The WWE Brand Extension coalesced nearly a month ago but the lasting impact is still being felt.
A clear beneficiary of the brand extension was one Dolph Ziggler, a midcarder that was toiling around in the background before coming to the forefront of the main event scene for SmackDown just in time for SummerSlam. Ziggler will be facing off against WWE Champion Dean Ambrose for the title.
Ziggler’s case is an example of everything good and bad about the brand extension in just one wrestler. An internet darling for years, Ziggler was what the fans wanted, maybe in 2014. Now, in a totally different WWE, it looked like Ziggler was stuck in purgatory and meant to lose to up-and-comers rather than be one of the main draws at one of WWE’s biggest shows of the year.
The problem isn’t really with Ziggler so much as how WWE has treated someone who was once a viable contender over the years. Vince McMahon and the powers that be decided against making Ziggler a main eventer and kept him in the midcard.
Now it’s up to the fans to start caring for a wrestler that just one pay-per-view ago was losing to Baron Corbin for the fourth straight time at WWE BattleGround.
With Ziggler moving up the card, it shows just how unprepared WWE was heading into the WWE Draft.
Instead of having the proper wrestlers built up for the future, WWE has to lean on older talent whose time at the top has already expired. No offense to Ziggler, who has deserved much better treatment over the years, but this isn’t the time for a renaissance.
And with Bray Wyatt in the mix, it’s clear that the Ambrose-Ziggler feud isn’t going to stretch beyond SummerSlam.
The smell of desperation from WWE to try and provide an intriguing narrative for its second biggest show of the year is sad because the company shouldn’t be in this position.
In contrast, the main event for Raw, which is Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins for the first-ever Universal Title reign, feels like a big deal. Balor is obviously the feature of the company and Rollins is a mainstay in the main event scene.
Right now it feels as if SmackDown is in a bit of a transition compared to Raw. There is still new talent yet to be explored and new titles to be delivered.
The only thing for certain right now is that Raw will always and forever be the A-show.
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Thomas Romero-Salas is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @ThomasRomeros.
