Dolph Ziggler: Where did they go wrong?

[Spear]

If you don't remember, in the first two months of the year, Dolph Ziggler was feuding for the World Heavyweight Championship against Edge. He was main eventing Smackdown after Smackdown against Edge. Ziggler proceeded to actually win the World Heavyweight Championship away from Edge, although in a very contreversial manner. What happened was that Vickie Guerrero stripped Edge of the title and awarded it to Dolph Ziggler. At this point, I was marking out. But starting right after the title correlation, the WWE began making multiple booking mistakes that has led Ziggler from the main event on Smackdown back to the mid card on Raw. I will list these mistakes in order and tell you what could've happened if they hadn't occured.

Edge won the title back at the end of that Smackdown episode
Seriously? You build a guy up to the main event, and you give him a 20 minute reign with his first World Heavyweight Championship? If this hadn't occured, Dolph Ziggler could've still lost the title at Elimination Chamber, which was two days afterwords. Then he could've been put in the main event of Wrestlemania in a triple threat against Del Rio and Edge. While this wouldn't the right approach in my opinion, it could've happened.


Teddy Long fired Dolph off of Smackdown
This was a big mistake. Dolph gets fired off of Smackdown, and is put on Raw. This could've been a good idea, but they didn't have anything for Dolph on Raw to do.


Dolph Ziggler's feud with Morrison was discontinued
Things looked good for Ziggler when he first got to Raw. He looked like he was the biggest upper-card heel on the show, the equivalent to John Morrison in card placement. For this reason, Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison began feuding. I thought that this feud would be great, even though they'd had a very tainted match at Wrestlemania that featured Snooki. I wouldn't call that a bad thing though. What I would call a mistake is that 2 weeks after Wrestlemania, these two simply quit feuding.

Creative Raped Ziggler's Look and Gimmick

They dyed his blonde hair brown, and they cut it. Also, they changed his gimmick from "cocky, arrogant, beach blonde that acts perfect" to "serious Mr. Generic". This right here, is the worst mistake WWE made, and since then he's been on recovery mode. I think that dyeing his hair was where they went wrong.

Thoughts?

 

[LSC]

I think he should have stayed on SD imo. He had a great push and I wish he went to WM and did a world title match instead of the bullshit they booked that whole event. I am not sure where they went wrong , it's just another case of creative not knowing what do fuck all with anybody.

 

[mrpops]

lol i didnt even know he won the WHC. That sucks he lost it so quick.

But yeah, they messed up when he came to raw and ALMOST completly killed his character when they dyed his hair/hair cut. He came out and im like....uhh whos this? Then they showed his name and im like uhhh....he looks like generic superstar 123. That totally killed all his momentum. I thought he wouldve been fired the next day.

Thankfully WWE realised their mistake and made him dye his hair blonde again. Its the 1 thing that sets him apart from every other no name jobber. I agree he has been trying to get back to a higher spot. And he is! Hes the US champ and hes feuding with kofi. He's doing fine. Im enjoying his matches. But yes it was a very close call when they dyed his hair. He got no reaction and no one knew who the heck he was even with his music playing.

 

[theBusiness]

The BIGGEST problem with Dolph is they let Vickie draw all the heat for him. She does all the mic work, the talking, everything. I would understand if Dolph was horrible on the mic, but he's not. He's nothing great but he can handle the mic a lot better than others in the company.

Bottom line: Dolph needs to be on the mic more than Vickie and he's not.

 

[GUMBO2ndcoming]

Personally I think they're just getting started with Dolph.


The feud with Kofi is bringing some credibility back to the US title. Which is what it needs. I think this will eventually lead to a wwe title push at the least.

It might not come now, or even this year but somewhere down the road Dolph will become a star on one of the shows!

You cant give everybody the world title and not everyone can be the top guy people have to retire or get hurt for new stars to come into the fold.

Im an attitude era man myself and if you really look back you can say there were all these "stars" in WWE but the top guys were always the same.

Give them a chance to mold him, they're keeping him relevant and making the US belt relevant again as well. He'll get his time.

 

[HeathWarren]

I'm sure many will disagree with me but I honestly believe that the only mistake the WWE made with Dolph Ziggler before the black hair dying was giving him a world championship reign in the first place. I'm a huge fan of Dolph Ziggler, and thought he came out of his Royal Rumble period test run looking like a very credible future Main Eventer but he wasn't ready to win the title.

