I want to talk about Smackdown Live, more specifically what transpired on the final episode before Survivor Series and to narrow it down even further, the Intercontinental Title match.
Dolph Ziggler and The Miz are two of my favourite WWE superstars, probably THE top two of the modern era, so you can only imagine how much enjoyment any sort of interaction these two brings to me. I believe these guys are both respectively great in ring workers and fantastic personalities on the microphone. I guess I really like the idea of the underdog, someone I can believe in when everyone else belittles and demeans their chances.
I was thrilled when they both entered into a feud together, which brought lots of exciting and entertaining contests for the Intercontinental Championship. the majority of the matches ended in screwy finishes involving either The Miz’s wife Maryse, or more surprisingly, a ghost from Ziggler’s past in The Spirit Squad, back to haunt him and cost him a title win.
This storyline brought more twists and turns than any other on WWE television, and at No Mercy showcased one of the most anticipated matches of the year, which pitted Intercontinental Champion, The Miz, against the challenger Dolph Ziggler one last time with the storyline being if Ziggler was to be unsuccessful in victory, he would quit WWE.
Rumours heavily surfaced that ‘The Show Off’ would in fact be quitting the company to pursue outside interests (Ziggler has a wide interest in both comedy stand up shows and politics), so the odds were very much in Miz’s favour, and the majority of WWE fans believed this would be Dolph’s final bow in the company.
Predictably once again there was involvement from both The Spirit Squad and Maryse, but even that stacked deck couldn’t stop Ziggler from overcoming the odds once again in his career to defeat The Miz and become Intercontinental Champion for the 5th time in his career, much to the jubilance of the WWE Universe.
Finally people had a reason to care about Dolph Ziggler, fans were re-invested in him, they could get behind him again.
So now here comes the bit that quite frankly makes me angry.
Following his victory at No Mercy, he vowed to be a fighting champion, and not only give Miz a rematch (which he would initially refuse), but he made an open challenge to anyone on the Raw roster to face him 1 on 1 for the Intercontinental Title at Survivor Series.
Now when he said that, I was thinking how bizarre it was to make a challenge like that, not to anyone on the Smackdown Live brand which would have been fine, but to openly challenge the Raw roster made no sense.
Why would Ziggler put his title on the line against someone not even on the same roster, with the consequence being that should he lose then the title would in fact be moved over to Raw along with the new champion.
It was one of two things going through my head, either they want the Raw brand to have the Intercontinental Title on the show, or they were finally putting Ziggler over as someone fans could get behind as a fighting champion. I was hoping it would be the latter, but stupidly I doubted the sheer ridiculousness of the clowns called ‘creative’ who then decided that Ziggler would in fact DROP the Intercontinental Title to The Miz the Smackdown Live before Survivor Series.
What the hell?
Why have WWE just spent weeks and weeks building up this gripping, exciting rivalry between The Miz & Dolph Ziggler, bringing both men up to a whole new level, only to chop Ziggler back down to right where he was before.
In essence, Dolph is now back to where he was exactly 2 months ago. Nowhere.
On Raw, Sami Zayn defeated Rusev to be the man to challenge for the Intercontinental Title at Survivor Series, a challenge that Dolph Ziggler had made as champion, so to poke holes in creative flaws, that would mean The Miz doesn’t have to defend the title seeing as it wasn’t him that made the open challenge.
Did they only have Miz retain the belt so a heel could drop it to a face at Survivor Series? It seems stupid I know, but you never know with these fools that call themselves ‘creative’.
To try and enter their stupid minds for a minute, my only thought that could redeem this whole disaster and car crash booking of the Intercontinental Title is that Sami Zayn defeats The Miz and joins the Smackdown Live brand.
But where does this leave Dolph Ziggler?
Now is the time the company NEED to pull the trigger on his heel turn, and let his character (which is basically full of heel traits anyway), revamp and refresh. It pains me to see one of my favourite wrestlers get built up and knocked down, it’s not entertaining, it’s just sad.
The optimist in me (which is wearing thin in wrestling) hopes Ziggler does something shocking at Survivor Series. Even if he were to cost the Smackdown Live brand the whole match and jump ship to the Raw brand, as much as I prefer him on Smackdown, anything, ANYTHING just to keep him relevant, because the way he left that match looking defeated and broken and pitiful is an all too familiar sight.
So where does that leave Ziggler for Survivor Series? He’s gone from defending the main title match on the show to not even being in the match. 2 years ago Ziggler was the winning member of his team putting The Authority out of business, yet here we are in 2016 and it looks likely he won’t even be on the card.
Can Dolph Ziggler come back from yet another disappointment in his career, another blow from the creative hammer and yet another diminishment of his character?
It’s time WWE gave him something to ‘Show Off’ about.
Is it time for Dolph Ziggler to leave WWE? Would he benefit from turning heel?
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