Kid Ego: Dolph Ziggler (WWE, 2014)

Hey yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I got a free burrito from Chipotle a couple days ago because of how well I WOO! Man, I love Ric Flair and I love pro wrestling! WOOOOOOOO!

I am every woman's dream burrito, zero calories, but just as filling 

I love Dolph Ziggler's shirts! Definitely the only wearable shirts that WWE makes and they go great with my Zubaz. So Ziggler has that going for him. Also, I dig his throwback long, bleach blond hair. Let's see what else...hmmmmmmm. 

The internet wrestling fan has rallied around Ziggler because of his athletic ability, a distinctive look and his pinball bumping. The night after Wrestlemania 29, the smart mark-laden MSG crowd went bonkers for Ziggler's World Title victory over Del Rio. If I was running a NYC-only promotion, there is no doubt I would want to build around Ziggler as my ace face. At this year's Royal Rumble, the first chant I heard as we were walking to our seats was "We Want Ziggler". Besides Ambrose, he was the only wrestler still over with the pissed off Philly crowd. Yet, Dolph Ziggler just does not seem to do it for me.   I see Ziggler as someone who lacks credible offense, and relies Randy Savage's babyface formula, Mr. Perfect's over bumping and the worst of Shawn Michaels' catchphrases to skate by. The Randy Savage babyface formula is take heat from the get-go and for the majority of the match, hit one big comeback spot (Ziggler's dropkick) and then run through the finish (for Savage this meant a victory with the Big Elbow, Ziggler is not always as lucky). My major malfunction with this formula is that it lacks  struggle. A recent RAW match against Wyatt saw Ziggler press harder earlier and show a more pugnacious style. Hopefully that performance is a harbinger of things to come. More than the match layout, I find his in-ring style is not credible and not engaging.

Dolph Ziggler feels ultimately to me like a Mr. Perfect tribute act. By the time Curt Hennig, his best years were already behind him. He masked his lack of offense and his injuries with his over the top bumps. Ziggler is similar in regards to Hennig in how he uses his bumps to oversahdow his lack of offense. Unlike Hennig, Ziggler's strikes are piss poor at least Hennig could rely on his chop. His punches where he punches with the inside of his fist look like shit and his superkick does not look much better. The rest of his offense besides his nice dropkick is made out of ridiculous 2000s-y offense like the fameasser and facebuster. I actually think the Zig Zag is a fine finisher because it at least looks like a possible KO blow. The last bothersome Ziggler in-ring trait is his inability to modulate his selling. He is either flopping around like a deadfish or running full speed ahead. This 0 to 60 style is jarring and can happen multiple times in the same match. I appreciate that he sells more than the average WWE wrestler in 2014, but he needs to modulate better. Where everybody else needs to add more selling, Ziggler needs to add more of  a register. You never want to die because once you do it makes everyone look  bad unless you are going to lose of course. In the Survivor Series match, on rewatch, I think is the best example of Ziggler modulating his selling well and gradually gaining strength against seemingly insurmountable odds. Again, let us hope that is a harbinger of things to come. More than the match layout and the in-ring, there is nothing more annoying about Ziggler than his character.

Who is Dolph Ziggler? He dresses kind of like Don Johnson and has LMFAO-inspired ring gear. He likes to Show Off, I hear, but really does not do that anymore in the ring. He likes to talkreallyfastonpromosuntilhegetstothe *pause* punchline. He is kinda a ladies' man. He is sorta sleezy. Oh I know he likes to steal the show and entertain the fans. Hold on, while I puke. Overall, I am a pretty big Shawn Michaels fan, but nothing annoys me about Shawn than when his gimmick basically became I put on great matches and who cares who wins, it was awesome to watch. Wrestling should be about competitors struggle to win a contest. If that is your gimmick, you need to go home. Wade Keller on The Steve Austin Show made a great point about Dolph Ziggler's lack of killer instinct on the stick. Ziggler just had the biggest win of his career beating The Authority to send them home; looked great as the ultimate underdog; the push came out of nowhere, but was well-received. In the post-match promo, Ziggler said he did what anyone else would do in that situation, he went out to entertain the fans. WHAT THE FUCK? Dude, you are there to kick ass and defend your co-worker's jobs. Fuck the fans, you are there to win. UGH! Excellent matches like the one against Luke Harper in a ladder match at TLC may be able to wipe away this character and replace it with one that claws for everything he gets. In the match Ziggler is faced against a sadistic beast that just tears into him and has no regard for his well-being. Ziggler takes advantage of every opening and struggles to win the match in front of his hometown. It was the first time winning I-C title felt like a huge deal in years because Ziggler had to struggle and claw to win the match. That's what entertains the fans, Dolph, not you telling us you are going to, but you are looking invested in the outcome of your match. Once again, I hope this is a harbinger of what is to come.

