WrestleMania 31 Is Make or Break for Dolph Ziggler as a Top Star

It's 4th-and-life, and Dolph Ziggler has the ball at his own 1-yard line.

His opposition is an all-star team of obstacles. It's loaded with injury concerns, bad breaks and a glass ceiling or two. All are conspiring to keep him saddled in a career filled with potential yet mired in purgatory.

"Team Obstacle" is winning.

Ziggler is destined to be a WWE Superstar who retires with potential. If WWE produced his DVD today, it would be filled with more excuses than excellence.

Ziggler has had no problem winning over fans. It's more tangible success, however, that continues to evade him.

To this day, Ziggler has yet to wrestle a singles match at WrestleMania. This is a glaring omission that is almost unheard of among WWE Superstars of his stature.

Even Adrian Adonis had a singles match at WrestleMania.

The 34-year-old star has spent 10 years on the main roster. Somehow, he's annually on the back burner during WWE's most important stretch run.

Throughout the hottest period of his career, from 2012 into 2013, he reigned as Money in the Bank champion. Multiple previous Money in the Bank champions headlined WrestleMania within a year or two of winning the elusive briefcase.

Ziggler's run peaked the night after WrestleMania XXIX.

Credit: WWE.com

Ziggler's first legitimate world championship win seemed like a ceremony. He cashed in his Money in the Bank contract in front of a white-hot crowd. It was ready for him.

It was supposed to be smooth sailing from then on. More times than not, Money in the Bank sneaks its subjects into the main event and keeps them there.

Edge won his first world championship under similarly questionable means. He made quick work of a bloodied John Cena after an Elimination Chamber match. Despite losing the WWE Championship shortly thereafter, he went on to enjoy 10 more world championship reigns.

CM Punk, a two-time Money in the Bank winner, eventually became the longest-reigning WWE champion of the modern era. His superstardom came on the back of WWE's star-making contract.

The Miz is somewhat of a cautionary tale, but he still headlined WrestleMania XXVII following his own Money in the Bank success.

Ziggler didn't even come close to the WrestleMania success of his briefcase brethren. After suffering a concussion, he dropped the World Heavyweight Championship to Alberto Del Rio.

To date, his most notable WrestleMania moment came when fans chanted "We want Ziggler" during the WrestleMania XXIX World Heavyweight Championship match.

Top stars simply don't disappear the way Ziggler does in the months of March and April.

A good match here and a memorable moment there keep him relevant. But Ziggler is running out of time to stay relevant in a scene that is quickly getting dominated by the next generation.

He's two NXT call-ups away from becoming the Internet's abandoned action figure.

NXT hopefuls like Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn have built-in fanbases from years on the independent wrestling scene. This will have a cannibalizing effect on the meta support for Ziggler. The priority given to the newer, fresher WWE Superstars will soon render Ziggler a bit player.

WWE has not moved on from Ziggler just yet. A combination of talent and fan support allows him to tread water and sometimes even float on his own.

Ziggler's current arch may finally earn him his elusive match. Toward the end of 2014, he scored his biggest win since the aforementioned Raw in 2013. Ziggler's efforts to oust Team Authority seemed to get him back to his winning ways. 

But as is the story of his WWE existence, everything went back to normal within weeks. By the end of the year, The Authority was back in power. Ziggler remains the lovable loser who can't seem to catch a break.

It's no secret that Ziggler is a poor man's Daniel Bryan. The perception of WWE holding him back causes just enough backlash to keep him interesting but not enough to change the company's direction.

There just isn't enough outrage to go around.

Ziggler's window will close if he remains a WrestleMania afterthought past 2015. He'll have to become a world title contender—with or without a revolution—or fade away as a story of what could have been.

Provided WWE is able to withstand the latest round of outrage from Bryan's fanbase, the current WrestleMania main event will pit Roman Reigns against Brock Lesnar.

This opens the door for Ziggler to have his first ever single's match at WrestleMania against Bryan himself, per F4WOnline (h/t WrestlingInc.com). 

Is it destiny?

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