Scrapped WWE Raw Plans For Returning Ex-World Champion Revealed
A former WWE World Champion explained that plans for his return were altered.
The 16-man Last Time Is Now Tournament that WWE has run to determine John Cena’s final opponent on December 13th featured two surprise entrants. Both of those surprise entrants were long-time WWE superstars who left the company in the last five years: Zack Ryder on SmackDown and Dolph Ziggler on Raw.
On WWE Monday Night Raw from Madison Square Garden in New York City, Solo Sikoa awaited his opponent when the familiar music of former 2-time WWE World Champion Dolph Ziggler played. After nearly 20 years in WWE, Ziggler left the company in 2023 and has gone on to compete for TNA, where he uses his real name Nic Nemeth. He’s also a former TNA World Champion.
Ziggler got a big ovation from the crowd, he hit a lot of big moves during his match, but unfortunately fell victim to Solo’s Samoan Spike to give Sikoa the win. The way Ziggler sold the Samoan Spike made it look as deadly as ever, too.
During an appearance on Off The Ropes with Jonathan Coachman, Ziggler said there was a plan for WWE to announce him for the tournament rather than make it a surprise, but he opposed it.
“A few weeks ago when I was told, it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have you in this thing and we’re gonna announce it ahead of time. They’re going to show brackets’ or something, and I go, ‘Oh my God, that’s such a bad idea.’
I go, ‘Is there any way we’re not doing this?’ They go, ‘There might be something they’re gonna put out today. It’ll be on social media. Maybe retweet or something.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I hope this doesn’t happen’ and nothing happened.” (H/T Fightful)
Dolph Ziggler Kept WWE Return Quiet As Best He Could
In another interview about his WWE return match, Dolph Ziggler revealed that he told his brother about it, but otherwise, he made sure not to tell anyone else. He also revealed how long he had known about the surprise return.
“Two, three weeks, perhaps. There is a handful of surprises and big moments that everybody remembers. I didn’t tell my parents. I told my brother. ‘If anybody finds out, I’ll know you told them because I told nobody else.’
I’m in a group chat with Bobby Roode, Zack Ryder, and Brian Myers. I didn’t say anything. Me and Zack didn’t say anything. He said nothing.
A couple interviews at The Big Event, they were like, ‘Are you wrestling on Monday at the Garden?’ ‘Pshhh, I wish. That would be cool. Cena’s last Raw.’”
Even though he had a great performance, Dolph Ziggler is under contract to TNA Wrestling as Nic Nemeth, and it’s not known if WWE would want to sign him in the future.
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