Before his ‘exit’, the last time fans were incredibly invested in Dolph Ziggler was during his Intercontinental Championship feud with The Miz when he was still a part of SmackDown LIVE. The storytelling was great, and the fact that Ziggler put his career on the line had fans on his side.

After that, however, fans never really got behind him as much as no story he featured in seemed to strike a chord with the WWE Universe. He suffered many losses, and in general, it just didn’t seem like he was a valuable member of the SmackDown roster.

That all changed, though, when fans suddenly started to speak about him again. That’s because after capturing the United States Championship at the Clash of Champions event, The Show Off vacated the championship the following Tuesday and was nowhere to be seen for months.

EXIT

Dolph did return as the final entrant in the Royal Rumble, and that short time away seemed to have done the trick as he’s now in the WWE Championship picture. This Sunday at the Fastlane pay-per-view, Ziggler joins Kevin Owens, John Cena, Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin as one of them aims to take the WWE Championship away from AJ Styles in a Six-Pack challenge and head to WrestleMania 34 to battle Shinsuke Nakamura.

However, Ziggler has now revealed that he was the one begging WWE to take him off television, and originally wanted to be kept away for months and not return so soon like he did.

Speaking to All Things Wrestling Radio, Ziggler claimed someone who lost as much as he did on television didn’t deserve to be given regular spots, so he kept asking to be removed.

RETURN

According to Ringside News, he said: “I will say that I really begged and pleaded for a couple months off the television show because no matter how good I am or what I’m up to, it seems that 99 times out of 100, I would lose.

“I didn’t think that I deserved to be on the TV show if I was someone that was losing every single night, so I asked to be taken off. I was hoping for maybe six months or a year, and it ended up being four weeks.”

In a sense, Ziggler is right as a lengthy departure would have genuinely made it seem like he quit and that his contract was up. Staying away for the six months he wanted would have made the return much more impactful compared to the month he did stay away for.

Still, not many would beg to be taken off a show like SmackDown, so it shows that he was willing to make that sacrifice of leaving TV whereas some stars crave a moment under the bright lights.

What do you make of Dolph Ziggler asking WWE to remove him from television? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.