F4WOnline.com is reporting that Dolph Ziggler ended up in the doghouse after making comments last summer about being frustrated over his lack of a sustained push that referenced WWE superstar Randy Orton.
“Everybody can be just so outspoken about taller guys, and guys like Randy Orton being the face of the WWE, the WWE Championship. I dare you to put me in a back alley with Randy Orton or someone like that. I guarantee I’m not afraid of someone taller,” Ziggler said in Sept. 4 interview with MLive.com.
This sounds plausible, but consider that Ziggler’s push had actually come to a screeching halt in the spring. Ziggler had won the World Heavyweight Title on Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania 29, which is about as much a push as one can expect, but he ended up on the shelf after suffering a serious concussion in May.
Ziggler’s status on the card has essentially been on hold since then, and for good reason. In an interview with WWE.com after the May concussion, Ziggler conceded that he’d suffered several concussions in the past, and what’s left unsaid there is that Zigs could be one concussion away from being done, age 33 with many years of main events seemingly down the road for him or not.
If anything, this story about Ziggler being put in the doghouse over comments in an interview are cover being provided by creative in WWE to explain why a guy who briefly held the world strap is now little more than an enhancement talent.
That it comes a couple of weeks after another concussion put Ziggler back on the shelf again is probably not coincidence.
Ziggler is undeniably a Top 5 talent, but it’s hard to give him the push to match his drawing power to his talent if you can’t reliably say that he’ll even be on the roster six months from now with his health being such an important issue.
Column by Chris Graham
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