Being a male cheerleader was hardly the best of starts for Nic Nemeth, but the TNA World Champion was determined to make the persona work.
Nemeth, as Nicky, was part of the Spirit Squad that was introduced in 2006, though this came after Nemeth’s previous role as the caddy of Kerwin White/Chavo Guerrero.
On a recent edition of the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Nemeth recalled his time as a member of the Spirit Squad. He said,
“I was a frickin’ cheerleader. My shot is becoming one-fifth of a cheerleader group that gets bounced around. You go, ‘Well, if this is the only chance I ever get to be in WWE on their television show, I’m gonna do this to the absolute best f’ing way I can so that I can tell myself that if this was my shot, I gave it everything.’
“[How you fix it is] you show the boss that if he tells you, ‘Hey, you’re a cheerleader now,’ you are [a f*****] cheerleader … when the time comes for you to pick your battles [and choose your own way to go] character-wise, that’s when you step in and do it.”
In 2008, Nemeth was reintroduced to the WWE Universe as Dolph Ziggler and would go on to become a multi-time World Champion before his release in 2023.
Nemeth’s tenure as a Spirit Squad alum was referenced during his 2016 feud with The Miz which saw the A-Lister bring back two other members to taunt the ‘Show Off.’
