Any WWE career is subject to its ups and downs. 2017 was most certainly a down for Dolph Ziggler, but the summer of 2018 has been a bit of a renaissance for The Show Off—and it’s reportedly by design.
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Ziggler’s move to Raw and pairing with Drew McIntyre gave him a much-needed boost in relevance. However the day after Money in the Bank, Ziggler pinned Seth Rollins to become Intercontinental Champion and suddenly the WWE vet is back on WWE’s brightest stages.
According to PWInsider WWE may be rebooting Ziggler in light of his expiring contract.
Now what’s interesting is Ziggler’s deal is up later this summer. If they are going to invest in Dolph and get him to re-up with this company, now is the time to do it. Hopefully, this is a case where they are going to sincerely push him and they are going to finally make him the asset he’s always been for that company and kinda overlooked.
By making Ziggler a fixture once again, WWE benefits in two distinct ways. the first being that Ziggler would more willing to re-sign if he’d been fed juicy opportunities before his contract ended. This makes the likelihood of WE retaining a 2-time Wolrd Champion drastically increase.
Second, Ziggler would get to keep his momentum rolling.
“Instead of being overlooked by the company, it’s not a case of let’s use him now and get him locked in and once he signs paper to pencil we can toss him to the waste side again.”
While everyone has a favorite wrestler that’s been “screwed by Vince,” Ziggler recent slump has been objectively remarkable. Why Ziggler endured such a pronounced slip is unknown but it’s likely he got lost in the tsunami of NXt promotions. WWE simply promoted shiner toys and Ziggler was there to get pinned by all of them
Ziggler actually aired his grievances during a candid appearance on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness in December.
“I hate it,” Ziggler said “But also I’m someone who, I hate that I’m not the champion. I hate that the show is not about me because that’s the mentality you should have if you’re in the business. If you’re the ‘Hey I want to be the opening guy who works for 10 years and saves a bunch of money,’ (guy) that’s great. But there’s a thousand other guys in the back that say, ‘I want to be the best. I want to main event WrestleMania, I want the show to be about me.’
“So you have to have that mentality. But also I’ve been around enough to know the score, to know what’s going on. So I hate being in that position. I think I should be a bigger part of the show. But so does everybody else,” he said.
A lot has changed for Ziggler since that interview. The theory of WWE warming him up with championships before his contract runs out holds water, but it’s a little early to tell. If Ziggler beats Rollins again at their Extreme Rules match, then we’ll have a firm indication the WWE is building Ziggler.
[H/T Ringside News]
