6 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Elimination Chamber 2017

4. Won’t Commit To Heel Run

dolph ziggler apollo crews
WWE.com

It’s fair to say that Dolph Ziggler was stale as a character when he finally turned heel recently. He was long overdue for a change, and that’s what they delivered.

However, WWE has been hesitant to have the turn fire on all cylinders, opting to have Ziggler lose to Apollo Crews on SmackDown and then fall to Crews and Kalisto in a 2-on-1 handicap match at Elimination Chamber.

Yes, Ziggler jumped Kalisto beforehand and injured Apollo afterward, but if the goal was to revitalize Dolph, why only go halfway? Why not have him win the match by putting his feet on the ropes or pulling the tights?

It’s just a half-a$$ed way of doing things. Commit to the heel turn and have Ziggler look like a legit threat. Beating two babyfaces who aren’t doing anything of note would have been one way to accomplish that. Instead, we get a “two steps forward, one giant step back” approach.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.