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Nick Nemeth

Nicholas Theodore "Nick" Nemeth (born July 27, 1980) is an American professional wrestler, currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the name Dolph Ziggler on the Raw brand. He is best known for his performances as Spirit Squad member Nicky from 2006.

Nemeth signed a development contract with WWE in 2004, and was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). He was brought up to the Raw brand in 2005 as Kerwin White's sidekick. He was, however, sent back to OVW shortly afterwards, where he joined the Spirit Squad. They debuted on Raw in January 2006, and won the World Tag Team Championship before returning to OVW that November. In September 2007, Nemeth was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling, where he formed a tag team with Brad Allen. He returned to Raw as Ziggler in September 2008.

Nemeth is a former World Tag Team Champion as a member of the Spirit Squad, and has also held the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship twice; once with Brad Allen, and once with Gavin Spears.

Career

Amateur wrestling

Nemeth wrestled for the Roman Catholic St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio where he holds the school record for most pins in a career with 82. When he attended Kent State University he joined their wrestling team, eventually setting the record for most career wins in the school's history.

Professional wrestling

Beginning

Nemeth signed a developmental deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2004 and was assigned to their farm territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), debuting as Nick Nemeth.

After working for nearly a year in OVW, Nemeth was called up to the main WWE Raw roster, making his TV debut on the September 25, 2005 episode of Sunday Night Heat. He was made the enforcer and sidekick for Chavo Guerrero, Jr., who was using a golfer gimmick and going by the ring name of "Kerwin White". As such, Nemeth became White's caddy.

His wrestling debut came on an episode of Sunday Night Heat, teaming up with White in a tag team match against Shelton Benjamin and Matt Striker. After the death of Eddie Guerrero, Guerrero dropped the "Kerwin White" character, and Nemeth no longer played the role of his caddy and tag partner. After a few months of wrestling in dark matches and at house shows, he was sent back to OVW.

The Spirit Squad

In OVW, he became a part of The Spirit Squad (under the name Nicky), who were eventually called up to Raw. On January 23, 2006, they had their television debut, appearing on Raw and helping Jonathan Coachman win a Royal Rumble qualifying match against Jerry "The King" Lawler by performing cheers for the Coach and distracting Lawler. They later became a part of the on-going feud between WWE chairman Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels. The heel McMahon brought in the Squad to attack Michaels on numerous occasions, including placing them in multiple handicap matches.

They also wrestled in the tag team division, and on April 3, on Raw, won the World Tag Team Championship when Kenny and Mikey, with outside help from the other three Squad members, defeated Kane and The Big Show. After winning the titles The Spirit Squad defended the titles under the Freebird Rule.

Three weeks later, McMahon signed another Handicap match, with the Spirit Squad facing Michaels. The match never started, however; instead the Spirit Squad brutally beat down Michaels, ripping apart his ring attire and kayfabe shattering his knee with a steel chair. McMahon then called Triple H to the ring to attack Michaels with a sledgehammer shot; however, Kenny snatched the sledgehammer away, disrespecting Triple H, which led to him attacking the group. This led to Triple H and Michaels reforming D-Generation X (DX) and they began a feud with the Spirit Squad. DX played various sophomoric jokes on the Squad and the McMahons, as well as defeating the Spirit Squad in handicap tag matches at Vengeance and a clean sweep in an elimination handicap match at Saturday Night's Main Event.

At the same time as their feud with DX and their alignment with McMahon, the team also wrestled other teams in Raw's tag division over their World Tag Team Title. The Squad successfully defended the titles against the teams of Jim Duggan and Eugene,Charlie Haas and Viscera, and Snitsky and Val Venis,They then entered a lengthy feud with The Highlanders, whom they eventually defeated to retain the titles at Unforgiven

The Squad as a whole later began a losing streak with separate members losing singles matches to Ric Flair on consecutive episodes of Raw.After a loss to the debuting Cryme Tyme on October 16, Kenny started yelling at the other members of the Squad in the ring. Tensions further escalated the next week, after a second consecutive loss to Cryme Tyme. After the defeat Kenny attacked Mikey then announced that he would take on Flair, and win, since no other member of the group was able to do it. Later in the night he succeeded with help from the rest of the Squad, despite Flair bringing a number of fellow "Legends" (Dusty Rhodes, Sgt. Slaughter, and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper) to the ring with him to even the odds. It was then decided that Flair and one of the legends would wrestle the Squad at Cyber Sunday for the Tag Team Championship. The fans chose Piper, and he and Flair defeated Kenny and Mikey to win the title. At the time of their loss the team had held the title for 216 days, the longest since Owen Hart and The British Bulldog held it for 241 days in 1996 and 1997.

The group was "killed off" on the November 27 Raw after they were defeated in a 5 on 3 match by DX and Flair. After a triple submission, and being buried in a backstage segment, DX dumped them into a large crate stamped "OVW, Louisville, Kentucky".

Return to developmental

Nemeth appeared on the January 17, 2007, OVW taping along with Mike Mondo as the "Frat Pack" and teamed with Mike Kruel in a match against Seth Skyfire, Shawn Spears, and Cody Runnels. The team disbanded in the early parts of 2007, before teaming up again in August.

In September, Nemeth and Mike Mondo were moved to the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental territory and in his debut there defeated Hade Vansen. At the beginning of the year 2008, he tweaked his name to Nic Nemeth and began teaming with Brad Allen and Taryn Terrell as their valet. Nemeth and Allen started a frat boy type gimmick with Terrell as a "sorority chick". On March 22, Nemeth and Allen won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship by defeating defending champions Eddie Colón and Eric Perez. On May 12, 2008, he wrestled under the name Nick Metro and lost in a dark match to Ron Killings. Soon after, however, he returned to the name "Nic Nemeth". He then added the nickname "The Natural" in front of his ring name while also changing his look.

Dolph Ziggler

On September 15, 2008, Nemeth re-debuted on Raw as a heel, introducing himself in a backstage segment, with a new image, under the name Dolph Ziggler. On October 10, 2008, Nemeth was suspended for 30 days for his first violation of WWE's Wellness Program policy. He returned to Raw on November 17 in a backstage segment with Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels. In his first match on Raw under the Ziggler name, he lost to Batista, getting a deal of offense in the form of high impact spots, on the December 1 episode. The next week he got his first victory as Dolph Ziggler, by countout, against R-Truth. The following week on Raw, he picked up his first televised pinfall victory as Ziggler, when he beat Charlie Haas (As 'Santa Claas').