5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (23 Aug)

2. Loser: Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler is well and truly back on track in the WWE main event scene, and while there’s still plenty work to be done before he reaches full rehabilitation, he’s made decent progress in the past month. The Dean Ambrose program saw him performing with the type of vigour fans haven’t seen in close to two years, and while the SummerSlam match flopped, Ziggler had at least been re-established as one of SD’s top dogs.

The loss was particularly crushing for Ziggler’s momentum. He’d failed in his quest to prove Ambrose wrong, and when he was pinned, it confirmed what Dean had been saying all along: Ziggler’s too concerned with “stealing the show,” and doesn’t have what it takes to win the Championship.

Ziggler started last night’s show moping around the locker-room when AJ Styles walked-in and started running him down as a loser. A brawl broke-out, but that wasn’t the end of it: Ziggler jumped AJ during the Women’s/Tag Title announcement segment, and the main event booked.

The match gave Dolph another shot at redemption, but once again, he couldn’t get the job done. Styles cheated for his victory which gives Ziggler a caveat to pin it on, but it’s yet another crushing defeat for The Show-Off, who’s made great strides as a character, but keeps falling at the last hurdle.