Quotes from Dolph Ziggler

I have more respect for amateur wrestlers, especially collegiate ones, than anyone else. It's a gutsy sport with no real payoff except for knowing that you were better than someone else. It doesn't have big crowds, it doesn't have big money, but it is fun going one on one.

I was a big fan of amateur wrestling, and I loved it and dedicated my whole life to it for 20-something years, and it's not really a glory-getting sport.

When something special happens in wrestling, it's that much more special to me and for me to go, 'That was awesome,' because I'm as bitter as there is, so if you can get me to go, 'Woah, that was cool,' a couple of times, it's a special show.

Getting the approval of Ric Flair is the wrestling world's version of Johnny Carson calling you over to the desk after you just crushed a standup set on 'The Tonight Show.'

I started wrestling when I was five. I lost my first match and cried in front of my dad, and I never wanted to do that again.

My first time actually appearing in a match at SummerSlam was 2010, and I was wrestling against Rey Mysterio in the opening match of the show. I was pretty brand new as Dolph Ziggler, and obviously Rey Mysterio was a well known superstar.

When every new football season starts, we get all excited about the Browns. But no matter how bad they do, no matter how much they say they're rebuilding, they always have the support of that town behind them. No matter what, Cleveland is always behind the Browns, and we always root for them. One of these days, it's going to pay off!

WWE has no issues with my stand-up. I do not miss work for any reason and will continue to work around my schedule because I'm a professional and do not allow complacency or laziness.

I want to know why people are getting laughs. Why this joke works and why that one didn't work. It all comes back to helping me be a better WWE Superstar. So I love it.

It's the WWE; it's Vince McMahon's show. He lays out what he wants from you. It's not always going to be what I want.

Any comparison to a WWE legend or someone I've looked up to is really cool, but make no mistake about it, my ego is too big to want to be a really good replica of someone else!

Growing up in Cleveland, the first time I went to a WWE event, Cleveland didn't even have an arena. The Cavaliers were playing at the Richfield Coliseum. I would go out there.

For the longest time, Cena would be, and still is, filibustered by half the WWE universe.

The thing is, in the WWE, we have the WWE title, the World title, the United States title, the Intercontinental title, the Divas title, the Tag Team titles. And I feel like, in this business, when Mr. Perfect had that Intercontinental title, that was the belt we saw as the stepping stone to becoming 'the man.' The franchise of the WWE.

A lot of people are successful in this business because of a catchphrase or athletic ability or charisma or wrestling; Ric Flair is the personification of all of those things, much like his daughter Charlotte, as she is already a multiple-time champion after only a few years in the WWE.

When I was 5 years old, I wanted to be a WWE superstar.

Miz and I grew up a couple of minutes apart in the Cleveland area and both had dreams of being WWE Superstars and being the best.

When I finally get the chance to say what I want, to talk about where we're going from here on out, when my voice, my words, become the measuring stick for WWE, I think that's the moment that's going to reinvent our entire business.

WWE has given me an out where, any days off that I have, they allow me to work on outside projects.

For the most part, and even with Miz, the WWE superstars are so good to the fans and everything they do.

My goal when I first started in the WWE was to stand out.

I hit an exercise - arms and legs, a set of curls, a set of tricep pushdowns, and then grab the bar and squat 40-20-30 and do it over again. I hit that a couple times through, then go in the sauna. I'll do a couple calf raises, then hop on a treadmill at 15 - the highest incline it can have while maintaining a fast-paced walk.

Little kids who get picked on and bullied can relate to the Lucha Dragons, who are smaller, but they're quick and exciting and never give up.

I'm a huge Jon Lovitz fan.