WWE Royal Rumble 2012: Dolph Ziggler Will Not Benefit from His WWE Title Match

From time to time in the wrestling business, a storyline overshadows everyone and everything around it. The performers hit their peaks and the writing excels and fans become invested in every twist and turn it takes.

Unfortunately for Dolph Ziggler, the highly-talented performer finds himself in the background of one of those storylines, an anti-authority story featuring a renegade champion blatantly disrespecting his kiss-ass boss and, for that reason, will not benefit from what should be the biggest match of his career.

It is not Dolph's fault. As the calendar turned over, Ziggler was as hot in terms of in-ring production as anyone in the business. Matches with established main event performers such as Randy Orton, John Cena and his Royal Rumble opponent, CM Punk, have proven Ziggler can hang with the best the industry has to offer. Add to that entertaining cameos in Zack Ryder's Z! True Long Island Story and constantly evolving microphone skills and Dolph has proven to be a well-rounded performer.

The problem is that two or three months of television has been focused on the ever-intensifying issues between CM Punk and "executive vice president of talent relations and interim general manager of Raw" John Laurinaitis. Fans have had time to invest themselves in the story being told. They want to see the next development, to see what repercussions the GM will face for his outburst this past Monday, to see how Punk will continue to agitate and provoke him and to see whether or not Laurinaitis will act out his intentions to screw Punk out of the WWE Championship.

The issues are between Punk and his boss. Dolph is merely an extra.

The match for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble has the potential to steal the show. Punk and Ziggler have wrestled two high-quality matches the last two months, proving they are capable of producing a championship and main event-worthy match.

And really, that is why Dolph is in the match. The creative team could have selected Tyson Kidd or JTG to plug into the match and it still would have worked because, at the end of the day, the sole purpose of the match is to further Punk and Laurinaitis' story.

Dolph Ziggler likely will not benefit from his Royal Rumble match immediately. Do not be surprised if he momentarily returns to the midcard scene until post-WrestleMania events commence.

But Dolph is too good and too driven to spend another year in the middle of the WWE pack. A year from now, he will not be a forgotten piece of a puzzle, a superstar overshadowed by anyone. Come 2013, expect Ziggler to be the superstar overshadowing others, with his own storylines.

For now, though, he will have to settle for a high-profile title match and a hefty pay-per-view paycheck while the other two men involved in the match receive the spotlight.