in 2018, ziggler started seriously moonlighting in stand-up, while still wrestling for wwe. this led to him headlining shows close to the arenas for 2018's summerslam and survivor series pay-per-views. his first major shows he used the big wwe events to piggyback on, due to there being a lot of wrestling fans in the area. following the 2019 royal rumble event, ziggler embarked on his first headlining tour from january 27, through the end of march 2019. he would take a break from wwe television to focus on the tour. he later continued the tour, announcing two shows in texas taking place in late-may.