WWE: A Refocused Dolph Ziggler Can Legitimately Pursue the WWE Championship

No longer infatuated with just stealing the show, Dolph Ziggler is pursuing a championship instead of praise.  Acknowledging that wins and losses matter could finally point his character in the right direction. 

In my mind that holds little room for anything other than professional wrestling and Bob Dylan lyrics, I have come to think that the record-skipping sound upon Dolph Ziggler’s entrance is symbolic of him cutting off his belief that simply stealing the show should justify title opportunities.

Then again, I also thought John Cena would have turned heel by now.  Clearly my mind is worth its weight in sand.

One belief I AM clinging to, however, is that WWE read my article last month (which you can find here).

I stated that Ziggler was in need of wins upon his return instead of only show-stealers.  Up to this point in his post-Spirit Squad career, Ziggler has been widely-considered one of the best workers in the company, but one that was never quite able to stay above the WWE’s famous glass ceiling.  We always wanted to see him as a top guy, but we still may not have believed it once he got there.  We were satisfied with him being ultra-talented and taking bumps like Shawn Michaels mixed with Brad Pitt getting hit by cars in Meet Joe Black.

This is what made his most recent heel run especially annoying, and not the Vickie Guerrero annoying when it is means to accumulate heat.  He mocked the fans for choosing gimmicks over talent when he should have spent more time choosing wins over losses.   You don’t see the Cleveland Browns questioning the boos, do you?

Sometimes we fall in order to learn how to pick ourselves back up.  This last run, hopefully, was Ziggler’s rock bottom.

The Dolph Ziggler we saw at the Royal Rumble and this past week on Smackdown Live was a version that actually seemed intent on become a world champion.  He wasn’t channeling his inner-Rick Rude through gyrations, nor was he whining like The Miz without a motive.  He has the walk and the stare of a champion, like an Austin, Hart, or Reigns, with eyes staring daggers into the ring.  The Dolph Ziggler we now have, and hopefully keep, now has purpose.

Purpose tends to arrive after much soul-searching.  Although he was won two heavyweight championships (both with brief reigns), Ziggler has had the better part of a decade to figure out how to climb to the top of the WWE food chain.

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It has taken a landslide of disappointments and a saddling of the moniker of being the guy “never able to win the big one” to get to this point. Ziggler is in the fatal five-way at Fastlane, but a loss in that match will not stall his progress.  Ziggler has some proof yet to provide, but if this new purpose endures, we could be looking at Ziggler finally reaching the precipice we always knew he could.