wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Dolph Ziggler Moments

October 19, 2016 | Posted by Mike Chin
Dolph Ziggler Image Credit: WWE

Over the past decade, Dolph Ziggler has quietly built himself a role as one of WWE’s quintessential guys—a reliable performer to be sure, with the ability to explode from time to time, whether it’s picking up an upset win, getting a swing at the main event, or doing what he’s best known for—putting on some of the best performances in the promotion.

In the build to No Mercy this month, we faced the prospect of Ziggler retiring from active performance. While he ended up winning his career-threatening match, and picking up the Intercontinental Championship, it still seems apropos now to reflect on his time as a WWE performer.

So this week I’m taking a look back at the very best of Ziggler. This is largely a subjective endeavor, with criteria including the entertainment value of the moment itself, the degree to which it paid off a storyline or fans’ expectations, and impact upon WWE at large including top storylines and Ziggler’s career trajectory. As always, my personal opinion is weights heavily.

One additional caveat: I developed this list and wrote the meat of this column before No Mercy, so his victory there was not eligible for the countdown (though, in case you’re wondering, I probably would put it around the five spot today).

#7. Winning His First World Title from Edge, 2010

For every professional wrestler who wins a world title, and particularly those who do so in WWE, that first title win is a major moment. For most stars, it’s a top-tier career moment—think of Shawn Michaels achieving his boyhood dream, Hulk Hogan pinning The Iron Shiek, or AJ Styles getting the best of Dean Ambrose.

Ziggler entered the ranks of world champions by about as inauspicious means as possible, though—not by beating anyone really, but rather by being gifted the title via deeply contrived circumstances. He was in cahoots with Smackdown GM Vickie Guerrero who arbitrarily banned face world champ Edge’s signature move, the Spear, and imposed that usage of that move would result in Edge forfeiting the title. From there, Edge beat Ziggler, but used the Spear, and thus was retroactively stripped of the title, handing it to Ziggler, only for Ziggler to promptly lose it back to him.

This moment nearly missed the countdown for me, given convoluted circumstance in which the title changed hands as much more as a prop to fuel a storyline than to meaningfully push Ziggler. However, there is some creative merit to the idea of a budding heel winning his brand’s top prize via such cheap means. Putting the title on Ziggler at all suggested that WWE took him seriously to a degree—that he wasn’t someone who would get shuffled down the mid-card into complete obscurity, but rather someone WWE had a long-term interest in. Moreover, as a heel, obtaining world title glory without earning it in slightest could have been a viable means of generating heat for him (though I’d argue, instead, the whole story fell flat).

So, for all its shortcomings, Ziggler’s first mini-title reign was one of the first suggestions that he’d be a player. Good enough for the number seven spot in this countdown.

#6. Putting Over Zack Ryder, 2011

In 2011, Zack Ryder became one of the least likely stars to catch fire, and did so by the least conventional means—launching his own social media campaign to build a cult following which got fans to chant for him in arenas, and got his merchandise to move.

Along the way, he pursued the US Championship.

Ironicaly, this is a strange stage for Ziggler’s career in which he represented the establishment and a gatekeeper rather than, himself, banging his head against a glass ceiling. Ziggler was an upper-mid-card mainstay at this point and firmly over at the US title level. Thus, he was able to do some of the best heel work of his career in suggesting Ryder wasn’t at his level, and representing a mountain for the Broski to overcome.

This all came to a head in the opening match of TLC 2011—a show I was pleased to attend live if for no other reason than this crowning moment. For, though history will tell us Ryder quickly receded down the card, and this brief surge up the card would all be for naught, Ziggler and Ryder worked in concert to put on a too-oft forgotten mini-epic that rewarded fans for believing in Ryder, and momentarily rewarded Ryder for thinking outside the box to get himself over. If nothing else, it was a red-hot opener to an otherwise largely forgettable show, and some of Ziggler’s finest work in defeat.

#5. Pulling Off the Double Turn with Alberto Del Rio, 2013

By late spring 2013, Dolph Ziggler had very clearly crossed over from a guy WWE was trying to sell as an upper card heel to a talent fans genuinely appreciated. The question remained whether WWE would accept that he was an IWC/smart fan darling and stay the course with his booking, or give in to his grass roots momentum as a performer and make him a face.

Double-turns—turning one performer face and the other heel in a single stroke—are tricky, and justifiably a rare phenomenon in professional wrestling. But here, we had Ziggler finally the champion and returning from a concussion when fans were positively rabid to see him. And we had Alberto Del Rio as a stale face coming off a failed WrestleMania angle opposite Jack Swagger. The performers and fans’ perceptions of them were near-perfectly aligned for them to switch spots.

And so, at Payback 2013, the double-turn went down, and the results were excellent. It was genuinely surprising, reasonably subtle, and altogether logical for Del Rio to viciously attack Ziggler’s head—not an overtly heelish move, even, just not very sportsmanlike. And Ziggler was able to put his great selling abilities on display, garnering sympathy from the crowd that was already largely behind him, and going down in defeat in such a way that seemed to promise e’d be back to avenge the loss.

Unfortunately, Ziggler had reached a pinnacle and it would be another two and a half years before he was successful in a PPV main event scenario, and three years before he was a serious contender for a world title again. Meanwhile, Del Rio enjoyed a brief resurgence, rebranded as a heel, but the character grew pretty stale all over again in the months to follow. So, in terms of long-term impact, I can’t justify ranking this moment any higher. But for the moment it happened—the combination of fulfilling fans’ desires for each performer, and implying a fun chase to follow with Ziggler as plucky challenger, it was an excellent piece of business in its time.