In my mind Dolph was only handed the championship in the first place so that a title change could occur on the 600th episode of Smackdown. That's the only other reason I can think of that led to the WWE booking that episode the way they did. Dolph obviously didn't benefit from his brief reign, not actually even winning a match to earn the title and losing it within an hour or so. At least during Jack Swagger's reign as World Champion he was given a decent amount of time to showcase what he could do with the belt, I'll always be able to remember Swagger as a former world champion. When it comes to Dolph I doubt many of the WWE Universe still view him as a former world champ.

I agree and disagree on your other points though. Like you say it wasn't necessarily a bad idea for them to move Dolph to Raw, but when he made the switch creative simply didn't have anything for him. I also agree that a feud with Morrison would have been awesome, but you have to remember WWE required Morrison after Wrestlemania to become the third wheel in the Cena/Miz title feud as well as helping instigate R-Truth's heel turn. Jomo was simply promoted up the card and Dolph remained static with no one to feud with until the draft and although it does suck for Dolph I feel like it was a good move.

I also think that your point about creative raping Ziggler's look and gimmick is now null and void. He's re-dyed his hair and in my opinion looks pretty badass with his blonde short haired look. For me, and many fans Ziggler's gimmick always has been of a cocky arrogant heel who is hated mainly because he's managed by one of WWE's greatest heat magnets, Vickie Guerrero.

Dolph is an exceptional talent and I do think some day he will make a considerable impact on the WWE but as of right now I think he's in the right place on the card. Not everyone can be a main eventer at once, he'll get his chance again soon.

Sorry if this post isn't great, it's my first time posting. This is only my opinion and all that.

 

[vampirek]

They haven't gone wrong with Dolph apart from changing his look but then realising that was a mistake and corrected it.

He is a midcarder but with Vickie in power, moved up a level and gained the title in a heelish way and like the majority of heels, the face overturns it. Just think back to the likes of Kane and the Million Dollar Man. You can even draw it in comparison to Jericho first WWF title reign, abeit it was a much longer run back then spent much of the time being a midcarder.

Dolph is still relevant and still has potential to be a big time heel in the years to come....whereas if you look at Jack Swagger, thats where it goes wrong.

Or what the above said, which is 100% spot on and posted as I was typing this

 

[#hamler]

Edge won the title back at the end of that Smackdown episode
Seriously? You build a guy up to the main event, and you give him a 20 minute reign with his first World Heavyweight Championship? If this hadn't occured, Dolph Ziggler could've still lost the title at Elimination Chamber, which was two days afterwords. Then he could've been put in the main event of Wrestlemania in a triple threat against Del Rio and Edge. While this wouldn't the right approach in my opinion, it could've happened.

I have said this a couple times on here already. His little push was nothing but testing the waters for Dolph. He was never meant to be a full fledge main eventer, hence the reason they dropped him from the title chase. It was proven Dolph wasn't even near over without Vickie Guerrero at his side. Edge should've stayed World Heavyweight Champion, but nothing would have changed except Edge wouldn't be an eleven time champ now.

Teddy Long fired Dolph off of Smackdown
This was a big mistake. Dolph gets fired off of Smackdown, and is put on Raw. This could've been a good idea, but they didn't have anything for Dolph on Raw to do.

He was done on the second rate show. They moved him to the premier brand in RAW and put him in a match where he gained national attention with Snooki at Wrestlemania.

Dolph Ziggler's feud with Morrison was discontinued
Things looked good for Ziggler when he first got to Raw. He looked like he was the biggest upper-card heel on the show, the equivalent to John Morrison in card placement. For this reason, Dolph Ziggler and John Morrison began feuding. I thought that this feud would be great, even though they'd had a very tainted match at Wrestlemania that featured Snooki. I wouldn't call that a bad thing though. What I would call a mistake is that 2 weeks after Wrestlemania, these two simply quit feuding.

I agree here actually. They should have kept both these guys momentum high with a solid feud with each other.

Creative Raped Ziggler's Look and Gimmick
They dyed his blonde hair brown, and they cut it. Also, they changed his gimmick from "cocky, arrogant, beach blonde that acts perfect" to "serious Mr. Generic". This right here, is the worst mistake WWE made, and since then he's been on recovery mode. I think that dyeing his hair was where they went wrong.

They were just trying to mess around with his look. He changed his hair back in like 2 weeks. Nothing bad there. I don't think there is anything wrong with Dolph right now. If he was booked to drop the United States Championship in a week then I could understand where you’re coming from. Dolphs run as Intercontinental Champion proved he was good enough to feud for the World title. Who knows, maybe within a couple months of dropping the US Championship, he may be competing for the WWE Championship.

