Robert Roode Reveals Who Wanted Him To Tag With Dolph Ziggler

Robert Roode talked with Graham GSM Matthews of Daily DDT about switching from singles competition to joining the WWE tag division. He also discussed who came up with the idea for him to team with Dolph Ziggler, starting back in 2019.

A former NXT Champion, Roode had found success almost immediately when he signed on with WWE in 2016. Working in TNA before that, Roode was a two-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Moving to the tag division wasn’t a major issue for Roode as it was something he always fond of in pro wrestling.

“I’ve always loved tag team wrestling and I’ve had some success throughout my career in a tag team and competing as a tag team guy,” Roode said. “From an early age, when I was eight-years-old starting to watch pro wrestling, sports-entertainment, I was always a fan of tag team wrestling and tag team psychology.”

Back in August of 2019, both Roode and Ziggler were on hold creatively — until Paul Heyman came along. Seeing big potential in the team, they quickly became the number one contenders and won the RAW Tag Team Titles a few weeks later at Clash of Champions, defeating Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins.

“It was Paul Heyman’s idea, basically,” Roode recalled. “I wasn’t doing a lot at the time and Dolph’s always been in and out [of storylines], for whatever reason. He’ll be busy one month and the next month you don’t see him. We were showing up to the TV and we weren’t doing a lot of stuff and one day we got to TV and Paul pulled us over and said, ‘I have this idea. I want to pitch it.’”

Last October, the two were drafted to SmackDown. In January of this year they won the SmackDown Tag Team Titles, and are still the current champions.