A Godsend that goes perfectly with Hot Pink & Black Zubaz!Atreewq

I am hard on Dolph Ziggler, but I think I am fair. He showed strong improvement in key areas as I pointed out. It feels like the company was getting behind late in 2014, but with the returns of other key babyfaces, he may be forgotten again, but right now he still looks in good shape. I hope he builds on these good performances and leaves his bad tendencies behind. At the very least, come out with another badass shirt!

Match Listing:

WWE Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE RAW 6/23/14

Disposable RAW mid-card match. Ultimately forgettable. Crowd worked the workers. 

WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro vs Tyson Kidd ***3/4

Fun Spotfest. Tyson Kidd got to shine. Cesaro great strength spots. Ziggler looked strong as champ.

Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, The Big Show, Ryback, Rowan) vs 

The Authority (Seth Rollins, Luke Harper, Rusev, Kane and Mark Henry) 

WWE Survivor Series 2014 ****1/4

Big match feel. Great use of characters. Exciting narrative. Logical, cool swerve. Great Ziggler run.

WWE IC Champion Luke Harper vs Dolph Ziggler WWE TLC 2014 Ladder Match ****1/2

Awesome sadistic performance by Harper. Great heroics by Ziggler. Felt like a BIG win!

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WWE Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE RAW 6/23/14

Take a pair of semi-over midcarders and tack on a couple nearfalls and you get "This is Awesome". I remember watching this match and thinking this was one of the most egregious examples of the overexposure of the "This Is Awesome" chant. My beef with "This Is Awesome" chant is that it tends to be the MOVEZ~! that are over rather than the individual wrestlers. If Ziggler was so over. how come Ziggler was not being cheered? A lot of it has to do with how the match was presented and laid out. What did Barrett do that was particularly heelish? Really the only reason Barrett was the heel was because he is the bigger of the two and he would cut off Ziggler. It was a very neutral performance from Barrett and I have noticed over very neutral performances from midcard heels especially Cesaro. It is funny that all these old time great wrestling minds can't put their finger on why these wrestlers can't make it to the next level. I would start right there. Obviously, booking is critical, but if you are talking about things a wrestler can control, it is stronger heel performances. It seems the heels are too concerned with being considered "great" wrestlers, which in the modern context means MOVEZ~!

I wanted to review this match because it made one list of top WWE matches of the year I read and I wanted to look at a Ziggler match from before his late year push. I remember ZIggler utilizing the babyface mid-90s Savage formula of taking heat, hitting one counter move and then going home. Of course, Savage would win his match with the big elbow, but most times Ziggler would lose. I think the match would have benefited from that formula.  It would afford the opportunity for Barrett to look like a violent bully and for Ziggler to build sympathy for his big dropkick comeback. Instead, it was just I hit a move, you hit a move. There was no sense of struggle or real desire to win. Hell, you can't even claim they had good escalation: The Zig Zag was used as a throwaway transition, which built to a commercial and within one spot, Barrett was up and hitting the Cactus Elbow. Plus Barrett's natural size was totally undermined by the match. Ziggler was countering at will Barrett's offense and it was not like he was using great speed. The selling was generally not good and even when it happened like Ziggler not being able to capitalize the selling felt false (more like frustration) and did not feel warranted based on the limited punishment he took. The finish was pretty awesome with Ziggler going for the Stinger Splash and Barrett hits him with a KO elbow.

I think Barrett and Ziggler have great potential, but have their limitations. Barrett really is not a good bumper or seller, which he does not have to be, but it will limit him. Ziggler has the worst punches in the business today and his deadfish/pop-up selling is annoying at best. However, I think even with those limitations, they can construct great matches against other people using Barrett's brute and Ziggler's bumping ability. Tag team wrestling could have taught both these guys a lot. Alas, it is a shame.

The match was designed to impress the crowd. You work the audience. Don't let the audience work you. Disposable, mindless match that is fun to watch with your brother on Saturday morning, but not worthwhile on rewatch.

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Man, I used to have a lot of hair!

WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler vs Cesaro vs Tyson Kidd 

 WWE Smackdown! 11/14/14

First thing's first, the new Smackdown ring announcer is realest. I may just start watching Smackdown for her. Hot damn.

This match is a great spotfest and besides the Money In The Bank Ladder match, I can't think of a better one this year in WWE (reDragon vs Young Bucks, which I saw live was the best spotfest of the year and one of the best of all time). Spotfest is a loaded word after all wrestling matches are a collection of spots. It is your fireworks spectacle in lieu of a compelling story. I think there is very much a place for them on pro wrestling cards (no more than one a card). If you are going to have one, then commit to it. The reason I was so down on Barrett and Ziggler is they had a spotfest, but they were just hitting their stock moves on each other. These three came up with creative, fun, and eye-popping spots. Sometimes they got too smart for their own good like trying a more complicated Tower of Doom spot that looked like shit. However, fun stuff like Cesaro covering Ziggler while in the Sharpshooter or Kidd hitting a Blockbuster on Cesaro onto Ziggler's knees. I also have to say after watching all that 00s NOAH that Cesaro hitting a big boot to start a match and then an exploder is the most NOAH beginning to any WWE match ever. In fact, if NOAH ever had a junior heavyweight triple threat match, I would say it would look a lot like this only with more strike exchanges. I liked the opening part with quick pinfalls by each competitor really put over their desire to eliminate a wrestler and setup a one on one match for the title. They also managed not to fall into the triple threat trap of having one wrestler sell for long periods of time on the outside. They all just kept going at each other with vigor. I would say that is what would separate this match from a lot of other typical WWE matches is the urgency of the wrestlers.

The finish stretch begins with a Kidd sharpshooter/Cesaro crossface combo on Ziggler. The storyline behind this was that Authority was setting Ziggler (then the only member of Team Cena) to lose his title because of the stacked odds. While Cesaro and Kidd never formally teamed up, these moments drove home that angle. In an idiotic moment, Kidd breaks the hold to attack Cesaro and gets the Giant Swing. Cesaro hotshotting Ziggler into a kick by Kid was sick. Kidd has some really good kicks in this match. Ziggler hits the Zig Zag, but Kidd being the gloryhound he is (remember the storyline with Nattie) he tosses Ziggler out so he can get the pinfall. I like the respect shown for the Zig Zag. Kidd had a really good string of offense on Ziggler and you really felt him press his advantage with nice kicks. He tries for the Sharpshooter, but it is reversed into a cradle and then ZIG ZAG! Ziggler survives with his championship reign intact.

There was no great overarching story and the selling was nothing to write home about, but for a spotfest you could not ask for much more. There were a lot of fun spots that escalated to a satisfying conclusion. Plus Kidd got some time to shine, which is nice and showed some promise. Good shit. ***3/4

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Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, The Big Show, Ryback, Rowan) vs 

The Authority (Seth Rollins, Luke Harper, Rusev, Kane and Mark Henry) 

WWE Survivor Series 2014

When Survivor Series Elimination Matches are done right they are hard to top. A booker can take advantage of more moving pieces in terms of the number of wrestlers in a match and the number of finishes afforded to him. It allows for more pairings and no dull moments with each tag there is a new combination. The arc follows a more traditional sports-oriented approach where there is a scoreboard and teams fall behind and have to work hard to catch back up. I think this match should go down as one of the best Survivor Series Tags of all time.

The hardest thing for Survivor Series tags to overcome ususally is the stigma that they are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. While it turned out to be true that this Survivor Series tag was just as inconsequentlal as most, at the time, this match really felt huge and meaningful to everyone in the match, outside the ring, the announcer and the live audience. I would say in terms of big match feel this ranked only behind Cena/Lesnar at Summerslam and the Bryan matches at Wrestlemania. Everyone played their roles to a T. Triple H and Stephanie just absolutely and totally rocked it on the outside. I loved HHH firing up Mark Henry and really laying it on thick only for Henry to walk into the WMD. Damn! It was the perfect start to the match. Triple H goes from all revved up to total dejection. The heels fell flat on their faces. The babyfaces start hot and the crowd is whipped into a frenzy and they never really let go.

