WWE: 10 Reasons Dolph Ziggler Is the Best Heel in the Company

I don't have a Fave 5 like Booker T, but if I did, Dolph Ziggler would be No. 1 on mine.

The former Spirit Squad member has completely distanced himself from that horrible gimmick, emerging from 2011 as one of the WWE's top stars and someone the company can build its future around.

Last year, Ziggler improved in every area: wrestling, working the crowd, cutting promos, everything.

He is the WWE's "next big thing" so to speak, and with all apologies to guys like The Miz, Christian and Mark Henry, Ziggler is now the best bad guy in all of the WWE.

Here are 10 reasons why Dolph Ziggler has surpassed everyone to become the WWE's top heel.

10. There Aren't Many Other Options

Dolph Ziggler has sort of become the WWE's No. 1 heel by default.

Why? Well, because the company is sorely lacking in top heels at the moment.

Alberto Del Rio is injured and has really struggled as of late, Christian is also out with an injury and has seen his role reduced significantly over the last several months, The Miz is a good talker but still can't be viewed as much of a tough guy and Mark Henry's struggles in the ring prevent him from being the company's best overall heel.

Combine all those factors and you get a wide open opportunity for someone to claim the title of the WWE's top heel.

And Ziggler has done just that.

Ziggler has really been in the zone as of late, and considering that no other heel has established himself as the company's top bad guy, his vast improvements in a number of key areas in 2011 have turned him into the most complete heel currently on the WWE roster.

9. Vickie Guerrero

Dolph Ziggler has an added advantage that any WWE heel would love to have.

Her name is Vickie Guerrero.

The great thing about Ziggler is that he has a heat magnet like Vickie by his side, but he doesn't have to rely specifically on her to generate heat from the crowd.

Having Vickie as his manager was a great way to get the crowd to start to hate Ziggler, but he could just as easily be booed out of the building nowadays if Vickie wasn't with him.

That being said, it certainly helps that Vickie is there for Ziggler and able to interfere in his matches or things like that in order to get the crowd to hate him even more.

As long as you're not getting X-Pac heat, it doesn't really matter how you're getting your heat. The point is that you're getting heat no matter what the exact circumstances are.

Like an oven, Ziggler is definitely getting it.

8. He Acknowledges the Fact That He's a Heel

How many heels actually acknowledge the fact that they are heels? Not many.

Dolph Ziggler is the first heel since Scott Hall (a.k.a. Razor Ramon) was known as "The Bad Guy" to fully embrace the fact that he's a heel, and he does so by literally referring to himself as "Heel."

He wears those great #HEEL t-shirts and hoodies, and his Twitter handle is even @HEELZiggler.

Some fans might think that's stupid, but I think it's absolutely awesome.

Ziggler is recognizing that he's a heel and channeling his inner CM Punk by essentially breaking kayfabe when referring to himself as a heel.

Fans aren't supposed to hear or see Ziggler talk about being a heel, but he makes it very well known that he isn't exactly a good guy.

And I freakin' love it.

7. His Selling

The main goal of a heel is to make his opponent(s)—a.k.a. the baby face—look good by selling the holy hell out of their big moves.

No one in wrestling does that better than Dolph Ziggler.

Just watch Ziggler take Zack Ryder's Rough Ryder finisher and you'll see that it looks like he was just hit by a freight train going 250 miles per hour.

Some think that Ziggler oversells, but I don't have a problem with it.

He is able to take a finishing move from anybody, make it appear to be absolutely devastating and then make his opponent look great in the process.

That's the mark of a great heel and, most importantly, the mark of Dolph Ziggler.

6. He's Convincing Despite His Lack of Size

Some heels just aren't convincing because they can't be taken seriously due to their lack of size.

In most cases, you simply aren't going to believe that someone who's 6'0", 200 pounds is too big and bad for someone who's 6'5", 300 pounds. Heck, even someone like The Miz isn't seen as a convincing heel, and he's considerably bigger than Dolph Ziggler.

