Does Does Ziggler = Prestige?

[It's...Baylariat!]

In a recent article on Wrestlezone's main site, Ziggler's quoted in an interview that he wants to bring prestige back to the WWE World Heavyweight Title. He goes on to mention that the belt's lost prestige due to the enhanced focus on the WWE belt and that he feels he can bring glory back to the WHC.

The question's two fold...

1) Has the WHC lost it's luster?
2) Can Dolph Ziggler bring ANY belt back to the prestige it used to be?

In my humble opinion, I think Ziggler works hard and that hard work would bring prominence back to the title. It's not the title that makes the wrestler, it's the wrestler that makes the title. With someone who takes pride in their work, it'll be easy for a belt to be prestigious again. Ziggler mentioned he thought that belt was more important as more people have held it during it's life span.

But to me, the WHC hasn't really lost it's luster. It's been put on the back burner, but it's still seen as a top tier belt and shows an importance to the wrestler that holds it. It led off Monday Night Raw didn't it?

So what are your thoughts?

 

[TempestH]

The belt HAS lost prestige. That's pretty much the reason that Ziggler is even in the running for it. Dolph CAN'T bring prestige back to the belt. The problem is that too many World Title reigns have been trial runs at the main event rather than truly giving a wrestler the ball. And Ziggler is one of many examples of this.

The problem is that the WHC, and the SmackDown brand as a whole is simply used to over-inflate everyone's importance as a way to overcompensate for putting so much emphasis on John Cena. There are other top talents that WWE wants to be "stars", but because they aren't ready/good enough to be in the main event on RAW and/or they don't want to compromise their plans for Cena, they throw the Big Gold Belt on them to make them look important when they're really just the big fish in a small pond. Imo, the World Heavyweight Title should be laid to rest. World Heavyweight Title is basically a way for WWE to placate their other top stars and make them look good without having to actually pull the trigger on them, and thus it will always be seen as a consolation prize.

 

[Dagger Dias]

1) Has the WHC lost it's luster?

Yes, that would be an understatement. It has not closed a PPV event in almost 3 years, it OPENED two Wrestlemania events, and has generally been booked to be an afterthought in comparison to the WWE Championship. These two belts used to be on part with each other. They took turns closing shows and WWE made them both look important. Now the World Heavyweight Championship has sadly outlived its usefulness. They make the announcers refer to it as being on the same level as the WWE Championship, but that is simply not the case. They have not treated the titles as equals for quite some time now.

2) Can Dolph Ziggler bring ANY belt back to the prestige it used to be?

Dolph Ziggler could bring back some feelings of prestige and importance to the Intercontinental and US Championships, but not the World Heavyweight Championship. It's going to take more than a decent title reign from someone who steals the show in order for that belt to ever regain its former glory. WWE would need to do several other things as well. The World Heavyweight Championship would need to close PPV events again. They would need to do a much better job of making the feuds for it seem important. Have top tier guys such as Cena chase for it. That would do some good for the belt.

If more effort is made to place en equal emphasis on both belts, THEN it could regain prestige. All another Dolph Ziggler reign would do for it is provide entertaining matches. Too much damage has been done and it will take more than that to restore it. As much as I like the belt, they no longer need it given the direction the federation has been going in. I say it's time to unify the two world titles. This would also benefit the Intercontinental Championship as it would become the #2 belt at that point. The way the World Heavyweight Championship is currently treated is how the Intercontinental Championship should be treated anyhow. Restoring the prestige of the World Heavyweight Championship seems like a lost cause due to a combination of the brand lines being gone and the fact that WWE refuses to treat the two world titles equally. They are clearly biased in favor of the WWE Championship and that has been painfully obvious for the past few years.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

It has, and the reason is Cena.

WWE title is Cena's belt. The last belt that we had for nearly 8 fucking years was an homage to his gimmick. Look at this belt, and its still blingy even though his character no longer is. He has a T-Shirt with that belt on it. Its all about Cena. Understandably so.


