Nic Nemeth, formerly Dolph Ziggler in WWE, talks about being ready to leave the sports entertainment juggernaut and credits Matt Cardona with helping him prepare for what awaits him.
After nearly two decades on WWE's main roster programming, Nic Nemeth would be released by the company in 2023. Currently, he is focused on NJPW and TNA Wrestling.
During a recent interview with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the former WWE World Champion noted that he had gotten to a point where he was ready to leave WWE and had asked for his release on different occasions, but WWE was never willing to let him go.
"I started realizing, OK I’m a mainstay here, I’m needed. But I got to a point where I was ready to go. I’d asked the company a few different times whether I was ready to go, and they told me I was signed, and they weren’t letting me go. So I started asking them, ‘Hey, can I start doing this, can I start something else’. So I was prepared to be done and to start exploring other avenues," he recalled.
Nemeth, who doesn't have any familial ties to the industry outside of his brother, Ryan Nemeth, credits Matt Cardona with "giving him a lay of the land" for life beyond WWE.
"I don’t know the independent scene. I didn’t wrestle on the independents, I don’t have a dad or a mom in the business, didn’t have a legacy in the business, didn’t have a friend in it. Nobody was there to vouch for me. I was a collegiate amateur wrestler before WWE, and I was a fan. So I didn’t know the world outside (WWE) and if there was no Internet, things would be very different, but thankfully we’re all connected now. My friend Matt Cardona has been all over the world these last two years and he was telling me ‘Oh, I went here and did this, and here’s what’s happening there,’ giving me a lay of the land on different countries and different promotions."
Nemeth says after asking for this opportunity for years, he knows he needs to deliver and he thinks he's ready to go.
"I spent the last six, eight months, a year, saying ‘I’m going to be in the best shape of my life when all this goes down,’ and when it finally got to the point where I asked (WWE) enough and they gave me my release, then it became 'OK, well you asked for this for the last five years, you’d better deliver.' So, OK, I’ve got this, I’m doing this, I have insurance ready, I’ve been training in the ring, watching different things, and I’m ready to go. So let’s go," he said.
Nic Nemeth will be challenging David Finlay for the IWGP Global Title in the headlining bout at NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo on February 23.
He will also be a part of NJPW Windy City Riot. Learn more here.
