Since former chairman Vince McMahon’s infamous fall from grace, news of last-minute rewrites to WWE programming has all but disappeared, but it’s seared into the minds of veterans of the pro wrestling business.

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On Busted Open Radio, TNA World Champion Nic Nemeth, who performed as Dolph Ziggler in WWE for nearly 18 years, explained what it was like and how he and others did their best to make the best of a less than ideal situation.

“You could hear (people asking), ‘What are we doing tonight?'” Nemeth recalled. “‘Well, I heard the whole show was ripped in half at 5:45.'”

Nemeth compared this situation to putting together a WWE main event card, describing it as merely filling out the rest of a three-hour show. From there, he noted that it was up to the wrestlers to do whatever they could to create something special, recalling feuds with Matt Cardona (as Zack Ryder) as an example.

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“We couldn’t even do ‘Raw’ (for a few weeks), so we made a video and put it on (Cardona’s) YouTube,” Nemeth said. This promoted a rivalry that wasn’t otherwise promoted, but when it came to the match itself, Nemeth took a different strategy. “I used my sales strategy to make it look like there was more invested in the match,” he said, all to make fans believe it was a good story.

Using his experience as an opportunity to teach a lesson to up-and-coming talent in the business who may face similar frustrations, Nemeth offered a piece of advice: “If you don’t have the opportunity to tell the story, I would try to do that in the marketing of the game to make it even better in case we get another chance later.”

If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit Busted Open Radio and provide ah/t Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.