10 Wrestlers WWE Pushed At The EXACT Wrong Time
8. Dolph Ziggler
WWE is a very weird and some might say terrible wrestling company - or it certainly was in Vince McMahon's inscrutably stupid twilight years.
The fans wanted to see a strong Dolph Ziggler push in the early 2010s. Too much for Vince McMahon's liking. Respected minds within WWE, like Arm Anderson, echoed that sentiment. Vince, defensive, all but said "You think you know better than me?! F*ck off, pal!" - and Dolph was then stigmatised as a midcard act for life.
If he did in fact possess actual headliner potential, those years spent as a perennial 50/50 throwback bump merchant evaporated it. Ziggler, a cardio animal who specialised in the thrilling TV match before the standard was raised from 2019 onwards, simply lost so frequently that he eventually started to feel more like a Mr. Perfect cosplayer than his heir apparent.
Was he only ever a tremendous hand who lacked the promo skills and intangible presence to star at the top of the card?
Yes, if his bizarre push as a main event heel in 2019 is any indication. His matches with WWE Champion Kofi Kingston were heatless glorified Raw matches with five minutes of space tacked on to create the illusion of a big WWE PPV bout.
WWE finally pushed Dolph Ziggler at the exact point fans stopped caring about him.
If it should have been Dolph, it should have been Dolph about five years before it actually happened.