Dolph Ziggler’s Original WWE Name Revealed

Dolph Ziggler wasn’t the name originally planned for the current WWE Intercontinental Champion.

Ziggler was recently a guest on Lillian Garcia’s Chasing Glory Podcast.  During the podcast, Dolph and Garcia discussed how Ziggler’s name came to be.  The Dolph Ziggler character was reintroduced after spending time as Nicky from the Spirit Squad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GFdurdAFec

After returning to Raw, Ziggler spent time introducing himself to his fellow competitors.  He offered his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Dolph Ziggler.”

However, if he hadn’t spoken up when first getting the call to return to TV, he may have been forced to say, “Hi, I’m David Diggler.”

Dolph told Lillian that he got a call telling him he would be going on TV as David Diggler.  The ‘Show-Off’ didn’t feel the Diggler name would fit into the reality era time period of WWE.

WWE management told Dolph he had 15 minutes to come up with something different.  After texting everyone he knew, he had a great-grandfather named Rudolph and thought of Dolph Lundgren from Rocky IV.  He called back and said Dolph, but asked to scrap the Diggler name.

When he got to Raw, he was handed a slip of paper with the name Dolph Ziggler.  He later saw Vince McMahon and told him Dolph Ziggler sounded too cartoonish.  Vince told him he loved it and it sounded different.  So, we now have Dolph Ziggler. You can listen to the entire Chasing Glory with Lillian Garcia Podcast here.

• chasing glory podcast
• Lillian Garcia
• lilian garcia
• Dolph Ziggler
• Vince McMahon
• wwe

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