5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (July 26)
1. Dolph Ziggler
Dolph Ziggler has had an atrocious 2016. Thus far, his year’s highlight has been wrestling Baron Corbin in a series of snoozers across three consecutive pay-per-views, and given how poorly that particular feud came across, that says all you need to know about Dolph Ziggler’s current malaise.
WWE had seemingly lost all interest in pushing The Show-Off as a main eventer, and his career has been on a constant downswing since his show-stealing performance at Survivor Series 2014. After a series of failed feuds with The Authority, Rusev, and Corbin, Ziggler’s World Heavyweight Championship days have never felt so distant. Once one of the company’s most popular wrestlers, even the fans have started losing interest in Ziggler: the most damning indictment of his long slide towards irrelevance thus far.
Dolph is in dire need of rehabilitation, and WWE started the process on SmackDown. Thrown into the main event without needing to qualify, Ziggler pinned AJ Styles to become number one contender, and will now face Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
Ziggler has gone from midcard afterthought to potential PPV headliner overnight. While it’ll take considerable work to recover his lost fanbase, Ambrose vs. Ziggler is a fresh match-up that will draw eyes to the PPV. Dolph needs a big performance to get his ailing career back on track, and if he’s as hungry as he claims he is, fans are in for a treat come SummerSlam. The coming weeks will tell if WWE are serious about rebuilding Dolph Ziggler, but for his success last night, The Show-Off is unarguably the night’s biggest winner.