With ten days remaining until WWE’s biggest event of the Summer, things seem to be moving in the right direction for the nation’s current #1 wrestling promotion. Former ECW owner Paul Heyman’s direction for Monday Night Raw and former WCW President Eric Bischoff’s direction for Smackdown Live has World Wrestling Entertainment fans excited and hopeful for the first time in a while. From Kevin Owens challenging Shane McMahon’s authority, to Brock Lesnar’s more frequent appearances, to a continued reign as WWE Champion by Kofi Kingston, WWE seems to have turned a corner, which is much needed with competition coming from All Elite Wrestling, ROH, and NJPW.
One thing that this writer is especially happy to see is the prominent role as of late of one of the company’s most talented stars, Dolph Ziggler. For quite sometime, many critics of the WWE product, including this writer have felt Ziggler has been vastly underutilized. Ziggler’s “it should have been me” storyline has been good and his matches with WWE Champion Kofi Kingston have been legitimate main event quality.
Ziggler’s prominence on WWE television has been taken to another level with his recent rivalry with Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and renewed issue with former WWE Champion the Miz. It’s been good television and considering years of comparisons between ‘the show off’ and the ‘heartbreak kid’, it makes all the sense in the world. A match between the former World Champ and Founder of D-Generation X would have be a great addition to SummerSlam, as many believe HBK still has the talent to work a good match, despite his somewhat lack-luster performance with Triple H vs. Undertaker and Kane last year. It would be revealed recently, however that the Miz would be Ziggler’s opponent at SummerSlam. That being said, with the Miz being WWE’s most improved performer of the past couple of years and the prospect of HBK making an appearance on the Miz’s behalf, there was still legitimate excitement as all parties head to Toronto on August 11th.
Something that is not exciting, however are rumors of someone else Ziggler continues to make negative references to in interviews, Bill Goldberg possibly facing Dolph in a grudge match. The fact is, Shawn Michaels’ performance at Crown Jewel in 2018 was not great. Everyone recognizes that, but if HBK’s match wasn’t great, then what does that make Goldberg’s performance 2 months ago at Super Showdown? Undertaker, who proved he can still move well in the ring at Extreme Rules, even at his advanced age, faced Goldberg the previous month in the main event of WWE’s Super Showdown, and it was one of the most disappointing outings in recent WWE history. Goldberg’s timing was off, he and Undertaker had no in-ring chemistry, and fans all over the world were left with a figurative bad taste in their mouths which led to most thinking Goldberg should have stayed retired after his better than average run as Universal Champion in 2017.
There is no confirmation that Goldberg is going to be a part of SummerSlam or WWE period in an in-ring capacity moving forward, but it should be noted that Ziggler humiliates the former WCW Champion verbally in what seems like every interview he does. It should also be noted that Goldberg is currently under contract with WWE. So, in closing, all this writer can say is, WWE can un-do all of its recent momentum if Goldberg vs. Ziggler happens. It would be a step back for Ziggler, it would be a step back for WWE’s second most important pay-per-view of the year, and it would be a step back for a company that needs to continue its recent upward trend, because remaining on the upward trend of the past few weeks is crucial as ROH’s ‘SUMMER SUPERCARD’ and AEW’s ‘ALL OUT’ pay-per-view are almost upon us and sure to not disappoint.
This original editorial was written by Sean Hubbard of Hubbard Wrestling Weekly© for the readers of BodySlam.net
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