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Yesterday, WWE visited The Children's Hospital of Montefiore in The Bronx, visiting with patients and throwing a big party for them in conjunction with the Connor's Cure charity founded by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. At the event, I had the chance to speak with Dolph Ziggler about a number of different topics. Here is a complete transcript.
MIKE JOHNSON: We're here at the WWE event here at Montefiore Hospital and talking to Dolph Ziggler, who's going to be in one of the main event matches this week at Summerslam. Talk to us a little about this event and why events like this are important to not just yourself but WWE overall?
DOLPH ZIGGLER: It's huge because personally, it's great to give back to the kids you see in the crowd and get a few minutes of one on one time, get some time to see them and put a smile on their face. Usually, when WWE has an event, we are in that city and we are gone that night and onto the next. When it comes to Summerslam or Wrestlemania, we're actually in the city for a couple of days and that allows us to give back to the community and see a couple of kids every chance we possibly can. I have four more appearances over the next few days but it's all about giving back to these guys who treat us so well all year round. They come to our shows and we like to give back and have some personal interaction.
JOHNSON: It's good to see they are keeping you busy. It's not like you have a main event match on Sunday or anything.
ZIGGLER: [Laughs.] That's going to be a blast. That's going to be fun. We're going to beat the heck out of each other, but more importantly, the next couple of days, it's going to be about getting a couple of workouts in and do all these appearances, say hi to as many kids as I can, high-five as many as I can and just spend time with them.
JOHNSON: Obviously, compared to the last time we spoke, which was a year ago, you are in a way different position. Talk about the brand split and the opportunities it provides not just for you but for everyone on the roster.
ZIGGLER: For years, we have said that if there was some kind of split or an extension or a draft that it would open the doors of opportunities for so many different people and different Superstars on different brands. We've done that before but we also had Smackdown as still a taped show that would air a few days later in the Internet age where we go, 'I read all the results. I may not need to see that in person.' We went live, live on Monday, live on Tuesday and now both rosters are competing with each other and obviously, on the very first day of Smackdown Live, I won a huge match for myself, so already if this is the end of it, huge opportunity for me and several other Superstars.
JOHNSON: There's been a lot of talk about competition. That's been one of the buzzwords since the brand split. How important is it for the Smackdown locker room to compete with the Raw locker room? Just a few weeks ago, you were all in the same locker room. Obviously, there's always a competition for the top spot in the company but now there's two locker rooms. Talk about what the real competition has been liked and how has this changed the Smackdown locker room roster since it's come about?
ZIGGLER: Yeah, it is an actual competition because like it or not, we've known for years that Monday night - that is the main building block "A" show of the brands but now it's our chance with Smackdown with a live show to go, 'Listen, in a couple of weeks, a couple of months, or who knows - I didn't see the ratings, we could have taken them over already - it's a genuine competition to put on the better show. We're all competitive athletes that want to be the best and if you are getting a better opportunity on your brand because of the expansion, that's so great. You have a target on your back, because not only do you want to win, but you want to show those guys that we are the "A" show. I feel like the entire locker room has that feeling. They don't have the chip on their shoulder that I have, but they have one on there.
JOHNSON: How excited were you when you realized you were going to be facing Dean Ambrose for the WWE World championship?
ZIGGLER: It's crazy. It wasn't even in my head that day, or that week or even the last few weeks. I had been focused on several other different things and when I found out it was Ambrose, I said, "Wow, this is going to be a very different, interesting match. It went from, and I'll base this on my Twitter feed, from 'no one cares. You weren't doing anything big a few weeks ago or months ago so we don't care about you' - this is coming in on my Twitter feed - to, all of a sudden, the last couple of weeks to 'Whoa, this is really fun to watch you bring the best out of each other. We're really excited about this match' and that's the snarky Internet giving a compliment. So, hopefully we've done our job. [Tuesday] night we used real heartstrings to tug at and used every raw emotion we could, not just to top Raw and say we are going for the bigger championship here, but because we want to be the two. The two of us, who don't really know each other that well, have been feeding off the real energy of each other and it's going to be amazing.
JOHNSON: Well, I know you have a lot of other people waiting to talk to you and more importantly, a lot of other kids to see, so I thank you for your time today.
ZIGGLER: You got it bro.
For more on Connor's Cure, click here.
For more on The Children's Hospital of Montefiore, click here.
Follow Dolph Ziggler on Twitter @HeelZiggler.
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