One of my biggest hang-ups watching this live was the treatment of Ryback. I am a Ryback fan. When Ryback was at nadir of his career teaming with Curtis Axel against the Dust Brothers for the umpteenth time at the Money In The Bank, I got a "Feed Me More" chant started because damnit, I was not going to let him die. They redebut him and he feels like a big deal. He is presented as the piece that will tip the scales in either team's directions. Then he is the first person pinned on Team Cena!?!?!?! Do I think that if you switch Ryback and Big Show's roles that the story, the match and the aftermath would be 1000000x better? Yes. Did I overreact and basically underrate a match because of it? Yes. I just wanted to get that out there.

I love that babyfaces got a long shine by modern WWE standards. This is what Rollins brings to the table that really not other heel does right now. He can pinball bump like a muthafucka and really create energy for a babyface. Whether it is being swatted by the Big Show or Ryback tossing him up, it takes the onus off the babyface to solely get the crowd involved. To be fair to their treatment of Ryback, he does get a huge run of offense before he is eliminated. Rollins gets tossed around. Harper takes a stalling suplex. Kane comes in gets his ass kicked. Hell, Rusev looks vulnerable before in all the chaos Rollins takes advantage with a timely Curb Stomp and eliminate him. I love the heels taking advantage of a melee like that.

What is interesting is I remembered that Rusev was presented as the game-changer for the heels, but that was incorrect it was always Harper. Rusev was special because any nearfall or any time he looked vulnerable triggered a big reaction, but it was Harper that actually turned the tide for the heels. Show actually looked strong against Rusev, but it was a well-timed dropkick by Harper that gave the heels their first advantage. The Big Show face in peril segment was the lull in the match, but it was to set up Dolph's first entry into the match and he was supposed to be the star of the show. Ziggler gets a quick burst of offense before Harper plants him. The Ziggler face in peril set up the in-match swerve and the finish beautifully even if it was a bit boring. Rusev busting out the knees again was awesome! After a Ziggler hope spot nearfall, a melee ensues, but this time does not benefit the heels as Rusev belly flops onto an announce table while HHH was egging him on. Triple H's frustration at Rusev not being able to make it to his feet and J & J desperately, but futilely trying to carry Rusev to the ring was the great character work that enhanced the atmosphere of this match. The babyfaces are up at this, but they are not soaring quite as high as earlier in the match.

Down 4-3, Rollins took the match into his own hands and executed Shield tactics that being create havoc and always press. The curb stomp to Cena to save Kane forced Cena to tag in Rowan. I did not even notice how awesome Harper/Rowan was. Harper is fucking amazing. It was just a gnarly powerhouse fight. Again, Rollins took advantage and flew in with a knee to the side of the head so that Harper could collect the victory.

This all sets up the Big Show turn beautifully. Ziggler is out on the floor from his face in peril and Cena is staggered from the Curb Stomp. It is effectively 3-on-1 and BOOM! Awesome in-match heel turn, logically sound. Triple H handshake was great and Steph doing the Yes! Chant to Cena was awesome. Loved the St. Louis crowd chanting for Randy Orton twice. A member of the main roster is actually over now that is awesome! This is the part of the match I expected to hate, but I actually thought Ziggler was really, really good in this. I expected it to be dead-fish sell and then zero to sixty, rinse, lather, repeat. I thought he did a great job actually building to climaxes and not switching shit off and on. The segment with Kane was worked beautifully. Kane looks like it is a slam dunk, Ziggler staggers and hits his KO blow to eliminate. He has life and the crowd and HHH & Steph respond accordingly. The worst part of the match is actually this Harper segment. Harper mauls him and then loses to a roll-up. It is really hard to book this middle segment. Either scratch it or they could have had Ziggler beat Harper like he did Kane and then when Kane comes in he just destroys him no selling. The Harper beating made it look too incredulous when Ziggler got the roll-up. I thought they did a great job in the Rollins segment building to everything. Rollins was on top, but Ziggler kept hitting more and more moves. Ziggler really paced his offense well and he seemed to be getting stronger with every shot. The interference was well-paced. Ziggler gets a close nearfall and here come the stooges which sends Steph into HHH. Ziggler gets the Zig Zag and HHH says fuck it and Pedigrees him. I wish it was Orton that came out and RKO'd HHH, but Sting was pretty cool. Just do not give a single fuck about Sting/HHH. The finish pretty much sucks because they had built Ziggler into a believable babyface winner over Rollins and he just needed a bit of help like an RKO to Trips, but instead it became all about HHH/Sting, which is too bad.

