Dropping The Ball – Dolph Ziggler

Welcome back to Dropping The Ball. An article where we cover a WWE superstar who should have been more than what WWE allowed them to be.

Dolph Ziggler is a 5-time Intercontinental Champion, Money in the Bank winner, a Tag Team Champion and a 2 time World Heavyweight Champion. His resume is highly impressive many WWE superstars would actually want it. However, Dolph deserves more and he should have more.

Every since 2004 WWE has employed Dolph Ziggler having him as a member of the Spirit Squad until his eventual repackage in 2008. He would win the Intercontinental Championship during this time, but his career really took off under the watch of Vickie Guerro. Everyone saw his main event talent during this time it was just a matter of would WWE pull the trigger or not. Vickie did award Ziggler the World Heavyweight Championship on an episode of Friday Night Smackdown , but he would lose it the same night to Edge. They eventually did push him by having him win Money in the Bank alongside AJ lee and Big E Langston. Wresltemania 29 came around and since Dolph won a Smackdown Money in the Bank he could only cash in on the World Heavyweight Champion. Everyone was begging for Dolph to cash in at Wresltemania 29 after Alberto Del Rio vs Jack Swagger. That never happened, but the next time Dolph saw his dream come true as he cashed in on Del Rio and won the World Heavyweight Championship. This moment produced the loudest pop in the past 10 years as everyone felt Dolph’s struggle to be where he was and sadly the reign only lasted 69 days. WWE missed a major opportunity here by not letting him get a chance to hold the Smackdown brand on his back for longer. After this nobody could really take Ziggler’s career seriously.

Dolph Ziggler is underrated and he is a work horse. His best career work has come in the mid-card and that isn’t fair to him. People always say what WWE superstarts deserve but Ziggler is the guy whos been in the company for 12 years and never had 1 World Heavyweight Championship Defense. Dolph is a bona-fide superstar, but not for the reasons he should be. He is known from failed storylines and very brief moments of success. The fact is there were many moments that could have made Dolph Ziggler a star but it never materialized. Atleast once a year WWE teases a Dolph Ziggler push and it never happens. He was placed in a WWE Championship program with CM Punk where everyone actually thought he won the title one night on RAW, but he did not. He has lost feuds to Sheamus, John Cena, CM Punk, Rusev, and even Alberto Del Rio. It’s so bad to a point where most fans don’t even take him seriously anymore and that should not be the case for one of the most hardest working men on the roster and one of the most talented men in WWE.

Dolph’s career seems to be revitalized since the brand split. He was in the WWE Championship match at Summerlam and won the Intercontinental Championship in a Career vs Title match which really is a good spot in his career. They’ve been giving him more TV and mic time and he’s really been a fun spot of Smackdown Live programming. The emotion he shows is really major, but he still has a lot of work left to leave a legacy in the company and hopefully it gets better from here.