ironworks
08-13-2012, 03:40 AM
Feed Source: Bleacher Report
With any job in any workforce, the man or woman most deserving of an honor or a promotion is the team player who is selfless and a very good worker. The good worker doesn't quite care what it will take out of him or her, so long as the overall product stays at the level it was or even improves a tad.
An employee of the month plaque doesn't always do the job, which is why pay raises and promotions are typically the way to go.
For WWE's purposes, that description fits Dolph Ziggler very well. Ziggler is a young man with years of experience, tremendous upside, as well as the "company guy" attitude that any promotion would crave to see in a talent who can be considered among the best all-around athletes in wrestling today.
Fans are literally chomping at the bit for this guy to get his chance among the elite in WWE while Ziggler is still in his prime. They may just get their chance. Even WWE can agree that now is the time for Dolph Ziggler.
Poor Dolph Ziggler has taken just about everything he could do in order to make it in WWE. He is a survivor of the WWE Rule of 3—a rule that I just made up right now. The theory that I have always had is that you get three shots on the main roster with a gimmick before you are officially out of chances with the company.
Obviously, some guys strike well early on, while others falter before they even get to their third different gimmick. A guy like Luke Gallows was the Fake Kane, Festus and Luke Gallows, accounting for his three shots.
Ziggler joins Kane as the best survivors of this Rule of 3. Kane was the Fake Diesel, Isaac Yankem and used his final shot to be a storyline brother of Undertaker. It worked and Kane has been a fixture in WWE rings ever since.
For Ziggler, he began as the caddy for Kerwin White, a new gimmick for Chavo Guerrero. That gimmick ended when Eddie Guerrero passed away. Chavo became a Guerrero again and Ziggler (using his real name of Nick Nemeth at the time) was down one strike already. For the second strike, Ziggler was one-fifth of the male cheerleading faction The Spirit Squad.
He was known simply as Nicky this time, and the group debuted, featuring Nemeth, Kenny Dykstra, one alum of Tough Enough and two guys that I still cannot recall ever seeing anywhere else. The five guys became hated by the crowd and eventually became tag team champions on Raw.
Yes, all five of them were the champions via the infamous Freebird Rule. Still, the gimmick ran its course, and the five guys were famously placed in a box with a label on it for them to be sent back to OVW, the developmental territory at the time.
Nemeth had one more shot left in him and wouldn't waste it. It didn't look very great from the start, however. His name this time around was Dolph Ziggler. Even though there have been some pretty brutal names to come through WWE and their developmental territories, this one was among the biggest head scratchers.
However, Ziggler would reveal during a podcast with Colt Cabana that Dolph was actually his grandfather's name and that it was a tribute to him.
Ziggler wasn't a show-off from the beginning and wasn't even claiming to be perfection. To start, all that Ziggler did was put his hand out, say hi and tell people who he was. That lasted for a while, especially given that it seemed to become a punishment of sorts for Ziggler.
Just weeks after being called up to Raw, Ziggler was already violating the wellness policy. That violation happened four years ago,and it doesn't seem like it will be followed up with a second violation any time soon.
Ziggler worked hard to overcome that mistake and ultimately would string victories together. Ziggler's feuds were leading to pay-per-view matches, which ultimately put Ziggler into championship matches. Ziggler was on the cusp of being something legitimate in the company. This was no flash in the pan anymore. Ziggler was making the best out of what could easily have been his last chance.
Ziggler could do no wrong and would suddenly be getting stronger as time went along. First, he was the Intercontinental Champion, only to find himself get into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. An intense feud with Edge ensued and a great match at the Royal Rumble in 2011 came from it. The feud was not quite over, at least not until Vickie Guerrero, the manager of Ziggler and the ex-wife of Edge, enacted some revenge on her past in favor of her present.
Dolph Ziggler, through a loophole, was the World Heavyweight champion for 11 minutes and 23 seconds, the shortest stint in the title's history until The Big Show broke the record later that year. Now, Ziggler tasted the gold, but barely got to enjoy the moment of being a world champion.
That fact seems to be nothing short of something that will be changing soon. After all, Ziggler's microphone skills are around the sharpest in the entire WWE. His matches are constantly fantastic, which almost never depends on who Ziggler is facing.
Most importantly, there is this blue briefcase that he has. It's a Money in the Bank contract that gives Ziggler a chance at a World Heavyweight Championship match at a moment's notice.
Ziggler can wrestle well with Sheamus. He can beat Alberto Del Rio. He can even have a classic match with Randy Orton. With the World Heavyweight Championship match at SummerSlam now being removed from the card, who should get the match, assuming the future World Heavyweight Champion is waiting in the weeds.
Ziggler would rather wait for his moment and steal the spotlight, much like most of the other Mr. Money in the Bank honorees in past years.
Ziggler can get world-title matches on his own merit. Still, seeing him get a guaranteed shot with very good odds of winning the title is something that Ziggler will not be passing on. Why else do you think there is such speculation for what will happen at SummerSlam with the title and no talk about what Ziggler's plans for the event will be?
I don't need to tell anyone to watch out for Dolph Ziggler or to think of Ziggler as a future world champion in WWE. That's common knowledge at this point. It's also pretty well known that Ziggler's time to make a real name for himself is coming fast. That time could be right now.
