There's nothing wrong with WWE superstars taking inspiration from legends of the business.

Although, there's a difference with taking a leaf out of their book - like Kevin Owens recently did at Extreme Rules - and apparently trying too hard to be like somebody else.

EMULATING HBK

That's one criticism Dolph Ziggler has faced to this day is that he tries to emulate Shawn Michaels too much.

That's something The Heartbreak Kid himself had noted some years ago, stating in an interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin that he desperately needs to differentiate himself.

Perhaps this is why The Showoff was never able to reach the same heights he did when he became the World Heavyweight Champion.

Now, though, he's finding some success on Monday Night RAW alongside Drew McIntyre, especially during their feud with Seth Rollins.

Despite that, the comparisons simply won't stop, especially since his alliance with McIntyre has been compared to Michaels and Diesel during their time as Two Dudes With Attitudes.

Ziggler, though, has finally responded to the claims that he's copying Michaels when he spoke to Lilian Garcia on her Chasing Glory podcast, claiming that he never intended on mimicking the D-Generation X member.

ZIGGLER'S RESPONSE

According to Reddit, an excerpt from his interview read: "It's a little bit of yes, but mostly no. In the weirdest way, when everyone liked Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior I was really into them but I had an uncle who was really into wrestling, and he would show me old beta tapes. He loved the Four Horsemen and Ric Flair.

"So as you get older you start to learn that Ric Flair's awesome at his job and he's awesome at these promos, but when you're a kid you're like, 'What's this guy in the suit talking about? I wanna see Ultimate Warrior with his facepaint run down to the ring. So you get older and get into Ric Flair but as a young kid, I got into Ric Flair.

"As you start to learn the business and psychology behind things then you go, 'Oh every night Ric's doing an hour with someone he may or may not know. Someone who may be terrible at wrestling and it's some awesome match. I go I wanna be that guy.'

"So the blonde hair and over-the-top stuff is Flair stuff so... and then when I got to OVW and I was doing some more psychology and doing the homework and I go, 'I believe when Shawn's getting beat up I believe that.' A huge factor is fifteen years with great storylines here with genuine emotion on him. I can't go out there and do the same thing he's doing because no one will give a damn, I don't have any storylines with that backing.

"But I go 'I believe him and most of the guys I don't believe when they're hurt, so I try to take that emotion and the selling part of our business.'

"I try to take what he did and it almost mixed with Mr. Perfect a little bit and Ric Flair, and then I had been trained originally to do Memphis style 1970's show the world you're getting beat up, and we had just went into the Reality Era so I quickly went back into, 'Okay you can do some big things here, but it's gotta seem real and focused.'"

Although Ziggler might be slightly distancing himself from the Michaels comparisons, it's still evident that there has been some inspiration there.

What do you make of Dolph Ziggler's response that he's copying Shawn Michaels? Have YOUR say in the comments section below.

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