#4. Winning the Money in the Bank Briefcase, 2012

While Ziggler wouldn’t turn face for another year, the fans were starting to get behind him by summer 2012, and he’d certainly come into his own as an undeniably excellent in-ring performer by that time. When the Smackdown Money in the Bank ladder match opened the PPV, Ziggler was on the short list of guys who looked like they might take the briefcase, and on this night, he made good on his promise.

Winning the briefcase charted a course for Ziggler’s year to follow. There was an overarching story—the question of when would he cash-in, if he were too trigger shy to ever cash-in, and the meta-narrative of whether Ziggler and by extension his supporters would ultimately get screwed out of his moment of glory by cashing in and failing, or losing the briefcase before he got to cash it in.

We’ll get to more of the Money in the Bank run itself (and I won’t claim that it was perfectly booked), but this moment—capping a solid MITB ladder match with a talented performer and smart fan’s favorite taking the briefcase was a deeply satisfying one, and one that seemed to make good on much of Ziggler’s promise as a guy who would get his shot at the top of the card.

#3. Surviving to Overthrow the Authority, 2014

In the build to Survivor Series 2014, Dolph Ziggler was booked for the main event match, but you had to anticipate that he would be a cog in the broader machine of the match—an early sacrifice to a dominant force on the heel team, or someone to absorb a long heat segment before suffering his elimination. Regardless of whether Team Cena or Team Authority wound up winning, Ziggler could not be considered a favorite to go the distance in this match, much less play the hero.

And yet, when the match wound down to its final few, Ziggler was the lone surviving face against the remaining three Authority heels. That Ziggler stole one pin, on Kane, wasn’t such a shock—exactly the sort of hope spot you might expect for him in this scenario. That he got a second pin on Luke Harper was more surprising, but still not so far outside expectation in its context.

That Ziggler would run three straight, lastly pinning ascendant superstar Seth Rollins—that turned some heads.

This moment would probably climb higher—maybe even to the number one spot—if Ziggler had scored the final elimination in more convincing fashion or if the victory had, as you had to suspect in the moment, vaulted him back into the main event ranks. On the contrary, the bigger news coming out of this match was the arrival of Sting who gifted Ziggler that last pin and got bigger headlines for finally appearing live on a WWE show. While Ziggler would get a brief push that included picking up the Intercontinental Championship at the following month’s TLC PPV, by WrestleMania season he’d be firmly entrenched back in the mid-card mix, in more or less the same position he’d had coming into this big match.

#2. Beating John Cena, 2012

Late 2012, Dolph Ziggler feuded with John Cena. This, in and of itself, was big for Ziggler’s career. WWE was telling us he was a big enough star, that we should believe in him enough, that he could be a threat to the face of the company.

Things took a turn, however, leading into TLC 2012, when it was announced Ziggler would defend his Money in the Bank briefcase against Cena in a Ladder Match. All of a sudden, theories sprouted about this being a means to get the briefcase into Cena’s hands and that he would use it to re-enter the title picture and either carry gold into a WrestleMania rematch with The Rock, or cash-in to wedge himself into challenging The Rock for the title at ‘Mania (this whole scenario was all the more infuriating because the briefcase was supposed to be earmarked for the World Heavyweight Championship, but the Internt rumor mill suggested that no one really cared about that storyline nuance and the creative team would ignore it as they saw fit).

In the end, we got something else entirely. Rather than sacrificing Ziggler as a storyline device for Cena, it would Cena who would function as stepping stone for Ziggler in a heated, very well executed main event match that ultimately saw Ziggler stand tall. And while the win may have been a little sweeter if Ziggler had picked it up clean, there was an argument to be made that he got abou as much buzz and cred out of adding a femme fatale sidekick, with AJ Lee turning on Cena to facilitate Ziggler’s big win.

This moment earns the number two spot for capping a very good match, giving Ziggler one of his top few biggest career wins, and functioning as a legitimate stepping stone. Coming out of this match Ziggler was arguably ready for the main event, even if he wouldn’t really step all the way into it until the night after WrestleMania.

#1. Cashing in on Alberto Del Rio the Night After WrestleMania, 2013

This isn’t a PPV main event victory, nor is it the first time Dolph Ziggler won a world title.

It is, however, the pinnacle of his professional wrestling career, and a moment in which WWE beautifully, borderline poetically cashed-in on his cult following.

Ziggler has never a been a John Cena-style crossover star or merchandise mover. You can argue that’s on Ziggler, you can argue that’s on WWE for the ways in which the promotion has and has not pushed or marketed him. There’s probably some truth in each. The space Ziggler does occupy is that of purist, hardcore fan’s favorite. He works exceptionally hard. He frequently delivers in the ring. While some fans balk at the nasally quality of his voice, he’s nonetheless an above-average talker.

For this segment of fans that gets behind Ziggler almost in spite of the WWE machine, there was reason for hope when Ziggler won the Money in the Bank briefcase. There was vindication when Ziggler retained the briefcase, beating Cena in the main event of TLC 2012. And when he finally did cash in, nearly nine months later, it was a moment of glory.

For Ziggler won this title the night after WrestleMania in front of exactly the sort of smart crowd that was always behind him, and that chanted for him to do the deed a night earlier. And while he did fulfill the heelish, opportunistic style of the Money in the Bank cash-in, he didn’t get the assist from AJ Lee or from Sting—he got the job done on his own. Moreover, this wasn’t a quick in and out, steal the gold moment, but a mini-match that even saw Ziggler get trapped in Alberto Del Rio’s cross armbreaker and instilla very real concern that he was going to blow his opportunity.

But no, in front of an audience of devoted fans, hyped up the night after ‘Mania, Ziggler made good on his MITB promise and captured gold for one of the biggest Raw reactions of all time—let alone for a guy who was ostensibly playing the heel.

It was a great moment, and in my book it lands soundly in the number one spot for this countdown.

Which Dolph Ziggler moments would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.