Nic Nemeth is still riding the high from his quick-but-memorable WWE comeback.
The former World Heavyweight Champion stepped back into his old role as Dolph Ziggler on Monday night, working a Last Time Is Now Tournament match against Solo Sikoa. It marked Nemeth’s first WWE bout since his 2023 release, and he opened up about the entire experience during an appearance on Busted Open Radio this morning.
Calling the night “insanely fun and awesome and cool,” Nemeth explained that the return came with a new experience — getting hidden in the building all day like a surprise debut.
“I had to hide out all day, which was fun,” he said. “In 20 years, I got to watch so many people hide or hide under the ring or sit on a bus somewhere — I never got to do the hiding. So I had all black on, and I put like a ski mask over my face and sunglasses. And they pulled me into the loading dock inside of the building. Then I got walked in and I got to hide out for like 5 or 6 hours. You know, once someone comes and visits you then a couple more people come to visit you. And then my brother goes, ‘Oh, I just found out online and it’s official that it’s you.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, great.’ So it took a solid hour of people poking their head into wave to like put it online somewhere and some ‘journalist’ [reported it].”
Nemeth also credited WWE producer Bobby Roode for helping bring the match together, calling it a surreal full-circle moment.
“It was awesome,” he said. “The in-between for a lot of stuff was Bob Roode, who was a badass wrestler and we got to tag together. And he’s the agent, and he’s even better at agenting than he is in the ring. And he’s still jacked, and awesome, and great. It was so cool to have him, like, going back and forth between him before we figured everything out. Surreal moment.”
According to Nemeth, WWE approached him about the surprise appearance two to three weeks ago. With Raw taking place at Madison Square Garden, the stars seemed to align for something that felt bigger than a typical cameo.
“All these different pieces all added up to like — I was excited, but it’s wrestling, we have these egos, we’re crazy,” Nemeth said. “I go, ‘I hope they remember.’ Because otherwise, what am I doing here? And then the music hits and you get that 1/1000th of like, ‘Okay, they do. All right. Let’s go to work.’”
Despite being a bit short on time, Nemeth believes he and Sikoa made the most of every second. Sikoa ultimately scored the win to advance in the tournament to determine John Cena’s final opponent.
“Solo was on point, great the whole way, so easy to work with,” Nemeth noted. “But I really think, in the time allotted, we crushed it. We gave everybody everything we could have. We gave the ups and downs of it. And, man, was the crowd there. It was a beautiful thing. It always flys by, but, like, it flew by. Really wanted to soak that in a little bit more.”
- UPDATE: Backstage Update On Nic Nemeth’s WWE Status Following Surprise Return As Dolph Ziggler On Raw
(H/T to F4WOnline.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
