Ziggler off the Zigg-zag

[Edynol]

I have been a fan of Dolph for a while now, since well before MItB, but after listening to the interview with Dolph, I decided to make this thread. Looking past the obvious "heel" banter, I think he shows himself to be really passionate about the business. I think this is one of the best OOC outside the ring interviews I have heard. I really hope he wins the gold this Sunday. I would love to see him feud with Sheamus for a good while, maybe even have an on going rivalry that lasts indefinitely. No, not an ever lasting feud, but a rivalry, like Hogan and Flair had all those years back, Stone Cold and Vince, etc. Build up some solid history with them because in my experience, feuds between people with a history tend to be a lot more interesting so long as the actual feuds are spread out like a year or so in between. Or maybe have him feud with Cena.

But aside from that, I really think WWE needs another good, solid heel that really knows how to get the fans excited in one way or another. And before anyone gets mad, I know we have Punk who is totally awesome, but they need more than one top heel, IMO, and Ziggy is the next guy to be it I think. I mean, I look at Ziggy and I'm reminded of greats like Ric Flair back in his youth, Kurt Hennig, Rick Rude, Y2J, etc. He's got the talent, the charisma, and the mic skills. Now I know many don't consider to be the best on the mic, but I think he has improved a lot which is why I think they are winging him off Vickie so he can be out on his own. And he's still young, just now entering his prime IMO, so he can only get better.

I really hope WWE does the smart thing here and runs with the torch while it's blazing push Ziggler into the Main Event spotlight. They did it with the Miz, And don't get me wrong, I think the Miz is awesome(uhh...wink), but I think Ziggler is better. Mainly because Ziggler actually looks threatening. Miz is a great performer both in and outside the ring, but no matter what he did, he just never struck me as a threatening guy. But Ziggler does and I think he has the passion and will to be great to take the ball and run with it for a touchdown.

But this is just my opinion, I could be wrong. What are your thoughts?

[Emperor]

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't think Mr. Ziggles is anything special. He's very ordinary to me. Not bad. Just average. Average in the ring, average on the mic, average at everything. Sure, he has great matches every once in a while, but he needs to do more than that to make me a fan. He certainly doesn't steal the show every night.

Speaking of which, Ziggler whores out his catchphrases far too much. I know this isn't unique to Ziggler, so no "BUT THE ROCK DID IT TOO AND HE'S THE BEST!!!1!!" responses please. My point is, for someone with so little promo time (and he says as much in the interview), he should try to make the most of his promos rather than rattling off his set lines. It doesn't help that his catchphrases don't even make sense: "I'm so damn sick of being so damn sick." - What does that even mean?! "It's not showing off if you can back it up." - Yes it is. One of my favourite Ziggler promos was when he was insulting Pat Patterson on some random PPV. I saw greatness there; there were no catchphrases, and I got the sense that he truly despised Pat and believed in what he was saying. I think there was another more recent Ziggler promo directed at Foley that was similar. Sadly that kind of work from Ziggler is once in a blue moon.

I can't really fault his in-ring work. There's nothing wrong with it, but I am not enthralled by it either. I don't think he's a five-star-match churning machine. I don't think he's the greatest seller in the universe. He just has matches. Not bad matches, but not great ones either. He has a lot of potential but after however many years, he's only shown me very sporadic glimpses of greatness.