Dolph Ziggler: I Told Hugh Jackman To Punch Me As Hard As He Could So I Wouldn’t Get Fired
Image Credit: WWE
Many WWE fans can still recall how renowned actor Hugh Jackman once punched Dolph Ziggler live on Monday Night RAW in 2011.
At the time, Ziggler stated that the strike caused a fracture in his jaw. Whether that’s true or not, the moment produced one of the most memorable celebrity appearances in modern WWE history.
During a recent appearance on Ryan Satin’s ‘Out Of Character’ podcast, Ziggler looked back on his interraction with Jackman, both behind the scenes and on the show. He explained how Jackman was a true fan who wanted to make his involvement with the show “awesome.”
“Backstage, he’s a sweetheart guy,” said Ziggler. “He was so nice, and he was a fan. He remembered Brooklyn Brawler coming to a show when he was a kid, he remembered a bunch of different things. He was like, ‘How can we make this awesome?’ And again, that is rare. You could be bringing up someone else, and I’d be like, ‘It was okay.’ Like this guy wanted to make this amazing. And he didn’t have to. There was no rules for him, he could do whatever he wanted.
“And we figured it out where, he’s got Broski’s headband on, and he’s gonna punch me in the face.”
Ziggler then described how he urgently told Jackman to punch him in the face because he needed the angle to look as realistic as possible. The former World Heavyweight Champion recalled how he told Jackman that his job was on the line. Thankfully, Jackman held up his end of the deal by hitting Ziggler as hard as he could.
“I go, if you don’t punch me in the face as hard as you can, I’m gonna get fired, and I’m coming after you,'” said Ziggler. “I go, ‘We have 500 cameras out there, and a world watching. You gotta punch me. We got enough people saying this stuff’s phony anyway. You gotta freaking hit me and make this count.’
“I go, ‘Don’t worry, you can go by the jaw, I can take a pretty good punch.’ So right before we went out, I said one last time, I go, ‘Listen man, if you think you’re gonna halfway do it, [or] miss, let’s switch this right now. Because I need you to punch me in the face with my hands down.’ And he goes, ‘I promise you, I won’t let you down.’ And he cracked me in the face pretty damn hard, it was great.
The full episode is available here: