Dolph Ziggler was interviewed by the Poughkeepsie Journal. You can read that here. In it he said he studies HBK and Mr. Perfect often (you can really see the influence of the latter in a lot of his ring work) and said the following about the IC title:
“That title is really special to me. I’ve had several goals along the course of my entire career. I wanted to break records in college. I wanted to get my foot in the door in WWE and be the youngest guy and the quickest guy to make it to the main roster. I think I earned (the Intercontinental title) about a year after I thought I would get it. But it is a stepping stone to become even bigger like a lot of guys use it. It can help solidify my name as one of the greatest.”