5 things that could happen on SmackDown Live next week

#3 Dolph Ziggler explains why he returned at the Royal Rumble

I was perplexed that Dolph Ziggler didn’t appear on either RAW or SmackDown this week. He made his return to WWE at the #30 spot in the Royal Rumble match and only lasted a few minutes before being eliminated with very little fanfare.

It was an expected return with an unexpected outcome. Nobody really thought he had a chance to win the Rumble match but there was anticipation that something would happen that would give us some indication as to what he would do next, but… we got nothing. He showed up, got eliminated, and was gone.

Look who just shut down all of Tony Khan's critics! More HERE.

There’s no room for him in the WWE Title picture and it doesn’t make any sense for him to go for the United States Title again. I think WWE wanted him to be a surprise (?) entrant in the Rumble but had no plans past that, which is why he didn’t appear this week.

Maybe he will start some kind of redemption story and apologize for the way he has been acting and decide that he’s going to start at the bottom and try to work his way back up the ranks. It could end up tying into the new Top 10 thing that Daniel Bryan announced this week, as he gains the trust of the other wrestlers, he may get votes and place on the list. I know that I’m all for Ziggler getting one last shot at being the great babyface we know he can be.

About the author

I got my first big break writing for 411Mania back in 2004. I did a small spot in a big weekly piece that was written by one of the site's top writers. I quickly added the duty of being the live recapper for episodes of SmackDown, and in 2005 was given my own weekly column, which I did for a few years. I gave up writing (mostly) to start a family but got back into it, still at 411, a little over 3 years later. For another couple of years, I wrote 2-3 columns per week for the website before finding paid work elsewhere, and eventually wound up at SportsKeeda.

I am also the co-founder of the RBR: Weekly Wrestling Talk podcast, which started in the summer of 2005 and is still going strong today, almost 15 years later. Due to school, work, and family commitments, I left the team in 2011 but still remain a part of the family.

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Edited by Tanya Rudra