10 Worst WWE Gimmicks Of 2017

9. "Wily Old Veteran" Dolph Ziggler

Jason Jordan Vegetables
WWE

Yet another retread over on the SmackDown brand, which stuttered badly this year, Dolph Ziggler's arc as the main roster gatekeeper proved woefully ineffective - and borrowed wholesale from John Cena's latter-day "You need to go through me!" bit.

A victory over John Cena means something, at least. Kevin Owens arrived as a major player by virtue of beating John Cena precisely because Cena was majorly credible. Dolph Ziggler, serial loser and disappointment, possessed nothing in the way of credibility - in storylines, nor among the wrestling fandom, a huge portion of which felt he had been surpassed by the next generation of talent.

His series with Shinsuke Nakamura did little for the rechristened 'Artist', whose weird, conflated Prince update on his Michael Jackson bit warrants a dishonourable mention. The matches suffered because Ziggler's over-the-top domination was as hard to believe as it was hard to muster much enthusiasm for. WWE, presumably, didn't go the exciting back-and-forth route for fear of telegraphing the outcome. It was already telegraphed. As a result of the layout, it was also boring.

Blue brand creative didn't even bother to have Ziggler go over the one man who gets over by narrowly losing - Tye Dillinger - before returning to the dry well upon Bobby Roode's inglorious promotion.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!