The day after WrestleMania, Dolph Ziggler would cash in his Money in the Bank contract and defeat an incapacitated Alberto Del Rio to win the World Heavyweight Title. The fans at the Izod Center went nuts the moment Ziggler won the title and it seemed like Ziggler had finally arrived! Heck, even I went nuts when I saw Ziggler hit Del Rio with the Zig Zag. His career has come full circle, from being the caddy for Kerwin White to being a male cheerleader in the Spirit Squad to now being the World Heavyweight Champion after a few years of floating around on the mid-card and going through three entrance theme changes. Fans have been waiting a very long time for Ziggler to finally cash in and win the belt. A lot of people felt that this was a long time coming. It’s always good to have a fresh face at the top of the card. Here’s the thing though. A lot of folks have put a lot of stock into him winning the title, and not to burst anyone’s bubble but the moment may not be as big as the marks at the Izod Center made it out to be or as big as the internet fans made it out to be. Ziggler won the title in front of a smart mark crowd against a champion who really wasn’t getting over. He may be one of the least over champions that WWE has had in a very long time. Do you want to know how “not over” Del Rio is? When I was at Raw a few weeks back, the show had gone to a commercial break. During the break, Ricardo Rodriquez comes on the Titan-tron in an attempt to get the fans hyped up for Del Rio by fans saying his name along with him. It’s not good to be champion and your announcer/manager gets a bigger response than you. As we all know, that crowd from Raw was way more entertaining than the show itself. Let’s be honest, if you muted the sound on last week’s Raw you will see that it was a pretty mediocre show without the crowd making the show entertaining as a way to cater to their own boredom. We also saw how boring a match between Randy Orton and Sheamus could be. I even proposed that Raw do shows there every week! Of course it would be counterproductive to what they are trying to accomplish in WWE, but a man can dream! I just wonder if the fans were cheering for A. The Title Change itself B. Del Rio losing the title C. Ziggler losing the belt or D. All of the above. I am going to go with D. If Ziggler has cashed in the briefcase at Raw in a place like South Carolina or Utah, I doubt he would have gotten that same smart mark pop from the fans. I also don’t know what WWE creative simply didn’t have Ziggler cash in and win the title at WrestleMania the night before as it would have probably be a bright spot on a show that was pretty mediocre. Where does Ziggler go from here? The most important thing that everyone has to remember is that Dolph Ziggler is the bad guy here. The goal will be for fans to want to pay to see him get his ass kicked and lose the title. Will Ziggler be a draw as champion? I think that it will all depend on who the opponents are that they have lined up for him. Before he won the World Title, Ziggler was losing a lot of matches. I have read that this was done so that those same people can challenge him because they can all claim to have wins over him. They say that a champion can sometimes be only as good as the guys that he faces. The WWE also has to be careful to continue to book their shows for the casual fans, and not to book for the Internet Wrestling Community. Now that Ziggler has the title, where does he start? Who will be that first opponent? From the looks of it, it will be Alberto Del Rio because he is going to have to get a rematch after losing the championship in the fashion that he did. Will people actually be interested in Del Rio as the face challenger chasing the heel champion? If he wasn’t over as a champion then how will he be over as the challenger? Then we have Jack Swagger who is something of a wildcard in this whole thing. I truly hope that his situation in court is handled and that he can remain in the World Title race because from a story-line standpoint, Swagger has it hanging over Ziggler’s head that him and Zeb Colter did him a favor by softening up Del Rio. It would suck for Swagger to have to get lost in the mid-card shuffle. Finally, how long can we expect Dolph to hold the title? I think that after chasing the championship for such a long time, they need to let him have a long title run. I just hope that they don’t have him fighting Del Rio for the next 3 months because no one wants to see that. WWE, you have a fresh face as World champion now how about coming up with some fresh booking to go along with it. Show the World, Dolph Ziggler, Show the World! As always, you can follow me on Twitter @whosantcox and you can email me at invidwarriorz@gmail.com! See ya next time, wrestling fans!
Follow us on Twitter @Kayfabe_Kickout, to get the latest news in the world of professional wrestling and like us on Facebook as well. To submit wrestling news email kayfabekickout2012@gmail.com.