Ziggler is one of the smallest wrestlers on the WWE roster, but you really wouldn't know it by the way he carries himself.

Whereas I notice that someone like Daniel Bryan or Kofi Kingston is pretty short, I don't really pay attention to the fact that Ziggler is only around six-feet tall.

He somehow manages to let all his other attributes (his charisma, his wrestling skills, etc.) overshadow what is often a big problem in the WWE: a lack of height.

Ziggler manages to really play up that larger-than-life persona of his despite the fact that he's not large at all.

5. His Promos

At the start of 2011, the argument against Dolph Ziggler went something like this: "He's really good in the ring, but he can't cut a promo."

Say goodbye to those days.

Ziggler improved in the promo department as much as almost anyone in 2011 (besides maybe Cody Rhodes), and he has turned what was once a clear weakness into a definite strength.

I'm not saying that Ziggler is on Punk's level when it comes to working the mic, but I am saying that it's hard to criticize Ziggler's mic skills all that much when he's made huge strides as a talker over the last year or so.

It appears as if Ziggler has worked hard to improve in that area, and if he can continue to inch closer toward the elite talkers in the WWE, then there's really no telling how far he will go.

After all, he's already a better talker than Randy Orton, and look what The Viper has done in his career so far.

4. His Wrestling Ability

It's really hard to be a great heel if you can't deliver in the ring.

It's the main problem with someone like Mark Henry or The Great Khali. You can be an incredibly imposing figure or pretty good in most other areas, but if you're not a good wrestler, you're never going to be an elite heel.

The good thing for Dolph Ziggler is that he definitely doesn't have that problem.

Along with Randy Orton, CM Punk, Christian and Daniel Bryan, Ziggler is one of the top five in-ring workers in the WWE, and his great wrestling ability makes it much easier for us to view him as a top heel.

Ziggler can talk smack and then immediately back it up in the ring while countless heels before him talked the talk but failed miserably when attempting to walk the walk.

3. The Chris Jericho Effect

Dolph Ziggler benefits from what I like to call "The Chris Jericho Effect."

That is, he is able to lose a match and then make people forget about it by the next week.

For example, in his last WWE run, Jericho actually lost to Heath Slater and Evan Bourne and didn't suffer from those losses whatsoever. He was still viewed as one of the WWE's top heels and was still generating heat the following week.

Ziggler can do the exact same thing.

He was eliminated in about one minute in the 5-on-5 match at Survivor Series, and he just lost the United States Championship to Zack Ryder at WWE TLC. Yet here we are just a few weeks later and virtually no one even remembers that.

Ziggler can instantly recover from his losses, and that's a rare advantage that very few heels have.

2. His Mannerisms

You know how there are some people you want to punch in the face just because of their mannerisms?

Despite being a fan of his, that's pretty much how I feel about Dolph Ziggler.

I know that a boatload of heels are cocky, but the way Ziggler carries himself makes him incredibly easy to hate.

You can tell simply by looking at him that he's an egomaniac who thinks he's better than everyone at everything, and that really shines through with his mannerisms.

Ziggler's little gesture where he slicks his hair and throws his hands out, the fact that he screams "How damn good am I?" as he makes his way to the ring and his over-the-top victory celebrations are just, well, perfect.

I feel like I have no choice but to hate Ziggler and think he's awesome at the same time.

1. "The Showoff" Gimmick

Like I mentioned in the last slide, the cocky heel gimmick has been done a boatload of times in the past.

But Dolph Ziggler has really made it his own with his new "showoff" persona.

Any heel can be brash and arrogant, but few can do headstands for no reason whatsoever or start doing sit-ups mid-match against a World Heavyweight Champion—and make it work.

The "Showoff" gimmick fits Ziggler better than perhaps any gimmick fits any other WWE star at the moment because it comes off as completely natural for Ziggler.

He doesn't look like he's playing a character. He looks like he's just being an amped-up version of himself.

And we all know that wrestlers who do that tend to be the most successful ones.