The Day The WWE United States Championship Died

Here to show the world...that we don't care about this title anymore.

Dolph Ziggler
WWE

Dolph Ziggler, has at various points in his lengthy career, been a phenomenal and engaging professional wrestler.

An extraordinary bumper and freakishly skilled athlete who worked tirelessly to forge an earnest and legitimate bond with the audience before it was cruelly eroded, Ziggler was at one point such a vital part of WWE's future that his April 2013 Money In The Bank cash-in was greeted with a throated roar as loud as any iconic pop from the company's past.

It feels important to include these qualifiers now, just in case this reads like a hit piece on a guy who's taken far too many unfair bodyblows in his career as it is. 'The Show Off's a difficult one one to analyse as a character because the semantics are somewhat lost in the post-kayfabe era. In 2021, we're invited to know as much about the real life person as the onscreen persona, and people will make plenty of assumptions about Nick Nemeth. About his wealth, his health and his happiness.

People can also make judgments on the arc of Dolph Ziggler, and where exactly he places amongst his many, many peers and contemporaries after well over a decade on television. Characters do well to live that long on any show, but this is the story of one that quit living in the pursuit of merely existing. A persona and a prize sharing a life support machine, before the plug was pulled on both.

CONT'D...

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett