WWE superstar Dolph Ziggler disagrees with the idea that in order to get television time, superstars need to actively pitch angles and ideas to the creative team, showing the extra effort to get time.
“That’s not true, not at all,” Ziggler said, during a recent appearance on Lillian Garcia’s “Chasing Glory” podcast.
“11.5 out of 12 years I was doing everything I could, pitching ideas, having guys like Shawn Michaels tell me how awesome I was. I got to a point where I said to Shawn, ‘I’m going to go out here in this dark match and you tell me why the hell I’m not on TV kicking ass.’ He goes, ‘Ah Ok.’ I had the match, came to the back and he said, ‘Yeah, I don’t know.’ So, I got to a point where I was so fed up and that’s years ago. So, it happens.”
Ziggler also discussed his approach,
“I always told myself, ‘Do everything you possibly can. Don’t have something like, ‘I wish I would have told Vince [McMahon] this,” Ziggler said. “I wish I would have represented myself this way. I wish I would have pitched this idea. I wish I would have done this one extra thing where I hit the gym a little harder and look better on TV’…I hit every aspect I could so the frustration is it’s a little on yourself because maybe somebody hates me from eight years ago and they bring it up at every meeting. I have no idea; but, I’ve done everything I can…If you’ve done everything you can and creative has nothing for you sometimes they have nothing for you. Sometimes it’s personal. Sometimes it’s not.
People who tell me that, a couple old timers, even Hall of Famers, they’re like, ‘That’s on you.’ I’m like, ‘No man,’” Ziggler stated. “Seven years ago maybe it is on me. Now they know how good I am. I know how good I am. It’s not all in my court there to put myself on the show.”
