Dolph Ziggler Talks Moonlighting As A Stand-Up Comic

Dolph Ziggler has been a standout performer in the WWE for close to a decade. The self-appointed Show Off has always been abrasive and sarcastic to the core and it seems that for the ‘#HEEL’ it isn’t enough to test his wit against hecklers in the crowd and trolls on social media because he’s adopted a side career as a stand-up comedian. Recently, the former multi-time Intercontinental Champion spoke to Los Angeles’ CBS affiliate about his career on stage as a stand-up comedian.

“I’m a quick smart-mouth kind of guy, so my whole life I’ve been ready with a quick jab back,” Ziggler told me recently, adding that interactions with social media trolls keep him at the top of his game. “You try to do that and also have fun, because there’s so much negativity out there, and I don’t want to be part of it.”

Ziggler was also asked about how long it took for his skin to thicken when it came to social media trolls. In true Dolph Ziggler fashion, he said that this is something he lives for:

It’s pretty nuts. I live for it, though. I’m a quick smart-mouth kind of guy so my whole life I’ve been ready with a quick jab back, which is all of social media now. I try to make it as fun as possible. As a kid, being a smaller guy and getting bullied, I got used to zinging people back and making them pay for it. You try to do that and also have fun, because there’s so much negativity out there, and I don’t want to be part of it.

Dolph said it is very similar when it comes to hecklers at a stand-up gig:

I feel like I’m quick enough based on whatever happened to get them. And mostly a crowd is just there to see you or see the entertainer, so they’re already on your side a little bit. So, as long as you get a little bit of a zing back on them, which I live for improv stuff on the fly. So, base it on if they have a [stupid] hat on or whatever is happening with them. You put that in a quick line right back and they shut up.

Dolph said that he enjoys being in control of his own creative direction when it comes to comedy shows.

I’m booking this card and I’m in control of the creative and building up everything. Hopefully, it goes well… hopefully.

Dolph Ziggler also talked about his phenomenal Summer-long program with Seth Rollins over the Intercontinental Championship. He cited their next-level athletic ability as being a positive but not always leading to great matches with others that he’s wrestled in the past. He claims that it’s really their passion and their desire to go above and beyond that allowed these matches to be as special as they were:

When you’re as good as we are — and I mean that [humbly] — we know how good we are. You can still not have the chemistry. I’ve been in there with some of the best, and I was so frustrated because we just wouldn’t meld, or the story wouldn’t be correct, because two different people are telling two different things. He’s an up-and-coming kid, who is going to be one of the best of all-time. I have been there before, but also want to have this legacy that I can do whatever I want. If I’m ever given a chance, I knock it out of the park. And even if I don’t get given that chance, I snatch it up and knock it out of the park. So, the both of us, you have to know we are both draining our brains to go, “How can this be the best thing anyone has ever seen in any company, any year, any WrestleMania, any SummerSlam?” We want to go out and outdo the other one, and that’s what makes good wrestling.