By the time this goes go up, Survivor Series will have came and went. The smoke will have cleared following the battles between RAW and SmackDown! Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar will have had a winner, Survivor Series matches will be won and lost and whole divisions may have moved from one brand to another. However, one fellow that will not have wrestled in front of the Toronto crowd is Dolph Ziggler.
Remember two years ago at Survivor Series 2014, when Ziggler was actually part of the MAIN EVENT match of the Team Cena vs Authority match and it was down to Ziggler fighting off three men at the end. Ziggler was the only hope left for the babyfaces. The big scary monster Kane had him in peril but Ziggler was able to put the monster away. Then next, it was the dangerous Luke Harper. Harper was the man who had taken the Intercontinental Championship from Ziggler just six days before Survivor Series (sound very familiar?). Ziggler fought his backside off for redemption and eventually beat Luke Harper. It was then down to Ziggler and Seth Rollins, as Ziggler for Mr Money In The Bank and the Authority’s chosen one. After a series of turn and events, Ziggler defeated Rollins via pinfall and won the match for his team. This was probably the biggest win of his career as he had toppled the evil tyrants. This was a fresh new start for the show off right?
If my memory serves me correctly, on the first episode of 2015… Ziggler lost the title to Bad News Barrett and was “fired” later that night. Right after Ziggler’s big moment, Ziggler was slumped right back down the card and forgotten. Forgotten until his next big “push” with his storyline with Lana, which ended badly. Ziggler had his big match on RAW with Triple H in 2016 that led to nothing. Ziggler had been beaten and beaten and beaten and beaten so many times by almost everyone that was in front of him. Ziggler even lost at LAST YEAR’S Survivor Series to Tyler Breeze. WWE got the idea of Daniel Bryan’s rise to the top by beating him left, right and centre and they tried it with Ziggler. Let’s beat him week in and week out and maybe the fans will rally behind him.
After years of being booked as the ultimate loser, possibly even more than Zack Ryder, the fans just seemingly gave up on the guy. Ziggler was the guy that was getting “we want Ziggler” chants every night to suddenly receiving “lets go Ziggler, Ziggler sucks” chants. The crowd just didn’t care about Dolph Ziggler anymore. Then something happened. Following a brand split, Ziggler found himself on SmackDown! SmackDown! found itself short-stacked following the draft, so opportunities arose. Ziggler was given his first world title program in three years after winning a six pack challenge and earning a WWE World title shot against Dean Ambrose.
Suddenly, everyone gave a damn about Dolph Ziggler again. Ziggler was actually on the receiving of good booking up until their match at SummerSlam. He beat Bray Wyatt on his way to fighting the champion and things looked up for Ziggler. Maybe there’s something to this fellow. Then, when it came to their match at SummerSlam, the WWE World title match was booked in the ultimate death spot in the four hour show and the fans just didn’t care. Ziggler and Ambrose did their best but the crowd just didn’t care about a match that was supposedly a world title match. Ziggler got beat and then he was relegated to an Intercontinental Championship program with The Miz.
It was supposed to be a relegation anyway but the thing was, The Miz had gotten insanely over from a infamous shoot promo on Daniel Bryan and Ziggler still found himself in a white-hot angle. He was fortunate enough to get Miz for the title at Backlash and on SmackDown! a few weeks afterwards for the IC title and again… Ziggler got beat. It was the SAME story as before but you know what, the crowd was into it. They wanted Ziggler to succeed to such a degree that when Ziggler put his career on the line against The Miz at No Mercy, they were part of the biggest angle in the entire company. It was so white-hot that people were thinking that it was actually going to close No Mercy. Although that ended up not being true, they were still the talk of the night as Ziggler FINALLY beat The Miz for the title.
As much as I personally didn’t want Miz to lose the title, Ziggler was suddenly a likeable hero again that was able to win a big match. I can’t speak for everyone else but I personally was not invested in a Dolph Ziggler title reign but at the end of the day, I was in the minority of people that had the same opinion. The masses loved this turn of events and I thought, maybe they could make something out of Dolph Ziggler. After The Miz beat him over and over again and when Ziggler finally beat him, maybe they’ve finally got it right with this fellow. 37 days later, The Miz regained the championship in his first title rematch.