The WHC has been relegated to the B-Show for a while. I know for the last 2 years there aren't any brands but the content, matches still make a difference. Also coz Raw goes 3 hours now so you have more wrestling I guess, otherwise there was more wrestling on SD.



It will take a SPECIAL wrestler to compete with Cena and bring some focus on the WHC. Giving Del Rio another run is nauseating. ADR needs to stay away from the title scene, but I fear that he doesn't have the mic abilities to have a personal feud that makes superstars into icons.


I wouldn't be adverse to Brock going on the road for 2 months with the WHC maybe leading upto Mania next year. He would bring some focus to the championship, and you can groom someone to take it from him.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The problem isn't the belt or even the talent involved, it's the conveyor belt that has dictated that if you hold a midcard belt and don't push on within a year you are branded a failure.

Zig isn't in the WHC picture for any other reason than that, in the past someone could be top tier without ever getting a title or even a shot. Jake Roberts, Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, Big Bossman, Earthquake, Rick Rude none of these ever got near a world belt and still headlined PPV's

Prestige comes from a strong champion defeating stronger opposition. Hogan did well as the guys he beat were bigger and better but he overcame the odds.

Bret Hart did it by defending against people who never got shots like Kid who put forth efforts that made the belt look important and under threat at all times.

Best thing they can do is put it on Daniel Bryan and have him win every time for 6 months at least even ending the streak if needed. Make Bryan the defacto "man to beat" and the WWE belt the Showpiece title.

 

[I_Am_Electro_Boy]

There's several things that help make the title more prestigious or at least not lose any prestige. Having a top guy hold the belt, having the belt headline PPVs, having strong contenders and storylines and having someone do everything he can to win the title. Right now ADR is holding the title and before him Dolph held it neither men are really top guys so neither made the title more prestigious instead maybe made it a little less prestigious. The belt hasn't headlined a PPV for ages, it's never been the match to buy a PPV for, this also makes the title a little less prestigious. Contenders have been pretty much on the same level as the champions, not very top guys but pretty high up the card. The storylines have also fell flat and haven't felt important, they've been pretty stale after a short time and wasn't entertaining. But, when Dolph won the title you could see his emotion, you could see how hard he's worked for it and how much he wanted it, so although Dolph isn't a true top guy the fact that he wanted the title so much helped build or maintain the prestige of the title.

Although Dolph is holding the title he isn't the only person responsibly for bringing or maintaining the prestige of the title. There needs to be actual focus on the title. Contenders have to be top guys because Dolph isn't big enough to be defending the title against up and comers right now. Storylines can't just be about the title, there needs to be more bulk into feuds so it's personal and doesn't depend on the two men only fighting for the title because it gets stale quick. So if Dolph is going to bring prestige there needs to be more focus put on the title.

 

[Mustang Sally]

The belt HAS lost prestige. That's pretty much the reason that Ziggler is even in the running for it.

The IC and US titles can be held by mid-carders; they're useful championships even as people understand the guys holding them might never be main eventers (Kofi, Ryder, Santino) and others may one day rise to the top (Axel, Barrett).

The world titles are supposed to be held by main event wrestlers. Sure, there's the occasional transitional reign in which a mid-carder wins the belt just to get the title to someone else. For the most part, though, world titles should be won only by the elite.

Problem is, the company is running short of main event performers. When you boil it down, there really are very few of them.....and of the ones who are there, lots of people "hate" John Cena, while others are "bored" by Alberto Del Rio. The field is pretty thin.

Clearly, WWE has to create the stars of tomorrow. That's good, but I question the choices of Curtis Axel and Dolph Ziggler. They also tried with Cody Rhodes, but that seems to have been dropped by the wayside.....which was probably a wise decision.

