WWE Rumors: Match between two former World Champions not happening at SummerSlam
What's the story?
For reasons beyond our understanding, WWE rekindled the rivalry between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler on this week’s Raw. It’s safe to say that no fan in 2019 wants to see the former World Champions battle it out in a singles match at the upcoming SummerSlam PPV.
Thankfully for us all, that doesn’t seem like the plan, according to Dave Meltzer, who explained the possible reason behind the segment between Miz and Ziggler. While the SummerSlam match may be off the table (phew!), the angle could lead to a potential change to Miz’ existing character.
In case you didn’t know…
The Show Off requested to be a guest on The Miz TV on the latest episode of Raw. Ziggler cut a promo and accused Miz of being a company yes-man. He said that Miz had become ‘everything he used to hate’. Ziggler continued with the verbal assaults until a shot at Maryse became the tipping point for the Miz to unleash a beatdown on Ziggler.
Dolph escaped the ring in typical heel fashion and the segment came to an end. It was a segment that just felt unwanted in the grander scheme of things, considering we’ve seen the two veterans feud against each other on countless occasions before.
However, there could be a reason behind the familiar angle.
The heart of the matter
On the post-show edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio after Raw, Dave Meltzer spoke about The Miz and Dolph Ziggler’s segment from Raw. Meltzer revealed that he was told that a SummerSlam match between the two was not part of the plan.
He then speculated regarding the reason behind resuming a rivalry between Miz and Ziggler…again!
Meltzer explained:
"I was told they're (Miz and Dolph Ziggler) not wrestling each other at SummerSlam. It could be a TV match. I don't know what the point of this is, but when I watched it, my thought was that they are trying to change Miz, since Miz was the babyface, and he was insulted by an insult that was something like a lot of fans see him as, which is a non-serious guy who says whatever he wants to say. I think it's a change to a Miz that you can believe. You know the problem with Miz always is that there is something about him, he can deliver an awesome promo."
He continued:
“This was all for Miz to take stock in himself. Because when you tell someone you've become everything that you hate, that's usually what a babyface says to a heel who is gone off the deep end. But this was saying it to a babyface and there was truth to it so it’s got to mean the babyface is somewhat going to change something. Maybe they feel that they have to push him because of Miz and Mrs that they need to tweak him.”
Meltzer highlighted the fact that Miz was originally going to be one of the top guys on Raw not too long ago.
"Remember coming off of WrestleMania they were booking him to be the main guy, like the main babyface, right under Roman Reigns and then they kept beating him left and right in this Shane angle, and they kind of lost their way with him. When they were going to do the brand split, like a real split, for how many weeks that idea went through, he was supposed to be one the main guys, one of the main babyfaces on Raw, like right near the top and then they just kept using him to get other people over and all of a sudden he’s not over at that level, so now they are trying to erase it and get him going. And they need to do it by saying he wasn’t serious enough and now we got a new guy and he’s serious."
What's next?
While Miz and Ziggler have put on great matches in the past with the IC title on the line, the scenario is completely different now and another programme is just not what the WWE Universe wants to see.
It would be a sensible option to treat this as a TV angle that helps The Miz get back his lost momentum with a subtle character change.
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