Dolph Ziggler successfully cashes in

It has been a hell of a 48 hours in WWE. This past Sunday was WrestleMania 29, and in the two main title matches, Alberto Del Rio (unsurprisingly) retained the World Heavyweight title against Jack Swagger, and John Cena (even more unsurprisingly) defeated The Rock to once again win the WWE Championship. On the undercard, Dolph Ziggler and Big E. Langston were (somewhat surprisingly) defeated in their match against WWE Tag Team champions Team Hell No! (Daniel Bryan and Kane), and with that decision, many believed Ziggler would cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on the same night and become the new World champion. Unfortunately, it never happened, and a lot of fans were left disappointed. Some were also confused, as Ziggler had been promising for about a month or so that he was going to cash in at ‘Mania.

Turns out Ziggler was setting up a ruse and picking his spot.

The next night after Wrestlemania, Ziggler had an opportunity to cash in his case on Alberto Del Rio, and he took it. A Zig Zag later, and we now have a brand new champion. To say that the crowd exploded when Ziggler won would be an understatement. In front of a hostile east coast crowd, Ziggler got probably the biggest positive reaction of the night as he held the title over his head in celebration.

This now makes Ziggler a 2-time world champion (he held the belt a few years back when Edge was forced to forfeit it, only to win it back from Ziggler about fifteen minutes later), but not in Ziggler’s mind. He has stated on more than one occasion that he never really counted the first one, and that he wasn’t truly given the chance to be champion. This time, he’s really got an opportunity to prove himself to everyone.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about how I was worried the window was closing on Ziggler, in that if he waited much longer, the cash-in wouldn’t mean much. Fortunately, I was wrong, as Ziggler may have been more ready than anyone realized when he finally cashed in last night. Ziggler now has the chance to truly be the top heel on SmackDown as the champion of the “blue brand”, a role he is more than ready to embrace.

Ziggler will now likely move onto a feud with Del Rio in a rematch for the championship, and if WWE is smart about this, Ziggler will dominate the feud. Del Rio needs more time as a face for fans to truly buy him as the top “good guy” on SmackDown, so I don’t see a quick change with the title happening this time around.