I can't understand this push-to-the-moon for Curtis Axel; a guy who was left on the sidelines for several years is suddenly the hottest thing going. If he's their idea of one of the guys who's going to lead the company into the next decade, I seriously wonder what's in store for WWE.

Same thing for Dolph Ziggler. His push has been different than Axel's; instead of a bang-zoom ascension, the company has featured Dolph over a period of years, using him on virtually every Raw and Smackdown, winning and losing, but always involved in a storyline and always in front of our faces. They want us to love him and have invested tons of time in him.

I can't see it, I really can't. It's not that I don't like the guy, because I do....but I honestly can't see the wisdom in deciding he will be the future of the company. He knocks himself out in the ring but simply doesn't have the presence to be an elite performer, as I see it.

When considering the question posed by the OP, use your own judgment; don't presume that if Vince McMahon is pushing Dolph so hard that the guy must be great.

Personally, I can't see Dolph equaling prestige. He just isn't good enough, imo.

 

[GeneralDLB]

In a recent article on Wrestlezone's main site, Ziggler's quoted in an interview that he wants to bring prestige back to the WWE World Heavyweight Title. He goes on to mention that the belt's lost prestige due to the enhanced focus on the WWE belt and that he feels he can bring glory back to the WHC.

The question's two fold...

1) Has the WHC lost it's luster?
2) Can Dolph Ziggler bring ANY belt back to the prestige it used to be?

In my humble opinion, I think Ziggler works hard and that hard work would bring prominence back to the title. It's not the title that makes the wrestler, it's the wrestler that makes the title. With someone who takes pride in their work, it'll be easy for a belt to be prestigious again. Ziggler mentioned he thought that belt was more important as more people have held it during it's life span.

But to me, the WHC hasn't really lost it's luster. It's been put on the back burner, but it's still seen as a top tier belt and shows an importance to the wrestler that holds it. It led off Monday Night Raw didn't it?

So what are your thoughts?

No one's bringing "prestige" to anything. It's not the 70s 80s and 90s anymore.

Quit listening to what these dumbass wrestlers say.

 

[Loveless]

There isn't any wrestler who can bring prestige back to that belt, the only people who can do it are the writers. It was creative that destroyed the WH title by throwing it on first at Wrestlemania 28 in a match that lasted 18 seconds, could you ever imagine the WWE title being treated that disrespectfully?

 

[Kidpolean]

Every belt outside of the WWE Title means nothing. US and Intercontinental are crap, the tag titles are crap, the divas title is beneath crap, and the world title is almost crap.

There is one simple way of making the World title matter again....GIVE IT TO CM PUNK!!!!!! We all know Cena is going to hold on to the WWE Title for along time so why not give it to Punk. Instead they have Punk do meaningless feuds with part timers like Undertaker and Lesnar. CM Punk instantly makes this the 1B title. Have Dolph feud with Punk for the title, Have Punk win then go on to feud with Daniel Bryan, than maybe Jericho, hell I would love to see another Orton and Punk feud. Make the world title the title for the good in ring performers and keep the WWE title for the huge guys that Vince likes like Cena, Ryback, Henry.

Get rid of the stupid Money In The Bank, or make it to where you have to announce when you will cash it in. The MITB is hurting the titles. I doesn't help people get over, all it does is get them one huge pop. I would rather have seen Ziggler vs Del Rio at wrestlemania in a 15-20 min match and Ziggler win clean than to cash in on a hurt Del Rio.

And Finally....The number 1 thing I think is wrong with titles.....HEELS CANT WIN CLEAN. WTF is that. Why cant heels win clean? It is annoying and ridiculous. Every heel is a coward and cheats to win. We need another HHH type, where he is just a bad ass, ass kicking machine.

 

[Kidpolean]

Every belt outside of the WWE Title means nothing. US and Intercontinental are crap, the tag titles are crap, the divas title is beneath crap, and the world title is almost crap.

