10 Times Wrestling Fans Turned On Internet Darlings

4. Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler
WWE

Dolph Ziggler was a fabulous midcard talent it turns out was mistaken for a main event talent in an era just before the global standards of professional wrestling blew up.

Ziggler was incredibly "SquaredCircle over", praised for years as the most under-utilised talent in the WWE system. He could work excellent, lung-bursting TV matches and the bumps, fahgeddaboutit!

Seriously, forget about them. They knackered him, if anything.

Ziggler made absolutely everybody look like a beast flying around that ring, but it was an attribute that split the office and the fandom; they didn't see him as a believable main event-level threat, where we valued greatly the craft about which they couldn't really give a f*ck. Ziggler felt right on when he took to moaning about his spot and being that damn good, which he was, but then the North American landscape changed rapidly in 2014 - the year after his fans had exhausted the sort of ardent support a wrestler tends to draw only once. You can't maintain that energy.

Suddenly, Ziggler - the man who looked like Mr. Perfect in contrast to David Otunga - looked like Dolph Ziggler next to Sami Zayn, Neville et al.

He kept moaning, which didn't help, and after 2016, he seemed more or less stuck in a distant past.

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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 current Undisputed WWE 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!