Examining How WWE Can Revive Dolph Ziggler as a Main Eventer

Dolph Ziggler has been the victim of some truly horrendous booking over the last 18 months. Ever since his botched run with the World Heavyweight Championship in early 2013, he’s struggled greatly to remain important.

He’s frequently lost on television and pay-per-view, been unable to find a meaningful program or get decent interview time and has generally been treated as a lower-midcard joke. For a guy once touted as one of the future stars of the company, this had to have been deeply demoralizing.

Things have gotten somewhat better over the past couple of months, though—he’s the current intercontinental champion, and it looks like he’ll be a member of John Cena’s team in the elimination match at the Survivor Series.

Perhaps sensing that they’re running out of stars, WWE's bookers seem to be making the effort to rehabilitate him again.

In doing so, there are several steps the company can take with him in his ascent up the card.

For one thing, he needs some real victories. It’s the only way wrestling fans will believe he is a threat to The Authority and someone worthy of being on Cena’s team at the pay-per-view.

Sure, he’s defeated Cesaro a couple of times, but that doesn’t mean much. Pretty much everyone has defeated the Swiss wrestler at some point or another.

Ziggler did get a win over Kane during Raw, which was a step in the right direction. Ideally, WWE will give him more clean victories in the weeks leading up to the show. He could even get a shock win over someone like Seth Rollins.

(Rollins, of course, would have to get his revenge and deliver a brutal beatdown right after the match to protect his credibility.)

Another idea: One way to improve Ziggler’s character would be to make him an anti-corporate babyface like Dean Ambrose.

Credit: WWE.com

The writers could even incorporate the star’s massive fall from grace over the past 18 months into the story. Perhaps it could be made clear to the WWE Universe that Ziggler is unwilling to play politics or pander to those in power—and that his career has suffered hugely as a result.

This would serve to give his babyface character an intriguing new dimension and explain why he’s eager to be on Cena’s team at the pay-per-view. Honestly, as naturally likable and charismatic as Ziggler is, his current character is rather dull and could desperately use some improvement.

Crazy as it sounds, scripting the star to lose his belt—possibly due to interference from The Authority—in the next week or two might be a good idea too.

Credit: WWE.com

While it has some prestige and status, the WWE Intercontinental Championship generally labels anyone who carries it as being a midcard performer. It’s not necessarily a good thing for Ziggler to be associated with if he really is going to be back in the main event mix very soon.

Of course, after months and months of doing harm to the wrestler with hideous booking, it may simply be too late to turn things around. The damage may have already been done. But the company has to try.

With Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan out, it desperately needs some new top babyfaces and can’t afford to be picky about who to push.