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Dolph Ziggler Can Be WWE SmackDown Live’s Top Heel

By AJ Balano

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With a WWE Championship opportunity set for SummerSlam, a return to form for Dolph Ziggler may help him get over the hump

Dolph Ziggler is the number one contender for the WWE Championship. Yes. You read that correctly. Being drafted to Smackdown has paid off dividends for the Show-Off, as Shane McMahon once said he wanted to give opportunities to those who had been overlooked and cast aside by The Authority; and Daniel Bryan, the wrestler’s wrestler, has emphasized that he wants to put more of the spotlight on the wrestlers and the in-ring action. Dolph Ziggler meets both criteria of the powers that be that run the New Era Smackdown Live.

Ziggler is now set to square off against fellow Ohio statesman, Dean Ambrose, the wildly popular wildcard WWE Champion, presumably in one of the three co-main-events of SummerSlam (the other two being Rollins vs. Balor for the terribly named Universal Championship, and the Lesnar vs. Orton marquee match 14 years in the making). While this won’t certainly be the first time Ziggler and Ambrose crossed paths, as the two wrestled a series of technical wrestling matches on Raw prior to the Brand split, this would be the first time the two had something meaningful to fight over, and with a storyline surely to be built up.

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All Ziggler has ever wanted was an opportunity to run with the ball. His last run as world champion ended prematurely due to a concussion he suffered, but not before one of the most triumphant title wins in recent memory when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Alberto Del Rio the night after Wrestlemania 29. Now that he has the chance to steal the show in the upper part of the card at SummerSlam, Ziggler needs one more thing to really make the most out of this opportunity: a return to form, a heel turn.

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He is after all, dubbed “HEELZiggler” on Twitter. In recent years, Ziggler has become a babyface, seemingly floundering around, and at times, getting lost in the shuffle. Reactions to him on a nightly basis have slowly become more and more lukewarm and tepid, which is unfortunate because the fault really isn’t on him; management simply didn’t know what to do with him, or they failed to see anything in him. Sure, his rather outspoken, brash personality at times may have led the company to believe that they may have another CM Punk situation on their hands, but for the most part, Ziggler has had everything that they’re looking for in their wrestlers: good looking, charismatic, entertaining, and can go in the ring.

Ziggler has often voiced his displeasure of having been in WWE for a decade and yet to be given a real shot at being the top guy

One of Ziggler’s idols was Shawn Michaels; a fitting role model, seeing as how Ziggler won the number one contender’s six-pack challenge on Smackdown with a scintillating super kick to AJ Styles. Of the many chips on his shoulder, Ziggler has often voiced his displeasure of having been in WWE for a decade and yet to be given a real shot at being the top guy. He was a cheerleader, he was a caddy, he’s gone through multiple entrance theme songs, Ziggler has been in the WWE now for four different eras (Ruthless Aggression, PG Era, Reality Era, and now the New Era) and has managed to stay afloat.

it would also take Shawn Michaels nearly a decade before he became the Heartbreak Kid, who would go on to become WWE Champion

Interestingly enough, it would also take Shawn Michaels nearly a decade before he became the Heartbreak Kid, who would go on to become WWE Champion and eventually one of the greatest of all time. Michaels, along with his tag team partner in the Rockers, Marty Jannetty, debuted in the-then WWF in 1987, during the height of Hulkamania and the Golden Age of Wrestling. It would not be until 1992, five years later, when Michaels went solo and became the Heartbreak Kid, and would be an additional four years until he reached the summit in 1996 when he finally captured his first WWE Championship against Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 12. It took Michaels nine years with WWE for him to finally get to the top of the mountain. Nine years is an eternity in wrestling time; for context, the much-beloved Attitude Era lasted just three years from 1998 to 2001.

Ziggler is at that point now in his WWE career. By the time HBK had won the WWE Championship, he was already in essence a heel, garnering real heat for his involvement with the formation and leadership of the Kliq, which would further escalate due to the infamous Montreal Screwjob. While he may not necessarily have to go to those lengths, Ziggler can become Smackdown’s top heel with a simple, and much needed heel turn. He has been a face for nearly three years, with the highest point in that timeframe being he was the sole survivor in the Survivor Series 2014 main event thanks to an assist from Sting.

Ambrose, for all intents and purposes, is the tweener/babyface champion. Ziggler has to be the heel in this equation, and it would probably be the easiest and best thing for him to do right now. He has all the ammunition and pent-up frustration in him, ten years deep, to throw at Ambrose and the fans.

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Ziggler had to wait and bide his time, and when it was his time, he was told no, or it was taken away from him, not on his terms. He watched technically inferior in-ring wrestlers like John Cena become champion. He watched favorite golden boys like Randy Orton become champion. He watched wrestlers his size with his level of aptitude pass him by and become champion in CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. He watched men who left WWE and come back for part time positions like The Rock and Brock Lesnar, leapfrog him and become champion. And he has watched the future fly right by him in Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns all becoming champion.

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A swift, sudden superkick to Ambrose’s face is all it would take for Ziggler to assert himself in the big picture of Smackdown moving forward, as it had worked for Michaels on Jannetty, on Hogan, an on Cena. Ziggler isn’t getting any younger, and his time may be dwindling down. Although the feeling no matter what may be another case of “too little, too late” as it was with his Reality Era counterparts CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, regardless, this could be Ziggler’s last great run. A return to what he was when he started, what he naturally is, a heel, is just what he needs to make the most out of this opportunity, if it’s the last one he’ll ever get.