Royal Rumble 2012 Predictions: Dolph Ziggler Will Steal WWE Title from CM Punk

CM Punk and John Laurinaitis have been the focal point of the build for the WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble, but it will be Dolph Ziggler who gets the last laugh by walking out of the arena with the title. 

Johnny Ace put himself in as the special referee for this match specifically to screw Punk out of the gold. He made those intentions clear on Raw last week before bashing Mick Foley in the head with a microphone. 

WWE wants us to think that he is going to be an impartial referee now, by giving him a full performance review on Raw this Monday, but his hatred for Punk will outweigh his desire to save his job. 

As a result, Ziggler is going to be handed the championship that most fans feel he deserves to hold at some point this year anyway. The only sad part of this whole thing is that he won't get a clean win, and will remain in the exact same position that he is in right now. 

Winning the title used to mean something, but it has been so devalued in recent years that no one actually cares who is holding the gold. 

Plus, whenever there is a title change at a Pay-Per-View event, it tends to increase the ratings on Raw, and you know how much WWE loves those ratings patterns. 

By giving Ziggler the title at the Royal Rumble, WWE sets up one of the main events for the Elimination Chamber to be a rematch between him and Punk. If they want to throw those two into a Chamber match, so be it.

But no matter how you slice it, Punk will be champion after that show. 

The fact that WWE has given Punk a two-month, uninterrupted title reign is a positive sign, but now is the time when the company wants to shake things up. There will be no bigger shakeup than having Laurinaitis destroy Punk's dreams of domination and handing the title to Ziggler at the Rumble. 

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