At this stage, we can all agree that Dolph Ziggler is one of the most entertaining individuals on the WWE roster, so I doubt I need to cycle through the long list of his winning attributes any more than I have in the past. It’s fair to say that the only thing stopping him from achieving success of CM Punk or Daniel Bryan proportions is his bad luck in the injury department.
That being said, taking his last one for example, not all of those injuries were his own fault. He had to relinquish the World Heavyweight Championship in 2013 because Jack Swagger kicked him square in the face, so I fail to see how Ziggler should have to pay the price. Sure, he may be prone to injury, but it’s not hard to achieve status like that with someone booting you in the skull. But I digress.
A couple of weeks ago at WWE Battleground, we may have seen Ziggler’s career get back on track. The creative team had seen that he was better than some lousy mid-card feud with Fandango over two girls, and were going to give him the Intercontinental Championship to reward his hard work and popularity with the fans. Or so we though.
When Miz threw Dolph Ziggler over the top rope to “earn” another title in the WWE (which you knew was going to happen about two seconds after Ziggler eliminated Sheamus), I felt like we had been cheated. They know how much we love Ziggler, so having him get tossed out instead of Sheamus would give them the sick, twisted satisfaction they get from screwing us over.
Then, after ‘The Show-off’ got a clean victory against Miz the next night on Raw, my frustration went away. Clearly it’s not over between Miz and Ziggler, and the fact that this is likely to culminate in a match at the second biggest PPV of the year means good news for Dolph. Having a match at SummerSlam at all is better than he’s been getting in recent months.
I like The Miz in some ways, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think anybody really gives a shit about him anymore. His odds of becoming WWE Champion, or better yet, main-eventing WrestleMania again are very slim, for the simple reason that there are much more talented, interesting and deserving people on the roster, Dolph Ziggler being one of them.
His new Hollywood-based gimmick is somewhat intriguing because it allows Miz to do what he’s best at, and that’s be an arrogant jackass. But I don’t see it getting him further than he is right now. He’s been at this very same stage in his career several times, and the only time he got any higher, people saw him as one of the worst Champions in the history of WWE.
That wasn’t exactly his fault because he was put against the likes of Jerry Lawler, and was overshadowed by The Rock and John Cena leading into WrestleMania 27, but it was still a pitiful reign. And if he ever happens to strike oil and reach heights like that once again, then I don’t see it going any differently.
To paraphrase from the legendary Chris Jericho, he’s going to need a few extra arrows in his quiver should he ever wish to main-event a WWE Pay-Per-View again. I just don’t think walking around, boasting about fictional Hollywood fame and not needing to be in the WWE is going to cut it.
With that in mind, however, the fact that Miz is already at the highest level he should expect to achieve over the next few years at least, means that taking his Intercontinental Championship away so soon would make little to no sense.
Ziggler may have deserved a victory at Battleground more than Miz, but at least he could pull off another run at the big time without people rolling their eyes and sighing. Do I think Ziggler’s going to win the title at SummerSlam? Stranger things have happened, but for now I’m just looking at this rivalry as a way to get Ziggler going again.
For a while it seemed like there was no hope for him, and with Brock Lesnar likely to be running rampant over the main event scene for the next eight months or so, it will probably be another year at least until he even gets close to the WWE World Heavyweight Title.
But WWE understands the level at which Ziggler can perform, and you never know, maybe they’re just holding off on pushing him to see how long he can last before he suffers another injury. Maybe if Ziggler makes it to SummerSlam next year without hurting himself (or rather, being hurt by someone else), he’ll be in a much different spot than he is right now.
Losing to The Miz at SummerSlam shouldn’t mean that it will be another four or five months before we see him again on Monday Night Raw. With the amount of people on the roster, you’d have a hard time finding someone that Ziggler wouldn’t have a great rivalry with.
The likes of Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins spring to mind when I think of perfect opponents to face Dolph live on Pay-Per-View, so as long as WWE know the level of talent that they’re dealing with, Ziggler should be fine. He’s too good to go down the road of Zack Ryder or even The Miz himself after he lost the WWE Title in 2011.
With a bit of luck, and some proper judgement by Vince, Trips and the WWE creative team, Dolph Ziggler’s potential won’t be ignored due to a few injuries in the past. If they need to take a risk by pushing him to the very top, then it’s a risk worth taking. I’m sure Daniel Bryan isn’t going to be fighting in the mid-card when he comes back from an injured neck, so why should Ziggler be any different?
And don’t throw fan support at me, because all I’ll do is point towards the night after WrestleMania 29. The building erupted when Ziggler cashed in, just like they did when Bryan turned on Bray Wyatt in January, and just like they did when CM Punk left Chicago with the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank.
Dolph Ziggler has the ability to be one of the next huge stars in WWE history, and I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll stop at nothing to achieve greatness once again in a WWE ring. Should that start with another Intercontinental Championship reign, so be it.
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Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
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