Former employee speaks out after Dolph Ziggler's two decade long career with WWE comes to an end (Exclusive)
Wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell recently spoke about WWE releasing veteran superstar Dolph Ziggler.
The Showoff has been with the company since 2004 and made his TV debut a year later. He soon became a part of the Spirit Squad and had some memorable feuds with the likes of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kane, and Big Show. Ziggler has had immense success in his singles career as well, winning the World Heavyweight Championship two times. He was also the sole survivor of Team Cena at the 2014 Survivor Series.
This week on Smack Talk, Mantell mentioned that Dolph had been associated with the company for a long time. He claimed that the former world champion had enough money to relax and step away from the business for a few years. The wrestling veteran felt that Ziggler understood how the business works and there would not be any hard feelings on either side after the release.
"Dolph Ziggler, listen, he's been there since World War 2. He's been there forever. Like I say, you get hired to get fired. So... and I'm sure Dolph doesn't have any problem with it. After 20 years, you have stacked enough to get you through the next couple of years. He can go and relax, lay back, go to the Caribbean, go and do whatever he wants to do without a worry in the world. So, there's no hard feelings on anybody's side because everybody understands that." [6:58 - 7:37]
You can watch the full video here:
You can catch the full results of SmackDown here.
The Rock shared an appreciation message for Dolph Ziggler
Soon after news of the releases broke out, WWE megastar The Rock took to Twitter to show solidarity with the released stars.
The People's Champion especially mentioned Dolph Ziggler by name and thanked him for being a true veteran of the ring. Rock lauded Ziggler's two-decade-long career with the company and claimed that he was excited to see what lies ahead for these stars.
Other released stars include Mustafa Ali, Elias, Aliyah, Mansoor, Mace, Rick Boogs, Riddick Moss, Emma, Shelton Benjamin, Top Dolla, Shanky, Ikemen Jiro, Yulisa Leon and many others.
What are your thoughts on the recent WWE releases? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you use the quotes from this article, please embed the YouTube video and add a H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcript.