It was real though process what to title this weeks blog, I went through many other titles such as ‘Zig Zagging Around’ and ‘A wasted opportunity’ along with many others but there was nothing which really conveyed the subject of what we’re about to delve into. Never before have I given so much thought to a blog title before because usually they write themselves with the subject matter. Maybe this is a sign of me running dry about things to talk about or maybe WWE need to make a few more happen in order for us to discuss them. Whatever the truth is, there’s no doubt that we’re being starved of any quality to strike up a conversation with.
So onto this weeks subject matter and it is of course the matter of Dolph Ziggler and the World Heavyweight Championship that is no longer around his waste. It hasn’t been a huge number of weeks since we last broached the subject of WWE’s hottest prospect since Curt Henning and indeed it was only a few weeks ago where we thoroughly discussed the situation surrounding the World Heavyweight Championship, but thanks to events inside WWE and at Payback I believe it requires our attention once again. Honestly, what would the wrestling world do without us? Let’s recap...
When Dolph Ziggler lifted the World Heavyweight Championship the night after WrestleMania 29, the reaction to his victory from the paying audience and indeed those around the world was sheer joy. Since his victory one year ago at Money in the Bank, the writing had been on the wall and it was almost a formality that Ziggler, a former member of the Spirit Squad, would become World Heavyweight Champion. On the same show, John Cena also climbed to victory on the red brand in a predictable ending to the show. However, it was Ziggler’s night and no one could take it away from him. Well, not for 24 hours anyway. The fact that everyone, up to that point, who had won the ladder match and cashed in the prize had walked away with gold around their waists, almost guaranteed that Ziggler would do the same. Until Raw’s 1,000th episode rolled around.
On the show, John Cena cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and became the first man to unsuccessfully win the WWE Championship. This was done in order to ignite the fire under the Cena and Punk feud in 2012, but the other thing it did was sew the seeds in the minds of the fans that if a wrestler as big as Cena wasn’t going to successful defeat the Champion for the gold then would WWE really allow a wrestler as far away from the top of the card as one could get, to do what the golden boy couldn’t? The answer looked a definitive ‘no’ when Ziggler began to lose to everyone and anyone on Raw and pay-per view. One month after claiming the briefcase, Ziggler lost a match at SummerSlam to Chris Jericho. A match which, as the man who should have been looked at as a serious contender should have won and one which Jericho should have volunteered to lose for the good of the company going forward.
With crossed fingers we went into the rest of the year in the hope that SummerSlam was a blip and that Ziggler’s ascension to the top would begin with conviction. Whilst Ziggler defeated Jericho the next night on Raw and sent him packing from the company for a few months, his pay-per view standing, the medium of which twice as many people watch than they do WWE’s weekly television show, was poor. People who watch pay-per view do so because they believe it gives them a monthly overall impression or round up of what has happened on television. If a wrestler comes off as weak on pay-per view then the audience who don’t keep up with week to week events begin to believe said wrestler is mere fodder for those higher up the card. Dolph Ziggler in 2012 was one of these people those who drop in and out wouldn’t have given a seconds thought to and that’s because WWE booked him wrong.
At No Way Out 2012 Dolph Ziggler received the most vocal support of the night when he stood in for Alberto Del Rio against Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship. Throughout the match, the audience were staunchly behind Ziggler to the point they were jeering Sheamus as if he were John Cena. Usually, this would inform WWE of which wrestler the audience are willing to pay their to see every week should the company put the desired Championship around his waist. At No Way Out though, the fact the audience didn’t react the way WWE wanted them to, only made things worse for Dolph. Instead of listening to the cheers Ziggler received, WWE ignored everyone who had paid to see the show and informed Jerry Lawler on commentary to try and convince those watching that the more than audible cries of ‘Let’s go Ziggler’ were actually those in attendance supporting Sheamus. This was a dumb move as anyone could hear the audience supporting Ziggler. This was WWE’s way of telling us that we can cheer for who we like, but if the company don’t believe that wrestler is worth the push then he’s going nowhere.
Thankfully, WWE did listen to the pleas after No Way Out and SummerSlam as Ziggler made his way up the card only to be felled by Randy Orton at Night of Champions and was John Cena’s whipping boy on the Hell in a Cell pre-show when he took a beating during Cena’s Q&A session with the audience. That Ziggler wasn’t even booked on the show was a kick in the testicles for the man who was shooting for the stars. Things began to look up again for Ziggler when was the sole survivor at Survivor Series, pinning Randy Orton clean in the ring to take the victory and even went over John Cena at TLC, though it was Cena’s actions and no selling Ziggler’s moves which did more harm than good.
Recovering from the Cena situation, Dolph Ziggler put in a solid showing at Royal Rumble and was by far the favourite to win the event, a role which went of course to John Cena. Had Ziggler won the Royal Rumble and gone to WrestleMania to lose in the main event and then cash in the briefcase after a hard fought effort, everyone would have seen his Championship victory as bigger than it was the night after the grandest stage of them all. Instead, Ziggler was relegated to mid-card tag team action, a role he must have been fuming at.
Now the history lesson is out of the way we can move on. Ziggler’s concussion necessitated that he take time out, certainly WWE knew how serious it could become and for those who logged on to WWE.Com would have read updates and so on but what really caught my eye was one idiot, who when talking about Payback somehow came to the conclusion that, and I quote ‘Dolph Ziggler deserves to lose the World Championship’. If that person, obviously someone who knows jack shit about wrestling is reading this, then please tell me how you came to that conclusion and I will take great pleasure in cracking open a can of whoop ass and pointing out what a retard you are. The fact is that Dolph Ziggler didn’t deserve to lose the Championship and he would have been able to defend the gold the month previous had Jack Swagger not been such a careless dick and put the champ out of action.