There is one simple way of making the World title matter again....GIVE IT TO CM PUNK!!!!!! We all know Cena is going to hold on to the WWE Title for along time so why not give it to Punk. Instead they have Punk do meaningless feuds with part timers like Undertaker and Lesnar. CM Punk instantly makes this the 1B title. Have Dolph feud with Punk for the title, Have Punk win then go on to feud with Daniel Bryan, than maybe Jericho, hell I would love to see another Orton and Punk feud. Make the world title the title for the good in ring performers and keep the WWE title for the huge guys that Vince likes like Cena, Ryback, Henry.

Get rid of the stupid Money In The Bank, or make it to where you have to announce when you will cash it in. The MITB is hurting the titles. I doesn't help people get over, all it does is get them one huge pop. I would rather have seen Ziggler vs Del Rio at wrestlemania in a 15-20 min match and Ziggler win clean than to cash in on a hurt Del Rio.

And Finally....The number 1 thing I think is wrong with titles.....HEELS CANT WIN CLEAN. WTF is that. Why cant heels win clean? It is annoying and ridiculous. Every heel is a coward and cheats to win. We need another HHH type, where he is just a bad ass, ass kicking machine.

 

[CM Steel]

Dolph Ziggler is dead on the money (in the bank) on this!

The WWE World Heavyweight Championship has lost alot of it's prestige. From it's days during the WWE brand split. When guys like Triple H, Bill Goldberg, and Chris Benoit held the WHC the title meant something. But in the dying days of the brand split when guys like Christian, Jack Swagger, and Mark Henry held that title belt, it meant less. It's almost like now that the World Heavyweight Championship seems more like the WWECW title. A title for the upper-midcard guys. Smh.

I'll just be glad whenever the E decides to unify both world title's as soon as they can.

 

[Mustang Sally]

There is one simple way of making the World title matter again....GIVE IT TO CM PUNK!!!!!!

I agree. Cena is the biggest attraction WWE has, yet for over a year, the company catered to Punk, largely at Cena's expense. Obviously, there's a way to have both of them featured....and it involves letting each have his own major championship belt. Not only would they be the featured performers in their own kingdom, but it keeps them out of each others' way until a major PPV when they battle it out.

Instead of being so excited about Dolph as the future of WWE, I think it would be wiser to let Punk have the World title for a nice long reign....even as Cena holds his for an equally long period. This could set up a title-vs-title match at WM30 that would mean something since both men would have tons to lose.....and the prestige of the belts would be in play too, since the titles were held for such a long time by both champions, rather than having so many title changes we can't keep track of them.

Does this take Dolph pretty much out of the major championship picture?

Yes, it does.

Do I believe WWE is going to do all this?

No, I don't.

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

They have donked that belt to irrelevancy. Like has been said before, it has nothing to do with the belt or with the wrestlers involved. It's the same reason CM Punk still got overshadowed during his unreal title reign. John Cena headlines every PPV and it's sickening.

Get a good feud going and let the WHC headline a PPV here and there. The pinnacle of it's irrelevancy started at Mania 28 with Sheamus winning it in 17 seconds at the beginning of the card.

 

[edgehead113]

There's 2 things WWE should do to make the WHC matter:

1. Only have 1 MITB

This makes it more unpredictable, and gives the holder the opportunity to choose which Title to go for. It makes them more equal than having one MITB match with guys who are essentially mid-carders (Smackdown) and another that is only for former WWE Champions (Raw).

2. Let the WHC be a "main event" Title

How about this for a rule- for every PPV except MITB and Royal Rumble, which should be main evented by their namesakes, the last match on the card goes to the longest reigning champion of the two World Titles. In theory, this means the top guy at the moment is always going on last. So when CM Punk's 434 day reign was going on, he should have been the last match in almost every PPV. Imagine the rub the WHC would have gotten if they had their match last at Wrestlemania- even after Cena and Rock. Of course this would mean we would need a real WHC match instead of Del Rio and Swagger, but you know what I mean.



