5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SummerSlam 2016

2. Losers: Dean Ambrose & Dolph Ziggler

Of all the feuds that have broken-out since the Brand Split kicked in, Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler has had the strongest build. The feud has done wonders to revitalise Dolph’s ailing career, and Ambrose’s “cold, hard truth” angle has created an interesting dynamic between him, SmackDown’s ace, and Ziggler, the perennial also-ran.

The story going into the match was that Dolph was too focused on “stealing the show” to ever make it to Ambrose’s level. With both straddling the line between face and heel throughout the feud, last night’s match should’ve been one of SummerSlam’s most intriguing, but it fell completely flat.

Nobody in the Barclays Center bought into Ziggler, and the arena was so quiet for most of the match that you could hear a cricket chirping five blocks away. While perfectly functional, neither wrestler elevated their performance to pay-per-view level, and the match suffered as a result. Ambrose walked out the winner, and nobody was surprised.

Not only that, but the match’s card position was embarrassingly low. The WWE World Championship is supposed to be the most prestigious belt in the business, yet it featured lower than the listless six-woman tag contest and Rusev’s non-match with Roman Reigns. It’s an embarrassing new low for SmackDown’s main event scene.