Former World Champion Reveals Motivation For WWE Departure

WWE

A former WWE World Champion has detailed the motivation behind his WWE departure last year after over a decade.

Former World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler was released from WWE back in September 2023, ending his run on WWE’s main roster that began officially back in 2008, and 19 years in total working for the company.

Since his departure Ziggler, now under his real name Nic Nemeth, has achieved a lot of success outside the company, including becoming IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion, and currently reigning as the TNA World Champion.

Speaking to Daily Star, Nemeth opened up on his WWE departure, saying that he had over a year left on his contract at the time of his release.

He also said that he wanted to go out and push himself outside the company during his remaining prime years of his career.

He said:

“WWE was so great. I had a year and a half on my contract still, and I said, ‘Please.’ I go, ‘I’m not doing anything here. I’m just hanging out and doing cold five-minute matches.’ I said, ‘I don’t know how much longer I’m a believable world champion for any other company. I might have five more years, I might have two, I might have ten, I don’t know.’

“But I go ‘Sitting here collecting a paycheck and working for five minutes a week is not helping WWE, and it sure as hell is not helping me.’ So luckily, they gave me the chance to get out of there because I had some time left on my contract.”

Nemeth is set to defend his TNA World Championship against Joe Hendry at the upcoming TNA Genesis pay-per-view on January 19, 2025.

transcription via SEScoops

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• Nic Nemeth
• Dolph Ziggler
• wwe

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