Then again, I'd rather just unify the Titles and move on with just 1.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

The World title is just fine except for one thing...

it's name.

The WHC has become what the Intercontinental title used to be. It's the #2 championship. The stepping stone to the WWE title. A guy proves himself with a WHC run, and he'll get himself into the mix for the WWE title. If he can't, he'll find himself relegated back to the mid card to regroup and try again.

There's nothing wrong with having that championship. It's necessary in fact. It's just the name of the title. With fans being conditioned since the dawn of time that the World Championship is supposed to be the biggest prize, that people (both inside and outside the business) have a hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that it isn't anymore.

For that fact, I'm still a fan of merging the two, and pushing the IC title back to where it used to be... but I doubt that's happening anytime soon, so it is what it is.

 

[Tooker]

The World title is not as prestigious as it used to be. But as long as it has it's name, and the same belt that we've seen for years, for guys like Edge, Batista, Undertaker, even Jeff Hardy, it still have the potential to be equal with the WWE belt.

I remember last year, when Sheamus won the title at the beginning of Mania. Everybody think that it was the beginning of the end. But do you remember the run Sheamus had? He had several matches on Main event against CM Punk in hs hot run, and everybody was thinking of a battle of the giants. Sheamus was the last great World Heavyweight Champion.

Because after.. The title was held by people's with zero momentum. Del Rio winning the title to Big Show in a Last Man Standing match on Smackdown, when no advertisement, no feud, nothing, was a MAJOR mistake... How to make the title meanless. Schedule a match against a old rival, that should be awesome. But not against a en who has no business in this...

And I agree, when some says that WWE doesn't have MAin Eventers anymore.. Making Ryback havins this risible storyline is "stupid".. Particulary when you have guys like Orton, Bryan, Sheamus, even Kane, who all have the potential to be top guys, (we saw it, they all had hot runs throught the years), wasting their time for US titles, or tag titles... Or even nothing.. Bring the top guys, the guys with charisma and hard working peoples whit heart back to the main event rank, and not because "vince love 'em..."

 

[InstantAttitude]

1. Yes. Defiantly the World Heavyweight Title has lost it's prestige. For me the moment it opened up ANOTHER WrestleMania and was contested under 18 secs is when all was lost.

2. Meh, hard to tell. I believe if they book Ziggler strong and as a top face he can make winning the title again a big deal and bring back some prestige to the title. And it would help if he would feud with a top guy for the title, hopefully a guy like Randy Orton.

 

[Pedigree1]

Yes without a doubt the WHC has lost prestige and then some.. I might put it as far as 3rd on the list as belts being most important. Obviously,the WWE title is no1 and one could argue between the IC and US belt being no2. Can the belt ever be prestigious again.. That one i honestly dont know.. I think its really going to take someone special to bring it back to the level it oncce was if it ever can happen..

Orton,to me would be a good choice.. But WWE has lost faith in him and orton is no where near the WHC title scene.. DB would be the wisest choice as he is over super over even more so Than Cena is.. If there not going to do one of those two options then,they must unify the titles ASAP. The WHC has been insignificant for quite some time now.. Dont Wait until WM30 to unify the titles,We The People deserve better.. I like Ziggler and ADR but tehy are not the ones to do it..

 

[shafe_41]

Of course the WHC title has lost it's prestige over time. You could write a book on what ruined it. But I am a little surprised by the support for Ziggler here. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Dolph Ziggler. He's one of the most entertaining guys in that company. Arguably in the Top 3.

But what can Ziggler bring to the WHC to give it prestige? I mean yes he is deserving to hold the title... but you have to be somewhat established to bring prestige back to something that's been pretty lackluster for so long. Ziggler isn't exactly my pick to do so. At least not during his FIRST WHC Title run. And now he doesn't even have the title anymore. I like the face turn he was given because the crowd has been way too behind him to get the prize he deserved. But ADR makes a better champion right now because a face chasing the title is always better in my mind.

