Former WWE star Nic Nemeth (previously known as Dolph Ziggler) recently revealed that he was ready to leave WWE to explore new avenues.
Nemeth had a storied career in WWE but that’s all in the past. He recently ended a 19-year run with the company as he was part of the first wave of releases after the launch of TKO Group Holdings.
Following his release, Nemeth arrived in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he introduced his ‘Wanted Man gimmick.’ He eventually showed up in TNA Wrestling. Nemeth had previously disclosed that several individuals contacted him after his release and wanted to sign him into their company.
Nemeth will be a part of Title Fight Friday on night one of New Beginning in Sapporo on February 23.
Nic Nemeth revealed he had been planning to exit WWE
Ahead of his debut, Nic Nemeth spoke to NJPW on whether there had been a big culture shock in that adjustment after his exit from WWE, or if was it more of an exciting process. Here is what he said:
“It’s a little bit of both. The first six or seven years of my career, I would get to every Monday after Wrestlemania thinking ‘well, this is the day when I’m gone!’ (laughs). So I would think about, OK, I can go back to school, go to law school, be a manager at Chipotle… you start thinking about all these things and get ready to go so you’re not blindsided by being told you’re released.”
The former World Champion revealed that he was well aware that he was a mainstay in WWE but still got to a point where he was determined to leave. He said:
“But after about ten, 15 years of that I started realising, OK I’m a mainstay here, I’m needed. But I got to a point where I was ready to go. I’d asked the company a few different times whether I was ready to go, and they told me I was signed, and they weren’t letting me go. So I started asking them, ‘hey, can I start doing this, can I start something else’. So I was prepared to be done and to start exploring other avenues.”
Nic Nemeth further outlined how he prepared himself to attain what he’s been planning to. He said:
“I spent the last six, eight months, a year, saying ‘I’m going to be in the best shape of my life when all this goes down,’ and when it finally got to the point where I asked (WWE) enough and they gave me my release, then it became ‘OK, well you asked for this for the last five years, you’d better deliver.’ So, OK, I’ve got this, I’m doing this, I have insurance ready, I’ve been training in the ring, watching different things, and I’m ready to go. So let’s go.”
At New Beginning, Nic Nemeth is all set to challenge the inaugural NJPW Global Champion David Finlay for the title.
