say, "Hey I'd like to go do this and it would be something different for me," did somebody come to you and say, "We've got some younger talents that needs some seasoning and they can use a veteran presence and a veteran mind to help them," how did all of this start, how did this journey start that leads us to this weekend at Stand And Deliver?
Dolph Ziggler: Well, it's a little bit of everything. Also, after 15 or 20 matches in 6 months with the Street Profits, how many times can we fight them? We're a fantastic team, they're a fantastic team, and we need a break from each other, we need a break from what's going on, and also combine that with, a lot of times an NXT talent gets called up to the main roster - I'm their first match. Even with Roode, when he was the NXT champ, he lost the title, he fought me first. So they said, "You are the perfect guy, we hand-picked you, go see what you can do, maybe get involved, maybe you don't," and I cannot tell you how unprepared I was to be NXT Champion after being there for 3 weeks, but I was there to scout some talent, see who could go, see who has something that can be made into it down the line or in a couple months or in a year, and then just being out there and having that feel of everybody wants the call-up. Not everybody's ready to go, but everybody is laying it all out there on the line in the ring and I go, "They're doing that, and I stroll in here like I own the place, and then I don't deliver in the ring, I not only let NXT down, I let the title down, I'm not doing my part to make that brand something better." So I said, "Listen, I can stroll in and act like I'm on top of the world and I don't have to try and care", but getting in the ring reinvigorates you just enough to go, "I need to step it up just a little bit more to prove to these guys...there's a reason I'm the champ and there's a reason I'm here - to help you."
Mike Johnson: When you look at Bron Breakker, what were your initial thoughts on him before you stepped in the ring with him and how did that change after locking up?
Dolph Ziggler: Honestly, I don't think it's changed. I saw him and I go, "Man, he looks explosive, like a former football player." He's almost like an excited Pitbull puppy, where you know he only had a handful of matches in a couple of months and one day he's going to be absolutely stunning when his brain, when he's like...the psychology of the business catches up to the power, the strength, the physique, and just constantly wanting to go. I've been speared by Roman Reigns, Edge, Goldberg...Goldberg hurts like hell, this kid hits like a linebacker in his prime and it took the wind out of me and I kicked out and said, "I cannot wait to take that again and have it mean something even more."
Interview Continues on Page 2.
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