The story of Dolph Ziggler's decline in the WWE

Dolph Ziggler

Do you remember the glory days of former World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler, who was once feuding with stars like Randy Orton and Chris Jericho? The man is now losing to mid-carers like Damien Sandow and Fandango, sadly. Here is a look back at his decline in the WWE:

Once on the top

In 2012, Ziggler was a mid-card guy who was restricted to only Intercontinental and U.S. titles. But then he won the Money in the Bank contract, defeated John Cena in the 2012 TLC main event, lasted for nearly 50 minutes in the Royal Rumble, successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on an injured Alberto Del Rio and won the World Heavyweight Championship for the second time. This made most of the fans believe that Ziggler wasn’t a mid-carder any more as he had finally cemented his position at the top. But in the following months things didn’t turn out as everyone thought they would.

What happened

After a month as the World Heavyweight Champion, Ziggler suffered a concussion, which kept him out of action for a month. Ziggler returned at Payback only to lose to former champion, Alberto Del Rio, who took advantage of his injury and won the Championship back. But the bleached blonde superstar showed his fighting spirit which won over all the fans, and turned him face for the first time. Ziggler challenged Del Rio at Money in the Bank, but interference from AJ Lee cost him the match, and as a result Ziggler ‘broke up’ with her. She cost him another match against Del Rio, which marked the beginning of the feud between Ziggler and AJ as well as Big E. Langston. At SummerSlam Ziggler defeated them by teaming up with Kaitlyn in a mixed tag-team match. Unfortunately, this win didn’t help Ziggler to return to the top; rather, it marked his downfall.

The downfall

Ziggler got involved in a feud with The Authority after speaking less-than-nicely about Triple H in a backstage interview. He then lost a U.S. Championship match against Dean Ambrose twice. After that he was involved in a feud with Damien Sandow with both of them exchanging victories, and the feud ended on the first Raw of December as Sandow pinned Ziggler to become the #1 contender for Big E. Langston’s Intercontinental Championship. This wasn’t where period of decline ended though. Ziggler then lost in the TLC Kickoff show against Fandango. So in a year’s time, Ziggler went from defeating WWE’s top guy John Cena, to losing to a mid-carder, Fandango, in a Kickoff show.

What’s next?

After a win over Fandango, Ziggler himself talked about how he hasn’t been “stealing the show” in past few months. But by ending 2013 with a win over Curtis Axel, Ziggler has finally gained some momentum. For the amount of talent and charisma he has, Ziggler doesn’t deserve to be losing to mid-carders like Fandango; in fact, he is better than nearly every other mid-carder in the WWE. Using a talent like Ziggler as a jobber won’t lead WWE anywhere; rather, they would only lose their talent.

So if WWE is done with ‘punishing’ him, then it’s time to place him back where he belongs: at the top.