Ziggler's title reign in terms of prestige was down there with Swagger's. It wasn't even a reign. Unless I'm forgetting a match on Raw or something, Ziggler has never successfully defended the WHC. So he could never bring prestige to something he can't defend.

Will he someday? Hell yes. But right now, you need to give it to an established guy to run with it. I would also say Orton but something needs to happen with him before he holds a title again. I don't know why it's not given to some veteran to hang on to for a few months to make the matches mean something. I know it would never happen, but someone like... Triple H, Kane, or maybe a guy like Batista if he returns. Yes. Batista would be a better option than a lot of guys on that roster right now in terms of BRINGING BACK PRESTIGE. He could have a lot of matches left in him with guys like Ziggler, Sheamus, Orton, ADR, etc...

So does Ziggler=prestige? Nope. Not at all. At least not yet.

 

[newwaveknight]

The WHC had some meaning on the shows back when the two brands were separate. I don't know why they would go to a unified WWE. It was simple: RAW has its own superstars and titles, SmackDown has its own superstars and titles. That way the enormous roster that the WWE had would all get some exposure. Now you have the two shows united, which means the main-event guys on RAW are now the main-event guys on SmackDown, thus no longer making the WHC a main-event level title. If they separated the brands again, I think that would bring some prestige back.

 

[MCMG]

It has definitely lost its appeal. This calender year has involved some shambolic booking for this title - some decent feuds and matches but a complete disregard for a very prestigious title. The Jack Swagger/Del Rio feud was all about immigration and whatnot. I think that was a good and refreshing feud; however, there was no mention of the World Title. It was second to Zeb Coulter and that is what is wrong. Is Dolph Ziggler angry at Del Rio because he took his title or because he injured him. That is my problem. I suppose that is a problem for most of the belts in the WWE right now.

Prestige can be brought back to the title but it needs a title reign where the champ actually loves the belt. Either a abnormally long title reign (Punk, JBL) or a reign where the champ cherishes what he has. They could easily have Del Rio polishing the belt every time we see him. During promos he could just start staring at his belt and ignore questions. The minimum is too make it feel he wants to be champ and that helps the WWE in the long run for they are marketing something meaningful.

 

[Pepper Lewis]

The belt HAS lost prestige. That's pretty much the reason that Ziggler is even in the running for it. Dolph CAN'T bring prestige back to the belt. The problem is that too many World Title reigns have been trial runs at the main event rather than truly giving a wrestler the ball. And Ziggler is one of many examples of this.

The problem is that the WHC, and the SmackDown brand as a whole is simply used to over-inflate everyone's importance as a way to overcompensate for putting so much emphasis on John Cena. There are other top talents that WWE wants to be "stars", but because they aren't ready/good enough to be in the main event on RAW and/or they don't want to compromise their plans for Cena, they throw the Big Gold Belt on them to make them look important when they're really just the big fish in a small pond. Imo, the World Heavyweight Title should be laid to rest. World Heavyweight Title is basically a way for WWE to placate their other top stars and make them look good without having to actually pull the trigger on them, and thus it will always be seen as a consolation prize.

The World Title Started losing Prestige around 1999/2000! It hasn't recoverd much since then! I think a few Title Reigns brought it up! Jericho/ HHH/ Goldberg/ Taker/ etc.... but when you have guys like ZIGGLER/ Cm Punk/ Hardy/ RVD/ Edge as World Champions, it certainly is not what it used to be! guys like the last I mentioned, are only champs cause of the LOW LEVEL of Talent available at the time! Daniel Bryan/ The Shield/ Alex Riley can Certainly bring back prestige, but as long as you have NO Talent guys holding it, like cm punk and Ziggler, you can forget about it!

