Update on Future Plans for Dolph Ziggler

Following Dolph Ziggler's face turn at Payback, the future of the Ziggler/Big E./A.J. stable looks to be up in the air.

And according to a recent report, not only is an acrimonious split in the works, but it will likely culminate at the SummerSlam pay-per-view.

Per the storyline, while Ziggler may have turned from the dark side and become a good guy—or at least, not as much of a jerk as he used to be—his girlfriend and best friend are still fully fledged heels.

If anything, A.J. has actually intensified her vicious bullying of rival Kaitlyn, despite Ziggler's pleas for her to refrain from such behaviour.

In this week's (subscribers-only) F4W Newsletter, Bryan Alvarez reports the details on the upcoming angle:

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The direction at this point is Dolph vs. Big E for SummerSlam. It'll be pretty clear where they're going after Money in the Bank. They need to do something sooner than later since Dolph is stuck in the weird tweener territory and isn't getting a great response for some of his angles as a result. There are house shows where he's super over.

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Alvarez is correct to point out that Ziggler has been booked oddly in recent times.

Certainly being booked against Alberto Del Rio—a man who seems to struggle immensely as both a face and heel—hasn't helped, nor has Ricardo Rodriguez's suspension (Ricardo was the only real saving grace of Del Rio's stale and one dimensional act).

As I discussed recently, Ziggler has all the ingredients to be a top babyface in WWE. He just needs a little help from the company to get to the next plateau.

Interestingly, even with the erratic booking, he's still one of the few likable people on Raw or SmackDown these days. Can you imagine how over he would be if he were actually booked well?