I did not that WWE deserved credit for not stripping Dolph Ziggler of the World Heavyweight Championship during his absence. Looking back at the outcome of Payback’s Championship outing, they might as well have. That WWE didn’t strip Dolph Ziggler of the gold was an encouraging sign that his reign would continue upon his return. There is simply no logic in allowing him to keep the Championship during his injury and then having him lose it in his very first defence back. WWE may not have rated Dolph Ziggler highly for some reason – his matches on Raw and Smackdown after WrestleMania 29, in which he was booked as inferior to all his opponents, even as champion, and needed help from Langston at ringside to walk away victorious, certainly pointed to a lack of confidence in Ziggler by WWE – but there was no reason to have him drop the Championship to Del Rio.
And now, finally we come to the reason of this week’s blog. Are you out breath because I am? Knowing this blog was approaching and the next Review Corner not due until July 8th, I was struggling to think what we could talk about. Certainly, Brock Lesnar turning on C.M Punk would have been a good but brief conversation as would Mark Henry’s fake retirement which got your Wrestling God’s hopes up. This is the problem with WWE today. There are a severe lack of subjects to talk about. So little of consequence happens in WWE these days that we have to punch through the bottom of the barrel just to find something lurking beneath. And then I came across it. Two articles which are both different yet are about the same subject.
In an interview with Channel 24 in America, Dolph Ziggler openly criticised the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE’s handling of it. When questioned if he believed that the gold was a prestigious as when Triple H held it in 2002, Ziggler, much to WWE’s anger I imagine, simply stated that he didn’t believe that was so. And of course, he was correct, whether WWE like it or not. You see, when Triple H held it in 2002 he was of such a standing in the company that it automatically elevated the gold and made it seem the WWE Championship’s equal. Since then it has passed through the hands of people like Goldberg, Big Show, Mark Henry, John Cena and others who simply don’t have the skills to carry it. The knock on effect is that with each passing person who doesn’t hold the talent to be champion, it diminishes the Championship further. This is what happened with the Tag Team, Intercontinental and United States Championship along the way. When you add on top of that WWE not really giving the gold any great storylines to back it up, the prestige it once held has all but disappeared.
Whose fault is that? Certainly not Dolph Ziggler’s or Alberto Del Rio’s. The blame lies solely with WWE. They can’t punish Ziggler for stating his beliefs, that would cause a massive fracas behind the scenes. WWE have focussed so little on the blue brand Championship in recent years that they only have the mirror to look in when searching for someone to blame. Even at their biggest event of the year, WrestleMania, WWE have made sure that the gold has been pushed into the shadows. At WrestleMania 22 the gold changed hands in a triple threat match in nine minutes. At WrestleMania 28 it changed hands on the first match of the night in less than ten seconds and at WrestleMania 29 it was given a paltry ten minutes in which Del Rio and Swagger did nothing of note to elevate the gold they were battling over. It simply isn’t good enough.
In the interview, Dolph Ziggler also noted that he wanted to be the man to make the World Heavyweight Championship the premier Championship in wrestling. He wanted to make the Championship he dreamt about holding when growing up. This is maybe the first time in years that someone has com forward and stated their intentions so clearly that we can begin to believe Dolph Ziggler is the man for the job. Others such as Sheamus, Edge, even Randy Orton, whilst they possess the ability to elevate the gold back to the top have never come out and stated their intentions. Giving off an impression that to them, all the gold is, is simply something to strap around your waist in order to call yourself the best. Your Wrestling God didn’t get that impression when reading said interview with Dolph Ziggler. Instead, the impression one got was of a man who wants to change things around him even if WWE won’t allow it to happen. In a time some when wrestlers are content to come to work to simply pick up their pay cheque and have no drive or intention to make a difference, that should be applauded.
The question I would be asking now is of WWE. Vince, you have a man who is willing to do whatever is needed to change the path Smackdown and the World Heavyweight Championship is on. Why don’t you put the machine behind him and allow him to try? Let’s be honest, what have they got to lose?
The second article which caught my eye was one on what WWE have planned for Money in the Bank on July 14th. After Dolph Ziggler lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Alberto Del Rio at Payback, the man who once labelled himself as ‘Heel’ will receive a Championship rematch at Money in the Bank, despite previous rumours that Ziggler once again win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match and cash in on Del Rio for a second time at SummerSlam. Whilst this would not have been the correct course of action for WWE to take, I can’t help think it may have been a wise once. You see, Dolph Ziggler, even after winning the gold on April 8th has been buried to point that he was in danger of being seen as a fluke Champion. If WWE were to book him to defeat a star name, clean, in qualifying for the Money in the Bank Ladder Match and then win the match, WWE then could book Ziggler to either turn face or cleanly defeat a string of big names on course of SummerSlam before finally winning the gold again at WWE’s biggest event of the summer. That now though will not happen.
It wouldn’t be the best course of action in Ziggler’s eyes I’m sure and I’m still at a loss as to why WWE had him drop the gold instead of stripping him of it in the first place. After all, Ziggler would have been the hard done by champion had he been stripped of the title instead of looking like the weak link by dropping the gold on pay-per view. Whatever has gone in the past, WWE now need to rectify it as sensibly as possible. Any more harm could seriously derail Dolph Ziggler’s career and I cannot think of a better wrestler to lead WWE into a new generation.
Time really is up as far as messing around with would be future main event stars is concerned. I just hope that WWE aren’t left regretting when the last hand ticks into place.
Onwards and upwards...
