WWE has denied 42-year-old star a proper push due to his "history" with Triple H, feels veteran (Exclusive)

Due to the sheer scale of WWE's operations, it isn't uncommon for many talented superstars to get lost in the shuffle. Dolph Ziggler's name falls under that category, and Vince Russo recently spoke at length about The Showoff's career.

Tyler Breeze revealed during an interview how Dolph Ziggler once told him they weren't WWE guys, a message of caution about what Prince Pretty needed to expect on the main roster.

Despite winning the world title, Ziggler has never truly been "the guy" in WWE, and Vince Russo found it really odd that the company missed out on a consistent main event-level star.

Russo viewed Dolph Ziggler from a wrestler's perspective and believed the 42-year-old had everything that made an outstanding professional wrestler.

"Bro, I was reading an article of a Tyler Breeze interview today, and Tyler Breeze talked about Dolph Ziggler telling him, 'Bro, we're not one of theirs.' Bro, but think about that. I talk about this all the time; I talk about wrestling and politics all the time, especially when talent is involved in booking, because you look at a guy like Dolph Ziggler, and I'm looking at Dolph as a writer. No bias, no nothing. You've got this great-looking guy with a great body, a great worker, a great talker." [28:30 - 29:10]

Dolph Ziggler has often been compared to Shawn Michaels due to the similarities in their looks and style of work. Vince Russo also felt Ziggler was quite influenced by the Heartbreak Kid's career and was honestly surprised by how underutilized he has been in WWE.

Russo said that Dolph not getting better opportunities would be because of something that might have happened in the past involving Triple H.

"Bro, very similar to Shawn Michaels in many, many ways, very similar. Why is he not one of theirs? Because I guarantee you it goes back to history with Hunter, and something happened in a match in 1995; that is how it works." [29:11 - 29:30]

Vince Russo on WWE dropping the ball on Dolph Ziggler in 2014

For someone who'd already been in WWE for nearly 10 years, Dolph Ziggler was arguably on the cusp of ascending to the next level during his feud with The Authority in 2014.

Dolph Ziggler won it for his babyface team at Survivor Series that year and looked like a deserved recipient of a push. WWE, however, never capitalized on his momentum, and within months, he was back in the midcard picture.

Vince Russo looked back at the mistake of not backing Ziggler enough when he was a popular anti-establishment character and added:

"There is no reason in the world Dolph Ziggler should just be a good little hand. Bro, I remember, and you'd remember too, Chris, because your memory is far sharper than mine; remember when they were rolling out Hunter and Stephanie every single week, and Dolph was the anti-establishment (guy)? And a big pay-per-view was coming up, bro; they were this close to getting him over huge, and they took it away that quickly. Around that time (Survivor Series), yeah." [29:31 - 31:00]

Could Dolph Ziggler have been a bigger name in WWE with more support from the management? Sound off in the comments section below.

---

Please credit Sportskeeda Wrestling and embed the YouTube video if you use quotes from this article.