Dolph Ziggler’s Push – How Far Could It Go?

Dolph Ziggler has been put in big spots lately on WWE television. While it’s great to see, will it go even further or not last for long?

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Pretty slow news day today, so let’s take a look at the topic of Dolph Ziggler’s recent push that fans have clamored for for years.

We have seen Ziggler rise back into relevancy since the summer by winning the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz at SummerSlam. While he did lose it once along the way, he immediately gained it back from Miz the night after.

From there, we saw the Showoff defend the title in some great matches with Cesaro to further show how great of a performer Ziggler is. It was highlighted by him defeating the Swiss Superman in a 2 out of 3 falls match at Hell in a Cell to keep the IC title.

Then came the build-up for Survivor Series, which has seen the rise of Dolph back into the upper level of the card. He was a primary focus of the Authority’s attacks early on as John Cena was looking to put together Team Cena. From Triple H trying to sway him to joining the dark side, to his mini-feud with Kane, we saw more of an emphasis being placed on Ziggler.

As we got closer to this past Sunday’s PPV, we saw a developing feud between Luke Harper and Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship. The two would be placed in a title match on Raw, where the former Wyatt Family member took the belt in a match that wasn’t clean to say the least. Many thought that this indicated a downfall for Ziggler, but whoever guessed that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

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During the main event at Survivor Series, it got to the point where Dolph was the only member of Team Cena remaining against Harper, Kane, and Seth Rollins of Team Authority. The odds were heavily against Ziggler being able to end the Authority’s reign over WWE. So what does he do? He takes out Kane and Harper via pinfall to leave him with just Rollins.

Mr. Money in the Bank and Ziggler put on one heck of a performance on their own. From hitting their signature moves, to showing terrific chemistry, these two put on a show for the Scottrade Center fans.

As Triple H stood on the side and saw Rollins was in danger of losing, he took out two referees and Ziggler himself with a Pedigree. The Game then called down his personal referee, Scott Armstrong, to count the pinfall. As he got to two, we saw Sting make his long-awaited debut and take out Triple H. What was even bigger was the fact that Sting put a hurt Ziggler on an exhausted Rollins and got the pinfall, ending the Authority’s reign. While it was Sting who saved the Showoff, he was involved in the Icon’s first ever appearance on WWE TV and was the sole survivor of the match, both of which were Ziggler’s greatest moments in WWE (It outdid him cashing in his Money in the Bank contract in 2013).

The next night on Raw, we saw him get placed in the main event on a tag team with Cena. While the match won’t be something we’ll ever watch again, it still saw Ziggler closing out the show.

So now, from all of this, Dolph Ziggler is pretty high on the pecking order in WWE. It would be nice to think that he could go even higher, but that may be an issue.

Next month, we’re expected to see both Randy Orton and Roman Reigns return. They’re both going to occupy main event babyface slots with John Cena and even Dean Ambrose not incredibly far behind. Orton is going to be in a big feud with Rollins that could become a WrestleMania 31 match and Reigns will likely be going for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in early 2015. Cena is always going to be in a marquee feud on the card as well. You can’t leave out Daniel Bryan, either, if or when he returns because he’ll immediately take a high spot on the card. All of this is going to unfortunately leave Dolph on the outside looking in.

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Ziggler is one heck of a performer out there and can put on a great match with anyone. His microphone skills are also pretty good. The problem isn’t that WWE doesn’t like him, because as shown recently, they certainly do. There’s simply just no room for the former Spirit Squad member to rise further than he’s at right now, barring an injury or a heel turn.

Many think that Ziggler could go for the WWE WHC at some point, but that may not be for a very long time. This is due to Reigns’chances of winning the WWE WHC next year and have a lengthy reign with it being very high. It will make Ziggler’s chances of going for that low unless he undergoes a heel turn (Which I cannot see coming).

Other than that, there’s just not going to be a lot of room for Ziggler to maneuver around by next month, which is a shame. He’s incredibly over with the fans and deserves a consistently high spot on the roster. He has good place on the card now, but the reality check here is that it probably won’t last. Hopefully I’m wrong on this one.

How far do you see Dolph Ziggler’s push going?