Celebrity appearances in WWE are becoming a more common occurrence. One in particular lives on long in the memories of the WWE universe. In 2011, Hugh Jackman was a guest on RAW. Brought into a segment with Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder, Jackman had one job to do. Punch Ziggler in the face as hard as he could.
The rest, is WWE history.
Speaking recently on the Out of Character podcast with Ryan Satin, Dolph Ziggler reflected on that moment.
“Backstage, he’s a sweetheart guy,” said Ziggler. “He was so nice, and he was a fan. … He was like, ‘How can we make this awesome?’ And again, that is rare.”
In the interest of putting on a good show, Dolph Ziggler made the decision that he wanted Jackman to punch him. Giving the Hollywood star very clear instructions not to half-ass the effort and punch him as hard as he could.
“I go, ‘Don’t worry, you can go by the jaw, I can take a pretty good punch.’ So right before we went out, I said one last time, I go, ‘Listen man, if you think you’re gonna halfway do it, [or] miss, let’s switch this right now. Because I need you to punch me in the face with my hands down.’ And he goes, ‘I promise you, I won’t let you down.’ And he cracked me in the face pretty damn hard, it was great.” Ziggler said, recalling the events.
The rest is history, with Dolph Ziggler continuing to claim that the shot fractured his jaw. Whether this was true is open for debate, but one thing is for sure, it created one of the most memorable moments in RAW history.
