Dolph Ziggler’s Original Creative Path Revealed!

Crazy ideas are pitched left, right and center from the WWE creative team. But of course, not all of them become reality. While talking on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, Dolph Ziggler spoke about many aspects of his tenure within the WWE. Including the original idea posted to the ‘Show Off’ of being introduced as Kurt Angel’s protegee … Oh, it’s true…

This week on #ChasingGlory @HEELZiggler shared his journey to the WWE and the obstacles he faced along the way. Don’t miss the story of his first tryout with fellow WWE Superstar @fightbobby! @ApplePodcasts @Spotify @spreaker @SoundCloud
-ChasingGlory APP & more! pic.twitter.com/DS1QOOzVEO

— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) July 12, 2018

While joking about his frustration with his bosses and storylines, he delved into that one particular creative idea that never came to pass and was instead packaged as a pom-pom wielding male cheerleader;

“A little before I got called up to do the Spirit Squad I was told by the in-between when you’re hearing you’re gonna get called up to WWE, the main roster. They were like, ‘hey they really like that you have an amateur wrestling background’ and I had my crew cut, my military haircut. They go, ‘it’s great that you have no tattoos, we’re kinda looking at you as Kurt Angle’s protegee or something.’

“If Kurt Angle hadn’t won that gold medal and came to WWE I might not have even got a chance. But because he was so good and he did so well when he got here they’re like, ‘maybe we can give some smaller guys a try and because of him I got a chance to work here. And they go, hey maybe we consider you as his protegee and I go, ‘what? This is the craziest thing ever!’ Cut to four weeks later and I’m a cheerleader with four other guys. But still the thought was there that maybe that was gonna happen.”

The Spirit Squad made up of Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey were a staple team of Monday Night Raw during 2006. Mostly remembered for their participation in the McMahon Vs D Generation X feud. The Spirit Squad bore the brunt of Triple H and Shawn Michaels jokes on more than one occasion. However, the plucky five-some did also have a Tag Team title run to their name, with a staggering reign of 216 days before the group disbanded in November of the same year.

“It just became a rotating cast of legends. It was like Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair and it never ended and it was like. ‘Woah.’ We were learning stuff that other people didn’t get a chance to learn. We were very spoiled. We were kinda seen as jokes but also we were fighting DX in the main event of a pay-per-view in a cage or something.”

“If they give me a chance I don’t want them to have a reason to send me back. That’s what drove me to be better than I should be. It was half the time we were a joke but half the time we were in main events of pay-per-views and with five of us we could make up for it.”

Do you think Dolph would have worked as Angles protegee? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter. Don’t forget to check out our Discord chat, where you can talk to all of your favorites from WrestleTalk.

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