Nic Nemeth (Aka Dolph Ziggler) On Why He Had To Leave WWE

Nic Nemeth began the next chapter of his wrestling career at New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 18, where he sat front row, and later confronted and brawled with new IWGP Global Champion David Finlay. The angle puts Finlay and Nemeth on a collision course for a future match, and the first big test for Nemeth outside of WWE, where he worked as Dolph Ziggler before being released last September.

As it turns out though, Nemeth's been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while. In an appearance on "Busted Open Radio," Nemeth revealed that he's spent the last 6-10 months getting himself ready for life after WWE, to the point that he even indicated he had discussions with WWE about leaving the promotion before his release.

"I've been preparing for this for so long and getting things ready to go that I wasn't like 'What?! What do I do now? Holy [s**t], I'm free!' or whatever," Nemeth said. "I was planning this...half of this entire last contract with WWE, going 'I know at some point, I am being paid way too much money to sit at home. So I'm going to have to get out of here.' I just wanted to always be ready to go, just in case they said 'Hey, by the way, I know you've been doing 90-second matches, can you do 35 minutes on TV with the Undertaker?' 'You're damn right I can.' 

"So I was ready to go anyway, I just wanted to have every option available. So...it wasn't out of the blue, and I had sent a few emails to the boss the last six months, definitively saying 'I have to move on somewhere else. Can you let me do this?' And eventually, without exact back and forth, that's how it worked out."

f you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription