WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler recently spoke with My FOX 8 to promote the WWE Studios film "Countdown" and his standup comedy gigs. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On whether or not any of his fellow WWE performers help him with his standup comedy:
"Like, Cesaro is a good friend of mine and he is very into the celebrity roasts from 30 [or] 40 years ago with Don Rickles and they're so funny. And he's constantly sending me, yeah, The Dean Martin [Celebrity] Roasts. He'll send me a minute of this and that and we'll have the funniest laughs about the dumbest jokes. But in this, they're tame, but they're really funny because in this day and age, we've seen everything. There [are] explosions on TV and everything you can think of, but it's just so basic and simple and having fun and smart. And he'll tell me a joke that I think is corny, but we'll laugh for hours at it, so everybody likes different things and that's what I try and do. I try and do a little bit of smart political humor and then blend in something dumb that makes me laugh or that [The] Miz would get."
On Cesaro's future in WWE:
"[Cesaro]'s a very nice young man. He's a great guy. He's awesome at wrestling. He's a gentleman. He dresses the part. And he's going to do great things here. He's one of my favorites for sure."
On two different times he thought he was going to be released by WWE:
"Two different times, years ago, I thought I was going to be released by the company because I had done a character that was a caddy for a couple of months and it didn't work out. And they brought me in as a cheerleader and they were like, 'okay, see you later!' And I go, 'well, if that was it, and I get one more chance, I want to be such an asset that they need me here'. And so, not that I wasn't already working hard. I went to two different schools each day instead of the one and then I would go after hours. And I go, 'I'm going to be such an asset that they need me' and it seems that way for now as I'm here mostly helping and giving back to a lot of the newer guys who are in the ring and so at least I always have that in my back pocket that I can give back a little bit more because of the hard work I put in, I think."
On hoping his absence from WWE while filming "Countdown" would reinvigorate the WWE Universe's interest in him:
"Before I did the movie, I had in 10 years or so missed about three weeks of work, which is unheard of around here just because of the injuries that happen because it's very dangerous, what we do. I've been very fortunate for years to never really go away, which was almost a little unfortunate because you always saw me. And not that I got stale, but if you saw me every week for seven years, you'd be like, 'hey, take a little break - get out of here'. So this was the first chance I had to kind of go away for a little bit and hopefully, they'd want me back, so I was gone for about five weeks, I think, in Vancouver [Canada]."