He just needs to get over without the help of Vickie.

 

[Odisho]

what wwe did wrong is making dolph ziggler go one on one with kofi kingston for like 3-5 weeks now,(i lost count). this even hurt kofi, because hes become boring now, he hasnt done anything fresh because hes not getting fresh opponents, for the fans, its like getting a week old donut, first it starts fresh, but then day by day it becomes harder and harder to chew and swallow.

im sorry if i dont make sence

 

[Pedigree1]

What went wrong with Dolph is simple!! When the creative team changed his gimmick i was like who is this guy??? Looks like someone i know!! When he was feuding with edge he had what like a 30 minute title reign!! As someone said (Sorry i dont know how to quote someone i am new at this) i thought there goes his character.. WWE doesnt think too much of this guy and have him feuding with Kofi for like 900 zillion times is getting old!! I think he should still stick with Vickie but talk a little more could help him. Grab the mic from vickie and just lay into the crowd and his opponent could imo really help him!! Dolph is a player just a question of when and how it happens

 

[JBK2008]

Dying Zigglers h iair then cutting it was a huge mistake but the entire list from the original post are completely to blame. This guy had it, no still has what it takes to reach the top but Raw just isn't the place. He's going to be fed to Super Cena and then be gone to the mid card. Ziggler needs to stay on SmackDown and feud with Orton. Those two would put on a better show than him versus Cena.

 

[Notorious718]

I think moving Ziggler to RAW was really what killed Ziggler's momentum. On Smackdown, the guy was featured predominantly and for the first time was taken seriously as a credible threat to the world title. On RAW, he got his look changed and became such a serious generic wrestler. What little personality Ziggler had prior to his change in look was effectively killed after said change in look. The whole angry, intensity gimmick rarely goes over and it's not working for Ziggler in my view. Which leads me to the fact that he is not over with the crowd. Vickie Guerrero is a heat magnet and while I thought pairing her up with Ziggler was initially a good idea, my opinion on that has drastically changed. I feel that Guerrero does so much of the talking that Ziggler never gets a chance to show what's he's capable of on the mic. Being good in the ring will only take you so far in WWE. If you can't give the live audience a reason to give a damn about you by cutting promos, then you're not likely to be pushed as a permanent main eventer.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

Anyone ever stop to think that maybe Dolph wasn't destined to be anything but a mid-carder? The guy has zero, and I mean a BIG FAT 0, star power. And that isn't considering how when he talks, it is just impossible for him to sound mean and tough or even douchebag and slimy.. Just like a boy who's balls haven't dropped yet. They slapped Vicki with him for almost a year now and I actually think he is killing her heat.

The guy is good from the first bell to the last one, but it takes a lot more than that to be a big WWE star.

 

[Derf]

I like to think of Dolphs push as a constant slow rise to the top. It's just coincidence that on that shallow push, he came across a trampoline. He hoped on, reached the top if only for a split second, then came back down with a force. Now he's off the "trampoline" and continuing his slow climb back to the top, and hopefully he reaches said top.

 

[madrox]

I did't know they had gone wrong with him.

Sure he was the most talented member of the Spirit Squad but so far, other than stupidly giving him the World title (to break monotony or give Edge another unnecessary title reign, take your pick) it's been going ok.

WWE's mistake in giving him the World title was the same one they had in pushing Miz to the moon and handing him the WWE title. They gave it to someone who just wasn't credible in that role, at least not yet.

Dolph has shown no personality since his tv debut and while you can get away with it if you're an amazing wrestler, we haven't seen any of that because of the WWE limitations inside the ring that reduced great wrestlers into doing the same few moves over and over for every match they had with barely a chance to mix it up nw and then.

If we were talking about Sheamus, then I'd say what went wrong was WWE panicking instead of sticking with him and making him a credible WWE champ in the Triple H mould (I'm talking Evolution era Triple H) that dominated and made fans desperate for a babyface to finally beat him.

Ziggler.....only thing I can see as being "wrong" is that he hasn't had an opponent that can match him in the ring and also bring out his capabilities. Kofi's a charisma black hole and way too botchy plus his style doesn't mesh well with Dolph. He needs someone like Danielson which is unfortunate that Bryan's on the other show.

