Dolph Ziggler Reveals All On Infamous Botched WWE Match
Dolph Ziggler has explained exactly what went wrong with an infamous WWE match and how he tried to salvage what he could from it.
Dolph Ziggler was part of an Elimination Chamber match in 2015 to crown a new Intercontinental Champion as he faced off against King Barrett, R-Truth, Sheamus, Mark Henry, and Ryback for the vacant title. What should have been an action-packed Chamber match soon went off the rails however due to an unplanned moment.
King Barrett sent Dolph Ziggler into Mark Henry’s pod, breaking the plexiglass and leaving the WWE Hall of Famer little choice but to enter the match early causing chaos in the process. At one point during the match, the action stopped with Ziggler clearly dishing out instructions before the action ended with Ryback winning the title.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Dolph Ziggler got into the match that he accepts was terrible as a result of Henry’s early arrival but says it made for some of the most exciting minutes of his life:
You know what’s a really fun one I just remembered? Me and another person that is on this Zoom call (referring to Mark Henry), were in a multi-man match, you can imagine and things didn’t go exactly how they should have and I believe — I think Wade Barrett threw me into Mark Henry’s pod at the Elimination Chamber and it exploded the door and I think we were even in Texas too to make it a bigger deal for Mark and Mark was just standing there and he is not supposed to come out for three more people.
So, I think Wade throws me and it breaks. It’s not supposed to, it wasn’t a planned spot and I’m laying there with broken plastic on the ground and I just hear the crowd come up and just start rumbling for Mark and I go, ‘Oh my God. He’s not supposed to be out here for 20 more minutes.’ I’m like, ‘What the hell are we gonna do?’ I’m like, ‘Don’t come out! Don’t come out!’
And you can’t hear me over the roar of the crowd who’s chanting for Mark to get in the ring… I’m laying on the ground and I just see a boot go past me and I go, ‘Oh no. What are we gonna do?’ And we had the craziest improv, on the fly 15-minute match with six guys.
That is some crazy ass sh*t. I got to a point where I’m trying to call a match on the fly for six different people where you can’t talk to them and the camera has to be on you at all times. So I got to a point to where… I told Ryback, ‘Take everybody’s head off. Put me up in a suplex.’ He’s holding me up in a suplex and I tell the referee to come over. I go, ‘Hold me in a stalling suplex.’
I call a spot to tell this guy to do this, tell this guy to do this, tell this guy to stay the f*ck down.’ Alright, boom. Puts me down. Somebody else, ‘Mark, clean house and then we’re all gonna beat you up and you stay down.’ Okay, great. Somebody else and I think I either get to another Ryback stalling suplex or some other thing where I go, okay, after eight minutes, we now have our orders.
There’s no way this is gonna be great, but I think we can improv the rest of this match and make it all go down and that was some of the most exciting 12 minutes of my life in a terrible, terrible match but, it also, it was funny because you never know what’s gonna happen and you gotta be ready to go.
Dolph Ziggler Leaves WWE In The Past
Dolph Ziggler was released by WWE in September 2023 and since then the former World Heavyweight Champion looks like he might have found a new home. Now known as Nic Nemeth, he recently debuted for NJPW ending up in a ringside fight with new IWGP Global Champion David Finlay.
Nic Nemeth will challenge Finlay for that title on night one of The New Beginning in Sapporo, Japan on February 23rd.