With any job in any workforce, the man or woman most deserving of an honor or a promotion is the team player who is selfless and a very good worker. The good worker doesn't quite care what it will take out of him or her, so long as the overall product stays at the level it was or even improves a tad.
An employee of the month plaque doesn't always do the job, which is why pay raises and promotions are typically the way to go.
For WWE's purposes, that description fits Dolph Ziggler very well. Ziggler is a young man with years of experience, tremendous upside, as well as the "company guy" attitude that any promotion would crave to see in a talent who can be considered among the best all-around athletes in wrestling today.
Fans are literally chomping at the bit for this guy to get his chance among the elite in WWE while Ziggler is still in his prime. They may just get their chance. Even WWE can agree that now is the time for Dolph Ziggler.
Poor Dolph Ziggler has taken just about everything he could do in order to make it in WWE. He is a survivor of the WWE Rule of 3—a rule that I just made up right now. The theory that I have always had is that you get three shots on the main roster with a gimmick before you are officially out of chances with the company.
Obviously, some guys strike well early on, while others falter before they even get to their third different gimmick. A guy like Luke Gallows was the Fake Kane, Festus and Luke Gallows, accounting for his three shots.
Ziggler joins Kane as the best survivors of this Rule of 3. Kane was the Fake Diesel, Isaac Yankem and used his final shot to be a storyline brother of Undertaker. It worked and Kane has been a fixture in WWE rings ever since.
For Ziggler, he began as the caddy for Kerwin White, a new gimmick for Chavo Guerrero. That gimmick ended when Eddie Guerrero passed away. Chavo became a Guerrero again and Ziggler (using his real name of Nick Nemeth at the time) was down one strike already. For the second strike, Ziggler was one-fifth of the male cheerleading faction The Spirit Squad.
He was known simply as Nicky this time, and the group debuted, featuring Nemeth, Kenny Dykstra, one alum of Tough Enough and two guys that I still cannot recall ever seeing anywhere else. The five guys became hated by the crowd and eventually became tag team champions on Raw.
Yes, all five of them were the champions via the infamous Freebird Rule. Still, the gimmick ran its course, and the five guys were famously placed in a box with a label on it for them to be sent back to OVW, the developmental territory at the time.
Nemeth had one more shot left in him and wouldn't waste it. It didn't look very great from the start, however. His name this time around was Dolph Ziggler. Even though there have been some pretty brutal names to come through WWE and their developmental territories, this one was among the biggest head scratchers.
However, Ziggler would reveal during a podcast with Colt Cabana that Dolph was actually his grandfather's name and that it was a tribute to him.
Ziggler wasn't a show-off from the beginning and wasn't even claiming to be perfection. To start, all that Ziggler did was put his hand out, say hi and tell people who he was. That lasted for a while, especially given that it seemed to become a punishment of sorts for Ziggler.
Just weeks after being called up to Raw, Ziggler was already violating the wellness policy. That violation happened four years ago,and it doesn't seem like it will be followed up with a second violation any time soon.
Ziggler worked hard to overcome that mistake and ultimately would string victories together. Ziggler's feuds were leading to pay-per-view matches, which ultimately put Ziggler into championship matches. Ziggler was on the cusp of being something legitimate in the company. This was no flash in the pan anymore. Ziggler was making the best out of what could easily have been his last chance.
Ziggler could do no wrong and would suddenly be getting stronger as time went along. First, he was the Intercontinental Champion, only to find himself get into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. An intense feud with Edge ensued and a great match at the Royal Rumble in 2011 came from it. The feud was not quite over, at least not until Vickie Guerrero, the manager of Ziggler and the ex-wife of Edge, enacted some revenge on her past in favor of her present.
Dolph Ziggler, through a loophole, was the World Heavyweight champion for 11 minutes and 23 seconds, the shortest stint in the title's history until The Big Show broke the record later that year. Now, Ziggler tasted the gold, but barely got to enjoy the moment of being a world champion.
That fact seems to be nothing short of something that will be changing soon. After all, Ziggler's microphone skills are around the sharpest in the entire WWE. His matches are constantly fantastic, which almost never depends on who Ziggler is facing.
Most importantly, there is this blue briefcase that he has. It's a Money in the Bank contract that gives Ziggler a chance at a World Heavyweight Championship match at a moment's notice.
Ziggler can wrestle well with Sheamus. He can beat Alberto Del Rio. He can even have a classic match with Randy Orton. With the World Heavyweight Championship match at SummerSlam now being removed from the card, who should get the match, assuming the future World Heavyweight Champion is waiting in the weeds.
Ziggler would rather wait for his moment and steal the spotlight, much like most of the other Mr. Money in the Bank honorees in past years.
Ziggler can get world-title matches on his own merit. Still, seeing him get a guaranteed shot with very good odds of winning the title is something that Ziggler will not be passing on. Why else do you think there is such speculation for what will happen at SummerSlam with the title and no talk about what Ziggler's plans for the event will be?
I don't need to tell anyone to watch out for Dolph Ziggler or to think of Ziggler as a future world champion in WWE. That's common knowledge at this point. It's also pretty well known that Ziggler's time to make a real name for himself is coming fast. That time could be right now.