Dolph Ziggler says his return to WWE TV was planned months in advance.
Dolph Ziggler made his return to WWE TV this year for the first time since the 2019 Royal Rumble pay-per-view. In his return, Ziggler ambushed the current WWE Champion Kofi Kingston to set up their match at WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia. Ziggler and Kofi have been feuding since late May and on a recent edition of SmackDown Live, Kingston bested Dolph to keep Dolph out of the WWE Championship match at Extreme Rules.
Upon Dolph's return, Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp reported that Kevin Owens told WWE that he did not want to go to Saudi Arabia for Super ShowDown which led to the thinking that Dolph Ziggler was swapped in for Kevin Owens. Dolph Ziggler addressed that idea when he joined the Sunday Night's Main Event podcast and revealed that his return to WWE TV was planned three months in advance.
“Well, I mean, a lot of people online tell me that it is very last minute, but as someone who has worked closely with the boss in the company for 15 years, it was set up for about three months. But, I asked for a specific time away to be off of television, because I thought my character had kind of done the same thing over and over and maybe lost eight or nine, or nine-and-a-half times out of ten and we needed to get something fresh and different with it so I asked for 90 days to go away and I can’t sit at home, I’m a psychopath." He continued, "I’ve been living out of a suitcase for 15 years so, I also got to do stand-up sets and do some different things, and work with my brother, write some other stuff, sketches and improv. But also, I just needed to be away from the TV show on television like character-wise. I’ve been very lucky, for 14-and-a-half years, I’ve only probably missed a month, a month-and-a-half in 14-and-a-half years to where, I needed to be off TV for a little bit so, the cool part was, I have this other job to where I can go get better at that while I’m refreshing my character.”
Dolph Ziggler teamed with Kevin Owens on this past Tuesday's edition of SmackDown Live and after failing to earn their way into the SmackDown Tag Titles match at Extreme Rules, Kevin Owens decided to leave Ziggler behind.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Sunday Night's Main Event podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
