WWE: Why Dolph Ziggler Needs to Lose the U.S. Title…Quickly

"Hi, I’m Dolph Ziggler."

Remember that? My, how far the former male cheerleader and Spirit Squad member has come since the days when his gimmick consisted almost entirely of introducing himself to people backstage.

As soon as Ziggler was given that character, I was skeptical about his chances of succeeding in the WWE.

Boy, have I been proven wrong.

Once Ziggler dropped the ridiculous introduction and began getting more air time on SmackDown, it was pretty clear that he would be something special. He had the look, the charisma and, most importantly, the in-ring skills that are often so overlooked in the WWE.

The company began pushing him as a brash, cocky superstar, whose platinum blonde hair and fake-and-bake tan gave him a sense of entitlement and superiority. He was Dolph Ziggler, and he was better than everyone else.

I almost began to believe him.

Ziggler put on some notable Intercontinental Championship feuds with guys like Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston, and it didn’t take long for the guy formerly known as Nicky to develop somewhat of a cult following on the Internet.

Sites like Bleacher Report and wrestling message boards praised Ziggler as the WWE’s next big star and someone who needed to make the jump to the main event scene on SmackDown.

Ziggler did just that as we transitioned from 2010 to 2011, when he became the No. 1 contender for Edge’s World Heavyweight Championship, and even briefly held the title for all of 15 minutes on an episode of SmackDown.

I like to forget that, though. Apparently, so does the WWE.

It wasn’t long after Ziggler’s match with Edge at the Royal Rumble—a very good one I might add—that he was “fired” from SmackDown and subsequently showed up on Raw shortly thereafter. In other words, the creative team didn’t know what to do with him and sent him to Monday nights as a result.

Guess what? What you expected to happen to Ziggler is exactly what’s happened: He’s wallowed in mid-card hell since moving to Raw.

Sure, he got a match with John Morrison at Wrestlemania 27 that also involved Snooki and Trish Stratus, so things could certainly have been worse. But the Ziggler that was a “future World Champion”—I don’t count his one-episode reign—has been lost and replaced by a Ziggler that looks more like a perennial mid-carder.

That’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

Ziggler is not someone who should be thrown into random mid-card feuds on Raw, and he’s not someone who should be holding a belt that hardly even matters anymore, like the United States Championship.

He is world championship material.

While some have pointed at Ziggler’s lack of mic skills as the main thing holding him back, then I challenge you to go re-watch last Monday’s Raw and pay close attention to his interaction with guest star Hugh Jackman. That wasn’t a guy getting blown away on the mic—it was a guy holding his own.

Now, don’t twist my words and think I’m saying that Ziggler is a phenomenal promo guy. He’s not. But he’s above average in that department and is gradually getting better.

It’s time to have him part ways with Vickie Guerrero once and for all, drop that prop known as the US Championship and then move on to bigger and better things, because the WWE’s main event scene needs him.

In a perfect world, Ziggler would move back to SmackDown—whether as a heel or face—where the brand needs some fresh faces in the world title picture, and actual wrestling is more of a top priority than Raw.

But I honestly don’t see that happening. I think Ziggler will remain on the Raw roster for the foreseeable future, so now it’s just a matter of how the show’s creative team books him.

If I was a WWE writer, I’d start by having him lose the United States Championship to everyone’s favorite Internet champion, Zack Ryder, at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. The title switch would accomplish two things: It would actually elevate Ryder and get him on TV more often, and it would finally allow Ziggler to move to the top of the Raw card.

On the surface, you might think that Raw’s main event scene is too crowded at the moment for Ziggler to join in. Yet, when you take a closer look, you’ll realize that we’ve seen just about every possible matchup between Raw’s top guys recently.

Like these: John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio, Cena vs. Punk, Cena vs. R-Truth, Cena vs. The Miz, Punk vs. ADR, Punk vs. Truth, Punk vs. Miz, Triple H vs. Punk, etc.

Now, throw Ziggler into that mix, and you’ve got some potentially great matchups (especially if he turns face).

So, my question to the WWE creative team is: Why don’t you do what you should have done a long time ago, and elevate Ziggler?

Think about it, and get back to me when you have an acceptable answer.