The other thing he needs is to slowly find his own personality and charisma because they can't keep Vickie with him forever and he needs to be able to get the heat for himself before he can move up to the main event scene.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Where did they go wrong? By building him up into a high profile superstar when he just wasn't ready. Don't get me wrong; he is someone I want to see headlining pay per views some time in the future, but I just don't agree it needs to happen now. He has the look of a champion, which was only diminished for two weeks, and he isn't bad on the microphone or in the ring. But personality goes a long way on television, and he just isn't into his own yet.

Vickie Guerrero gave him enough personality to carry him for a year now. It's time for him to break away and develop himself into a "perfect" character.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

i think ziggler should never come off smackdown he was in the perfect postiton to end up winning the whw title and going onto main event level! then wwe ruined that by moving him to raw im just glad they made him a blonde again after this us title run he NEEDS to move on to the main event or else i fear he will never get there

 

[TheRock_says]

The mistake was giving ziggler the title in the first place, apart from his wrestling ability the guy has nothing, no crowd reaction, stupid overused gimmick, horrible mic skills, theres no way he deserves to be world champion, so when they gave it to him (for 10 mins or something stupid like that) and than took it away it made him look weaker than he was b4, ziggler is no gd, not main event material and doesnt deserve any higher than mid-card

 

[The_Reptile_]

What went wrong was the classic case of taking a promising talent giving him a push to the ME WAY before he was ready. The guy just came of an excellent IC run, and then all of a sudden got slammed right into an angle with Edge for the title with no warning outside of the fact that Vicki was his manager, and Dolph's role in that was such that you could have replaced Dolph with anyone from Cody Rhodes to fucking Zack Ryder and nothing would have changed. In fact Zack would have made more sense, honestly, considering their past history.

They really should have given Dolph a feud with another higher tier talent, like Cody's feud with Rey, to help ease him into the ME, tough the fact that Cody has gone to feuding with Daniel Bryan, who's pretty firmly a mid carder has done a little bit of damege initially, but their matches have been good enough to recover any lost momentum.

 

[Syborgg]

To the people that think something actually went wrong with Dolph Ziggler, I have but one question....Is there anything wrong with the slow build?

Just because he had a taste of the ME and is now back to being in the mid-card, does not mean anything had gone wrong. I mean hell, he's the top mid-carder on Raw as U.S. Champ. Think about this, the mid-card is as important as the ME because no one is going to buy a ppv for only the main event matches.

I look at Dolph Ziggler right now and I see Billy Gunn 2.0. Heck, he even does the Fame-ASS-er from time to time. He has a decent look and great in-ring skills, but honestly without Vickie, Dolph has absolutely no character. He had more character with his first gimmick where he introduced himself to everyone. Maybe a face turn would help, but I doubt it. Fans just don't care about his character at this time.

 

[Jay Sherman]

Nothing necessarily went wrong with Dolph Ziggler at all. He is now on the A show, with the United States championship, and it looks like there testing out him dropping Vickie. First him saying he would drop her for a title shot to Austin, then having a match with her banned from ringside, I am all but sure in a month from now he will be solo. There is nothing wrong at all being a Mid card champion, not everyone needs to be a main event player to be ok.

 

[JGlass]

Wait, is Dolph Ziggler's career in trouble? Last time I checked he was one of the best wrestlers and the United States Champion on the flagship show of the WWE where he is featured on a regular basis and paired with one of the top heels to come through the WWE in the PG Era.

The WWE did nothing wrong with Dolph Ziggler. His feud with Edge was very good, dare I say great, but it just wasn't a solidifying main event push. Ziggler looks like a very legitimate threat to anyone that climbs in the ring with him which is why they stuck the US Championship on him, he'll be a good fighting champion. The future is still very bright for Dolph Ziggler as he has all the talent in the world to feud with on Raw, and I think it's only a matter of months before we see Ziggler back in the main event scene.

 

[Mac Attack]

I think the WWE has done absolutely nothing wrong with Dolph Ziggler. He has held championships on numerous occasions and he has always been on Television which is more than a lot of midcard guys get to say. He is in the History Books a WHC and although he is not in the Main Event currently he is still the United States Champion on the top show. Were people saying the same thing about Miz last year at this time No. And this was before Miz even wa sin a championship feud. Dolph Ziggler is in perfect posiition to dominate the WWE for years to come.

 

[brain51983]

I always saw Ziggler as being possibly the next Mr. Perfect. I mean he has a great look, good ring work, and his music talks about I am Perfection. I think they should of went more of a "Perfect" gimmick for him.