WWE: Where is Dolph Ziggler?

It’s been a strange 2017 for WWE superstar Dolph Ziggler, who has been in rivalries with Kalisto, Apollo Crews, and potential WWE Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Lately, “The Show-Off” has been absent from WWE television for quite some time – long enough for some of us to get worried.

Ever since he was drafted to SmackDown Live, Dolph Ziggler has been the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship twice. He lost his first opportunity at SummerSlam in 2016 to Dean Ambrose in a match that didn’t live up to the hype of the promos, and he lost his second opportunity on the last episode of the year in a stellar Triple Threat match with AJ Styles and Baron Corbin. In between those two matches, Ziggler won the Intercontinental Championship after a “Feud of the Year” program with The Miz.

Part of what made that feud feel so special is the fact that Ziggler’s career seemed to be totally up in the air. He put his career on the line for the IC title, and many believed that he would be willing to walk away from the WWE, particularly because he appears as a commentator on FOX Business and performs stand-up comedy; he has other options and talents.

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However, Ziggler won and stayed, but he received no pay-off from that victory. Despite the fact that he was over with the crowd and put on a near five-star quality match at No Mercy, Ziggler lost his title when The Miz invoked his rematch clause. We never got to see Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn at Survivor Series.

The speculation about Ziggler’s future during his feud with The Miz has returned, because Ziggler hasn’t been on WWE programming in over a month. His last single’s match on TV came against Shinsuke Nakamura, which was far better than their lackluster encounter at Backlash. Ziggler hasn’t been in any backstage segments, and he didn’t appear in the Battleground Pay Per View. In fact, he hasn’t appeared on television at all since the 4th of July Battle Royal, in which he was the first person eliminated (and unceremoniously so, at that).

It’s incredibly bizarre, especially since he appeared in the Money in the Bank ladder match and actually received some hype before the match. JBL went out of his way to repeatedly call Ziggler the favorite (“What?”), and Shane McMahon gave him some love on Talking Smack. They even gave him a somewhat clean win over AJ Styles, though that may have honestly been more about their desire to have top stars lose in their hometown, an obsession that should probably be classified as one of Vince McMahon’s many notorious fetishes.

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Ziggler is one of the most reliable workers in the company, and it’s easy to call him up and get him to job to a young talent. He could have worked a program with Tye Dillinger, Chad Gable, Luke Harper, or any other lower-card babyface on SmackDown Live. Heck, he could have started that long-overdue rivalry with Zayn, who still appears to be involved in some sort of angle with Mike and Maria Kanellis.

Instead, Ziggler has been off of television, and it makes Nakamura’s (likely misinterpreted) comments about “going to Japan, probably soon” seem a bit eery.

It’s possible Ziggler could leave the company he’s been with “for 8 years, but it feels like 12”, but maybe it’s more likely for him to stay with the company but switch brands. A move to Raw could work, sure, but the reported Superstar Shakeup after SummerSlam could involve some veterans moving down to NXT. WhatCulture Wrestling’s Simon Miller believes that Ziggler could benefit from moving to NXT, where he could be given more room to operate as a character, repackage himself, and maybe even become a formidable opponent who can win and push other talent (as opposed to solely doing the latter).

Early in the year, Ziggler already repackaged himself as a heel by beating Kalisto with a chair. Initially, he struggled mightily as a heel, because the crowd would not stop cheering for him. Part of that had to do with the fact that he was more over than either Kalisto or Crews, but he would also oblige the crowd when they chanted for more chair shots. As Alexa Bliss likes to say, the “I do what I want!” mentality is better for heels.

And this is what Ziggler started to do. Even though he started his career as a heel, he was more of a jerk than a menacing, bitter veteran. He slowly started to become the latter character, proclaiming himself as “the brass ring” and ducking fights against Mojo Rawley and, later, Nakamura. He started to show more of that bitterness in promos during his program with Nakamura, and some of it did feel real.

That said, the repackaging never felt complete, and there’s also the fact that it’s clear the ship has sailed with him. Regardless of No. 1 contenderships, IC title victories, or heel turns, the sense is that the WWE will never actually push Ziggler. They’ve had opportunities to do so in the past, and they’ve passed on all of them rather emphatically.

But by competing in NXT, Ziggler could perform the more interesting, nuanced character work he is capable of, since that sort of stuff is rarely encouraged on the mind-numbingly simplistically-written main roster shows. He would also get a chance to be taken seriously while helping the younger guys, and that’s a far better proposition than having him toil away on the main roster as yet another misused veteran performer.

Then again, he could be gone for real this time. The start-and-stop pushes have to add up over the years, and the company has left him holding the bag far too many times. He was white-hot three times in his career: when he cashed in on Alberto Del Rio on the Raw after WrestleMania, when he beat “Team Authority” at Survivor Series 2014, and when he beat The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship last year.

He’s been popular among the fans, solid on the mic, a great ambassador for the company, and asset for the younger talent, and has always been one of the elite in-ring performers in the world. By leaving, Ziggler could truly blossom elsewhere and rid himself of the suffocating nature of WWE politics. With cuts looming, perhaps Ziggler sees the writing on the wall and is willing to see if he can become a much bigger star elsewhere. It would make all the sense in the world, and it has been a long time coming.

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Selfishly, I would love to see Ziggler in New Japan Pro Wrestling or Ring of Honor as a member of the Bullet Club, and it would be exciting to see the charismatic “Show-Off” pulling a Cody. However, I have a feeling he’s positioned for a different move within the company. Either way, Ziggler’s up to something, because he wasn’t even on an episode of SmackDown Live in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Watch his situation carefully, because there must be something brewing. We didn’t see Jason Jordan for months, and now he’s Kurt Angle’s son. Now the same sort of story won’t happen here, but even the backstage news has been awfully quiet on Ziggler. That’s usually a sign that there’s a big move on the horizon.