Zig Zagged

Scott,

A friend and I firmly disagree on how we see Dolph Ziggler's future turning out. He says that Ziggler drops the U.S. Title to Zack Ryder and moves on to bigger and better things, namely a main event push. I think he drops the title to Mason Ryan, gets lost in the tag team shuffle with Swagger, and winds up being quietly traded to Smackdown in the next draft.

Which do you find more likely?

I know they’re stupid about it and will probably shoot themselves in the foot a million times before it happens, but I really think they want to push Ziggler to the moon and he’s been able to overcome all the ridiculous handicaps against him thus far, so I wouldn’t bet against it.  Much like his contemporary Zack Ryder, fans have started seeing and actively accepting him as a person at a certain level, and once you’ve made it to that plateau (someone who can believably hang with, say, Randy Orton in a random match situation)  it’s actually quite difficult to get brought down to a lower level again without the company going to John Morrison-like trouble to bury you.  I firmly believe Ziggler and Ryder are gonna carry each other to the Cena and Batista “new generation” level, despite WWE’s handling of them.  I just don’t know why they couldn’t bring Morrison along with them, and hopefully someday we’ll hear the full story on that from both sides.

Edit to add: It's also pretty obvious, I think, that we're gonna end up with a ladder match at TLC between Ziggler and Ryder for the US title, and that's exactly the sort of opportunity to have a ***** match that could elevate both guys to the next level.  Royal Rumble would be better, but I'll take what I can get.