Brennan Daly is back with the tale of the meteoric rise & fall of Dolph Ziggler; how one man can work extremely hard to rise to the top only for everything to come tumbling down
When you ask the WWE Universe who their favorite wrestler is, the answers are usually John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar. On the other hand I have always gone against the norm and one my favorites is Dolph Ziggler.
Do you remember that this guy was the World Heavyweight Champion and was in main feuds with Randy Orton and Chris Jericho? No, I am not making this up. I wouldn’t blame you if you forgot that this guy was once at the top of the card.
At one point Ziggler seemed to be getting a big push. Oh, how things have changed for him!
The twelve-year veterans career has been a roller coaster to say the least. I don’t know exactly what it is but there is untapped potential there that I believe has not been brought out.
In 2005 Ziggler, formally known as Nick Nemeth made his official debut as a caddy, enforcer and sidekick for Chavo Guerrero Jr. (Kerwin White) After a few months of wrestling in dark matches and at house shows, he was sent back to Ohio Valley Wrestling.
Five months later, Ziggler came back as a member of the “The Spirit Squad”. Led by Kenny Dykstra, the group took part in a lot of comedy segments that ended up not going very far. This group was very similar to the “Social Outcasts” and it was never going to transition into something big. As seen with Emma, comedy gimmicks are not the way you want to debut.
From the moment you are brought up and forcing comedy, you quickly find out that you are not going to get over. Essentially you are forced to start over and that means go back down to developmental.
After the group disbanded on an episode of RAW, they were sent packing in a crate stamped OVW, a reference to the developmental territory from which the Squad had come. This was not a good start for Ziggler as he had gone from a caddy to a male cheerleader.
In 2008 we were reintroduced in various backstage segments where a guy would go up to other talents and say, “Hi, I’m Dolph Ziggler.” From that point on I thought that WWE had an interesting character and I felt like this guy could be a serious threat.
Now known as Dolph Ziggler he reminded me of my favorite wrestler of all time, Shawn Michaels. The similarities between “the Show Stopper” and “the Show Stealer” were clear as day. Both displayed the “cocky” full of themselves attitude and they played this role to perfection.
While trying to gain the respect, he worked his way up the next 3 years, winning the Intercontinental Championship and even the United States Championship. Everything to seemed to be going well for him. The crowd seemed to really take to this guy. He showed that he was extremely athletic and you could tell that he wanted to be the best.
People were viewing him as legit contender in the World Title picture. Ziggler had memorable matches with Rey Mysterio, MVP and John Morrison. Eventually, he was awarded the World Heavyweight Championship by Vickie Guerrero only for it to last a mere 11 minutes and 23 seconds when Teddy Long decided to fire Ziggler.
The big year for Dolph Ziggler to really take off was in 2012. He had the makings of being THE top guy of the company in 2012. He and AJ Lee made a great power couple that year. After being in the midcard for most of his career, Ziggler won the Money in the Bank contract.
While holding the coveted briefcase, his accolades were starting to pile up. In the 2012 TLC main event, he put his Money in the Bank briefcase on the line against the face of the company, John Cena. They put on classic match that was really a coming out party for Ziggler. In the match, AJ Lee cost Cena as she pushed the ladder over helping Ziggler achieve victory. Even though there were some shenanigans in the match, it was still shocking to see Cena lose.
On April 8, 2013, years of hard worked finally paid off the night after WrestleMania. Ziggler shocked the world and successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on an injured Alberto Del Rio and won the World Heavyweight Championship for the second time.
You can tell that the crowd thought the same thing by their reaction in the video. Fans believed that Ziggler wasn’t a mid-carder any more as he had finally cemented his position at the top. But in the following months things didn’t turn out as everyone thought they would.
So what happened next? After a month as the World Heavyweight Champion, Ziggler suffered a concussion, which kept him out of action for a month. Ziggler returned at Payback only to lose to former champion, Alberto Del Rio, who took advantage of his injury and won the Championship back.
But the bleached blonde superstar showed his fighting spirit which won over all the fans, and turned him face for the first time. Ziggler challenged Del Rio at Money in the Bank, but interference from AJ Lee cost him the match, and as a result Ziggler ‘broke up’ with her.
She cost him another match against Del Rio, which marked the beginning of the feud between Ziggler and AJ as well as Big E. Langston. At SummerSlam Ziggler defeated them by teaming up with Kaitlyn in a mixed tag-team match. Unfortunately, this win didn’t help Ziggler to return to the top; rather, it marked his downfall.
Ziggler got involved in a feud with The Authority after speaking less-than-nicely about Triple H in a backstage interview. He then lost a US Championship match against Dean Ambrose twice. After that he was involved in a feud with Damien Sandow with both of them exchanging victories, and the feud ended on the first Raw of December as Sandow pinned Ziggler to become the #1 contender for Big E. Langston’s Intercontinental Championship.
This wasn’t where the period of decline ended though. Ziggler then lost in the TLC Kickoff show against Fandango. So in a year’s time, Ziggler went from defeating WWE’s top guy John Cena, to losing to a mid-carder, Fandango, in a Kickoff show.
Honestly, I think the best thing for him was to let his deal expire but he had recently resigned on a two-year deal. Being only 35 and still in the prime of his career, heading over to Ring of Honor or even New Japan Pro Wrestling, could of done wonders for him. Even though he still gets some of the loudest cheers week in and week out, the problem with Ziggler is that he is playing a watered down version of who he is really is.
If he were to go somewhere else he would have the opportunity to be fully fleshed out version of himself and that could be gold. Look at EC3 and Drew Galloway. Those guys are arguably two of the best things going in the wrestling world today.
Sadly those were two wasted talents that WWE let go. If I were booking WWE I would have him off television for 3 months and come back fresh. Sometimes being works out best!
It’s unfortunate that Dolph Ziggler’s only main event run to date was curtailed by concussion issues, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a stand-out wrestler who’s exceptional on the mid-card while having the tools to be a main eventer.
Could Dolph ever be back in WWE Title contention, or will be remembered as a mid-card standout? Please let me know in the comments!
Brennan Daly