When I found out that this actually happened, I laughed over and over again. I went on Twitter to see all the reactions from the wrestling fans on Twitter and I laughed even more. I was laughing so hard because it’s just laughable now when there’s this big outcry whenever WWE find a way to close the book on a Dolph Ziggler push.
I actually want to bring up a recent article from one of our beloved writers at SLTD Wrestling. Kieran Towers wrote a little something about Ziggler which I want to mention here because it echos the opinions of a lot of fans. Kieran wrote: “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.”
Everyone should read this article as it does go into a lot more detail about the booking of the Intercontinental Championship. I personally think that the booking of this belt has been the best it’s been booked for years, but that’s a topic for another day. Anyway, the point is, it’s just funny to me that people are still shocked and appalled at the idea of WWE cutting down Dolph Ziggler’s push for the 300th time. I’m not mocking these people or anything and I do admire Kieran for speaking his mind but I’m just shocked that people still believe that maybe there’s a light at the end of the road for babyface Dolph in WWE. There’s no hope everybody.
I personally don’t have a problem with Dolph and it’s actually not his fault that he’s been booked this way but there’s no chance of him being taken seriously as a babyface anymore. Even if John Cena, Dean Ambrose, AJ Styles and Randy Orton were all drafted to RAW, I’d still say that the guy would have trouble in breaking into the main event picture. They’ve beaten this guy so many times and last week, they did it again. His title reign lasted 37 days until WWE pulled the plug on it. Even if Ziggler had lost the title at Survivor Series, he would have still had another Intercontinental Championship reign lasting less than two months.
Why would anyone cheer this guy? I know people still cheered for Ziggler recently for reasons I cannot fathom but what is there to like about this character now? He’s out there every week screeching about giving it his all and whining about his position and the whole nine yards and every time he’s had an opportunity to shut up the critics, he loses. He loses because he’s a loser. He can’t win when it counts. Ziggler’s last four Intercontinental title reigns combined have lasted a shorter amount of time than Miz’s last title reign from the RAW after WrestleMania 32 until No Mercy. In the part of my mind when I pretend all of this is real, I’m not thinking in my head that Dolph Ziggler is someone that I can get behind and is someone who’s a star. I’m thinking, you had opportunity after opportunity and finally won at No Mercy, only to lose it in your first title defence against the former champion. That makes Ziggler, by definition, a FLUKE champion.
It just boggles my mind and people are still clinging on to this idea that maybe Ziggler will finally get the push he’ll deserve. Speaking of that word DESERVE, I was left enraged during Ziggler’s celebration on the SmackDown! after No Mercy. As he celebrated winning this Intercontinental belt for the fifth time, the fans chanted “YOU DESERVE IT.” WHAT DOES HE DESERVE? Being in the same spot he’s been in since he lost the World title three years ago?
Maybe there’s one way to remedy this. Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope. Maybe on SmackDown! tonight, Ziggler comes out and cuts a promo. He cuts a promo about the fans and the “boys” in the back getting behind him. He talks about how everybody in the back are all a bunch of lairs as he’s been up against The Miz, Maryse and the Spirit Squad and they’ve bested him every single time. He cuts this promo about no-one showing him respect so he’s not showing off for you people. Then, later on in the night, he beats up his friend Zack Ryder. He beats up his buddy, as his friend was at Survivor Series representing SmackDown! while Ziggler wasn’t. Not only that, but Ryder never gave him a hand against Miz so he beats up Zack Ryder. Then the next week, he beats up Mojo Rawley. Then the next week, he beats up Sami Zayn and cashes in his rematch clause for the Intercontinental title. What needs to happen, as Kieran also pointed out, is that Dolph Ziggler needs to turn heel.
He’s got to go heel. You’ve done nothing to make the fans like him so you turn the guy heel because he’s not going to be a babyface. He goes heel, goes on a big winning streak and maybe he wins the Intercontinental title. Or, if you really want to try with him, he goes after all the top babyfaces. He beats up Sami Zayn, he beats up Shane, he beats up Dean Ambrose and he beats up John Cena. He goes through all of these guys, it lights a fire within him as he’s now a top star again as a heel. You’ve got to pull the trigger on this guy to give him even a sniff of hope. Otherwise, it’s a lost cause.
Recent Comments