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Generally speaking, the World Heavyweight Championship probably won't ever be on the same level as the WWE Championship because WWE doesn't want it to be. The WWE Championship is the original World Championship in WWE. It's the creation of Vince McMahon, Sr., thus it will always be thought of and treated as the more coveted title in WWE as long as Vince McMahon, Jr. has anything to say about it.

However, in my opinion, and in the grand scheme of things, I've enjoyed the World Heavyweight Championship picture more in the past 2 years than I probably ever have. I thought the title started to hit a strike during the Orton vs. Christian feud back in 2011. I would have liked to have seen Christian have a strong run with the title but at least they had a tremendous series of matches out of it. When Mark Henry took the title off Orton, he really increased my overall interest in the title. Had he ultimately not been injured, I think there was a good chance of Henry carrying the title all the way to WM 29. The way things seemed to be playing out prior to that, it looked as though WWE was building up Bryan to be a challenger to Henry in a David vs. Goliath sort of scenario. I could have done without Big Show beating Henry only for Bryan to beat Show a minute or so later after cashing in MITB, but it gave Bryan two huge guys to feud with and Bryan got some pretty good matches out of them. I would have liked to have seen Bryan hold the title longer, but he had a memorable run with the title. I was initially pissed that he dropped the title in 18 seconds to Sheamus, I'm still not tremendously crazy about it, but it looks like it's all worked out for Bryan. While Sheamus wasn't the deepest babyface champ we've seen, he did have a strong, traditional babyface run that lasted about 7 months. His follow up matches against Bryan were excellent as were his series of ppv bouts against Big Show.

Since Big Show dropped the title to Del Rio, it's kind of been on a roller coaster. Del Rio tries hard but the guy's presence in the main event is really starting to drag. His run as WHC was the strongest run he's had in WWE and I thought it was okay but the guy just wasn't nearly as over as a 3 time World Champion should be. Ziggler cashing in MITB and winning the title was a great moment but, unfortunately, Ziggler getting a concussion put a kaibosh on the whole thing.

Can Ziggler bring a new level of prestige back to the title? If he's given a strong babyface run as champion eventually, then I'd have to say yes. A lot of fans like the idea of a wrestler that is consistently over holding the title for a long period of time. If Ziggler wins the title at MITB, or if he wins the MITB match and ultimately cashes in successfully against Del Rio, then I think WWE will give him that strong run. I expect Ziggler to regain the title at either MITB or SummerSlam and possibly hold it until WrestleMania.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

The question's two fold...

1) Has the WHC lost it's luster?
2) Can Dolph Ziggler bring ANY belt back to the prestige it used to be?

1.) EASILY! It is a glorified IC Title at best. The matches are usually technically sound just like IC Title matches used to be known for back in the day but most of the feuds lack a lot of intrigue & good writing. It's obvious WWE hardly cares about the WHC & doesn't put that much time or effort into booking it. The title picture has been the same 3-5 more or less stale & boring competitors since Bryan lost the title when there are so many superstars who could make an impact in the World Title scene, not to mention when something really big or shocking ever does happen with the World Title it usually happens at a less important event, to a Superstar who isn't over with the crowd and/or WWE is just desperate to make a move with them and/or shove them down peoples throats. & even when the booking is consistent & good like with the Orton/Christian feud in 2011, it is NEVER the main focus, main belt or main storyline going on & is almost always overshadowed by the WWE Title on every PPV & show.

2.) I definately think it's possible since I think Doph Ziggler has done so in the past somewhat with both the US & IC titles. My only problem right now is that Dolph lost pretty much all of his momentum as far as I am concerned once he got injured, missed extreme rules, had a terrible title reign & lost the title back to Del Rio. He didn't have to lose all his momentum & the fact that Dolph's title reign was such a joke is just another example of the lost prestige of the World Title. He has officially turned now & has a chance to gain it back but I for one am hesitant. I'm not sure now great a face Dolph can be & I'm not really looking forward to more Del Rio in the World Title picture but we will see if Dolph can make the WHC interesting again.