Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn Announced for WWE Survivor Series 2016

Sami Zayn beat Rusev on Raw Monday night, and as a result, he'll challenge Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series.

WWE shared an image of Zayn's pin:

Bleacher Report's Ryan Dilbert and Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald provided their initial takes on the outcome: 

Following the WWE brand extension, Ziggler and the intercontinental belt have been SmackDown Live exclusives. After beating Curt Hawkins on the Nov. 1 edition of SmackDown Live, though, Ziggler announced he'd put the title on the line against anyone from Raw:

Pitting a SmackDown star against a competitor from Raw is a good idea for Survivor Series—the theme of which is largely Raw vs. SmackDown Live. The pay-per-view includes three interpromotional Survivor Series-style matches.

Ziggler vs. Zayn is also a great matchup to add to the card. As things stand, Survivor Series only has five matches:

Match	Note
Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg	-----
Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn	For Intercontinental Championship
Team Raw (Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman) vs. Team SmackDown (AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton and Baron Corbin)	Survivor Series-style elimination match
Team Raw (The New Day, The Shining Stars, Cesaro and Sheamus, Enzo and Cass and Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) vs. Team SmackDown (Heath Slater and Rhyno, American Alpha, The Hype Bros, the Usos and TBD)	Survivor Series-style elimination tag match
Team Raw (Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax and Alicia Fox) vs. Team SmackDown (Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Carmella and Naomi)	Survivor Series-style elimination women's match

While it's great to see Survivor Series returning more to its roots, the PPV can't consist solely of elimination matches or fans will begin to lose interest throughout the night.

In addition, Goldberg's return to the ring has generated a lot of buzz, but it's unrealistic to expect he and Brock Lesnar to have a good technical wrestling match. Two part-time stars—one of whom hasn't wrestled since 2004—facing off can't be the only singles bout on one of WWE's marquee shows.

Zayn and Ziggler should deliver an entertaining match and give the fans something different for Survivor Series. They have rarely crossed paths in WWE as well, bringing a freshness to their clash.

According to the Internet Wrestling Database, Ziggler and Zayn have had just one singles match, which was at a house show in Innsbruck, Austria, in 2014.

There's also the question of what might happen if Zayn wins the intercontinental title and brings it to Raw. On draft night, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan acknowledged he needed to select The Miz in order to ensure the show had a secondary championship.

That would no longer be the chase if Ziggler loses at Survivor Series. Dropping the belt would also potentially lead to friction between The Showoff and Bryan, who'd naturally be upset one of his stars surrendered a championship to a Raw wrestler.

Ziggler vs. Zayn won't be the most anticipated match at Survivor Series, but it could be one of the more pleasant surprises from the PPV.