How to Book Dolph Ziggler (Part 1)

I’ve said this about a few WWE talents these past 7/8 years, but somehow threw nothing more than a process of elimination, and granted some fantastic athletic talent, the WWE have found themselves a man the fans seem willing to embrace as a legitimate main eventer for the future (someone I’m now curious about as well, and certain people on here are quite aware of how hard I am to please lol). But now I feel a strong sense of déjà vu, a nasty self destructive one with the cancerous MITB around the corner. So a bit like my mini-blog entries a couple of months ago, I’d like to take you into my wrestling world, and how Ziggler would be given every opportunity to prove himself worthy of what should be wrestling’s most prize possession. Feel free to add, or question certain steps in the comments section. The steps don’t follow a strict chronological order.

1) Along with a detailed build up for Ziggler which I’ll soon get into, should he prove successful in his quest of capturing a groundswell of fan favour, the ultimate pay off needs to be as big as the build to it. So from this point on, while Ziggler’s on trial so to speak, CM Punk DOESN’T drop the belt. The ultimate mark of validation for this next potential starlet will be the end of not only a near year long title reign, but the overhauling of WWE’s last revolution.

2) Throughout the next two/three months on raw. Creatively put Ziggler against strategically picked opponents. Give him at least 15 minutes against Cena the week before John has a massive PPV confrontation (if raw’s gone three hours, 20 mins). Gauge how strong the anti-Cena movement is with Ziggler as his opponent!!! Have him pin a world champion clean in a one-one-one non title match one week, gauge how strong the fans believe in the symbolism!!! Pair him up with some of the companies top heels regularly in tag matches, gauge how much stronger/weaker his reaction is to his partners while he’s in the ring!!! Etc…


3) The MITB PPV ------- have him in the Ladder Match, but make him leave the frustrated one who has the photo finish only to lose out to a former MITB winner (which could be Swagger in a possible story arc, explanation provided later). Gauge not only the immediate fan reaction on the night, but the level of hate messaging among the IWC for WWE’s failure to ‘put over the young, fresh guy’!!! If the message boards are screaming blue murder, job done. Test passed (even if they guess the finish was meant to build him up, that counts as a pass).

4) Though many think as an angle it’s grown dreadfully stale (which it has), and the natural impulse as Ziggler ascends would be to play her down. I think Vickie Guerrero can have a HUGE role to play in this experiment. If the WWE can slightly tweak her character to being more cunning than obnoxious (only slightly, I know the majority of her heat comes through her obnoxiousness), it gives Ziggler one of wrestling’s most proven weapons in character development – the physiological aid of the manager. And coincidently, Vickie Guerrero isn’t the worst person to be partnering Ziggler on this journey. She was married to a true built up one time champion Eddie Guerrero, that can be tastefully referenced. In keyfabe ferms, she’s a former general manager so she could manipulate the system in his favour, etc… and keeping him attached to her will likely keep him how we want him. As a heel.


5) On a special episode of raw. Have Punk defend the title against him in any variation of match, only for him to fail due to outside interference (Swagger being the obvious candidate). Gauge both the reaction to Ziggler’s momentary spells of dominance, but the heat laid at the feet of the interfering wrestler!!! (if he passes this test, he’s half way there).

To be Continued.....