10 WWE Number One Contenders Nobody Actually Thought Could Win
5. Dolph Ziggler
When the dust settles on Dolph Ziggler's professional wrestling career, it'll be interesting to see how the Show-Off is remembered. Perennial underachiever? Criminally underrated? Both? Ziggler's career will forever be tainted by bad luck. Who knows what could have been if Jack Swagger hadn't given him a concussion in 2013? That World Heavyweight Championship reign could have been the making of him; instead, it was aborted before it could get off the ground.
Whatever your opinion of Ziggles, nobody saw him as a viable number one contender to Dean Ambrose's WWE Championship in the fall of 2016. The dust had barely settled on the WWE Draft and Ambrose was looking for a new challenger. Bray Wyatt was expected to get the call, although the wretched Ambrose/Bray feud of late 2014 was still somewhat fresh in the memory. AJ Styles maybe? Possibly, but Styles was locked in a feud with John Cena. Fans speculated about a potential triple threat match, but it became increasingly clear that Styles and Cena were on a separate collision course.
Dean Ambrose was left without a dance partner for SummerSlam, the second-biggest show of the year. Dolph Ziggler won a Six-Pack Challenge to fill that spot, but 'fill that spot' has never been used in a more apt manner. Ambrose won the match and Ziggler returned to the midcard to feud with The Miz.