The aftermath and the finish take a lot of wind out of the sails of this one, but for the vast majority of this match is incredibly compelling and you really did not know what would happen next. Everything felt urgent and immediate. The babyfaces were on fire early and you thought they could run away with this. Rollins using Shield tactics to create opportunities for his partners was greta heel strategy. Harper being the heel stud badass was great. The Big Show turn even if Ryback would have been better was freaking awesome. Hell, even the majority of the Ziggler run was some of the best Ziggler ever as he actually modulated his selling and bursts of offense well. Very, very entertaining and like most WWE matches wish they followed up on this better! ****1/4

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WWE Intercontinental Champion Luke Harper vs Dolph Ziggler 

WWE TLC 2014 Ladder Match

Luke Harper may look like Bruiser Brody, but he wrestles like Stan Hansen and the world is a better place for it. He had a total disregard for Ziggler and his own welfare. Having watched wrestling for seventeen years now, it takes a lot to make me cringe, but repeatedly I was wincing in pain with each punishing blow. It was so violent and I even questioned if it was all worth it. I hope it will be because I thought this be HBK/Mankind match for Ziggler. Shawn Michaels needed the match with Foley to establish that he dish out the pain as well as he could take it. It is similar to how in the 80s pretty boy tag teams would be positioned in brutal fights with gnarly heels to show they were tougher than they look and earn credibility with the audience. To keep the Shawn Michaels thread going, matches like The Rockers versus Rose & Somers bloodbath in the AWA come to mind. If exploited properly, this can be that very match. It is so difficult in this day and age to be an asskicker and not come across as a cool babyface. Harper was able to tap into such an uncomfortable violence that he was booed heavily. Yes, eventually there was the obligatory "This Is Awesome" chant, but for the vast majority of the match the people cheered Ziggler and booed Harper. It helped a lot they were in Ziggler's hometown of Cleveland, but regardless, to see such an outpouring of emotion to cheer for one wrestler was so refreshing in this day of "appreciating the match" and other such hogwash.

On the rewatch, with a closer attention to detail, I realized how much Harper really destroyed Ziggler for the opening half of the match. It is a testament to Ziggler that when I was watching with my family that I really never felt like he was totally out of it and that he was always struggling. Too often he can rely on deadfish/pop-up selling, but here, I thought more often than not he kept it a competitive style of selling. Harper established the perfect pace for this brutal masterpiece. It never plodded, but they never rushed to the next spot. He was going to let that ladder just fall on Ziggler's head and then climb the ladder to retain his title. Those ladder timber spots were vicious especially the one that clipped Ziggler in the head. The most violent spot of the match was without a doubt the Harper suicide dive onto the ladder where he basically piledrove himself into a ladder. How he did not break his arms and/or be concussed was beyond me. I could barely watch. The Ziggler pop up and scramble up the ladder was perfect, because up until that point he had basically no offense and now the monster has basically impaled himself it was time to take advantage. It was great drama as the Creature from the Black Lagoon rose again and stopped him. Not to be topped Ziggler took some hellacious bumps like on a powerbomb onto a Ladder (the ladder did not break) and then being catapulted into the middle rope with the ladder around his head (concussion city and getting busted open). Ziggler breaking free of the doctors to stop Harper from climbing the ladder was an awesome moment.

This should not be lost in the shuffle, but the effort they put into this and how much they were willing to risk made the Intercontinental Championship feel like a big deal for the first time in forever. As I survey the damage, Ziggler is bleeding from the face and fingers while Harper is bleeding from all sort of odd places on his body. You really felt like whoever wins this demolition derby deserves it. Ziggler makes his grand comeback, but what's great is that it is not just one move. He has to keep beating Harper back, first it is a facebuster onto the ladder, then it is DDT off the ladder, then dropkicking the ladder into his face and finally the superkick off the ladder that wins ZIggler the match. The fact that it was Ziggler had to earn every single step by constantly hitting Harper with big shots really you made it feel like he could earn it.

Ziggler proved he could withstand the punishment doled out by one of WWE's most sadistic monsters. Harper made him earn this every step of the way delivering one of the most malevolent performances of the year. Harper gave as good as he got as proved by that suicide dive. For Ziggler, we see if the WWE exploits this newfound credibility as a tough, die hard son of a bitch. The negatives are slight. but apparent: Ziggler's punches still look like shit and they did lose a bit of steam towards the end as the spots got a bit more contrived. In terms of a violent spectacle, where the pretty boy babyface not just survived the monster, this match deserves to be ranked among the best ladder matches of all time. ****1/2