The accidental Superstar: How Dolph Ziggler and the WWE Universe created a comeback hero

I. Pull This Off

Well, what do you know? It’s Sunday night in St. Louis and Dolph Ziggler, record-setting collegiate state champion, two-time World Heavyweight Champion, three-time Intercontinental Champion, one-time United States Champion and 2012 sole survivor, is nervous.
Survivor Series 2014 will be the first time in nearly two years he is in the proper main event of a pay-per-view. He’s been in “main event matches” since, granted: a Money in the Bank Ladder Match, two World Heavyweight Title masterpieces against Alberto Del Rio, and the occasional Royal Rumble here or there. But in the classic main event sense — the match that closes the show — this is the first time since 2012 he’ll have the honor.
WWE Network: Dolph topples Cena in Brooklyn
“Career-wise, you don’t think every [match] is big for your career, but [with] this one, I thought if I could pull it off, I can go to another level. I went, ‘This has to happen, this has to be perfect, this has to be done just right,’” Dolph will say a couple of days after the match. “I was nervous every step, because there were several big steps. We got lucky, combined with a lot of professional Superstars who are [really] good at their jobs.”
None, it can be said, more so than him. The match — ostensibly a battle for WWE’s soul between John Cena and The Authority — has been built not around Cena’s flag bearer rank, but rather Ziggler and his cult hero status. As the most beloved member of Cena’s coterie, it’s Dolph who’s been taking the brunt of The Authority’s attacks and it’s Dolph who will rally the battered troops to their captain’s side as the big day approaches.

Dolph steps into a steel cage | Showoff survives Triple Threat classic
It’s fitting, almost. If Cena is WWE’s “Face That Runs the Place” — a Terminator of a man who flies the flag, can win the big one on a whim and is beloved by kids of all stripes, plus more adults than are likely to admit it in public — then Ziggler is its chugging heart: a nonstop machine humming at its core that is as unheralded as it is essential. You hardly notice it when he’s there, but without him, something just seems off about the place. He’ll end up turning in a Survivor Series performance that could and should be talked about for years to come, emerging (once again, and with a little help) as the sole survivor, which is an apt description for him.I went, 'This has to be perfect.'
Not only is Dolph’s personal story an interesting one, he’s a living, breathing example of just how damn hard it is to become a champion. His transitions from beloved bad guy to underexposed good guy have almost become a meme, and not just because of his social media mastery. He’s clawed to the top of the ladder (literally) only to have fate kick him in the face (again, literally) and cover him in a pile of proverbial crap (yet again, literally). He’s pulled himself up by his bootstraps more times than the cliché will allow, and if he screws up at Survivor Series (he won’t), his last shot could slip away.
It’s been thrilling, entertaining, heartbreaking, and, if you’re a wrestling prospect, ultimately kind of terrifying. Because if Dolph Ziggler, record-setting collegiate state champion, two-time World Heavyweight Champion, three-time Intercontinental Champion, one-time United States Champion and (soon to be) two-time sole survivor, can’t make it, then who the hell can?