WWE News: Dolph Ziggler hints at retirement on SmackDown Live, WWE's statement

What's the story?

Dolph Ziggler won the United States Championship at Clash of Champions on Sunday night and as part of his celebration on SmackDown Live, Dolph showed clips from his historic title wins over the past decade before declaring that the WWE Universe didn't deserve him and walked out of the ring, leaving his Championship behind.

"YOU'RE NOT WORTHY OF MY PRESENCE!" -@HEELZiggler #SDLive pic.twitter.com/ugk42s4Ohu

— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2017

In case you didn't know

Dolph Ziggler hasn't been on the best of runs over the past year and has recently changed his gimmick to a character who no longer puts a show on for the WWE Universe because he no longer feels that they deserve it.

He was a strange addition to the United States Championship match on Sunday night but was able to pick up the win after he caught Baron Corbin with the ZigZag as he was hitting End of Days on Bobby Roode.

This is Dolph's second United States Championship reign after he won the title back at Capital Punishment back in 2011 for the first time. Over the past year, there have been rumours that Dolph's WWE contract was coming to an end, something that The Showoff has never openly talked about himself.

The heart of the matter

Dolph has felt as though the WWE Universe stopped supporting him a long time ago, so it isn't major news that he feels that the fanbase doesn't deserve him. The fact that he dropped the United States Championship on the floor and disrespected the belt before he left the ring was a step further than many fans thought Dolph would go through.

.@HEELZiggler is walking to the backstage area... but he's NOT bringing his #USTitle with him. #SDLive #DolphCelebration pic.twitter.com/Q8ByjLnUCu

— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2017

It seems that the point Dolph was making was that he has so many accolades inside a WWE ring and the fans once loved him for it, but times have changed because now that the fans are against him they have forgotten that he is one of the most decorated stars in the company.

WWE issued the following statement on the events that transpired:

Dolph Ziggler's Championship Celebration ended in bizarre fashion

Fresh off his United States Championship victory over former titleholder Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode at WWE Clash of Champions, Dolph Ziggler threw a Championship Celebration on SmackDown LIVE that was a complete retrospective of his decorated history in WWE, which includes 10 championship wins.

After reminding the WWE Universe of what he's done and who he is through the vintage clips, Ziggler claimed the WWE Universe didn't deserve him, then took the United States Championship off his shoulder, placed it in the middle of the ring and left without saying anything in a very odd moment.

For all we know, the US title could now be vacant with Royal Rumble coming up next.

What's next?

Dolph is the United States Champion so unless he has relinquished the title and walked away from the company, he will be back to defend it in the future. It seems unlikely that Dolph has walked away, this could just be another clever ruse by WWE to get the WWE Universe talking about The Showoff and his actions.

Authors take

Dolph Ziggler hasn't had a great 2017 and many fans actually thought that he was going to leave the company a few months ago. Dolph was in a title versus career match against The Miz in October last year, and if he had lost that match and left in 2016, he wouldn't have missed much this year.

Dolph has just two pay-per-view wins to his name in two years and hasn't been taken seriously since 2015, so Dolph it makes sense that the C would be frustrated, but he's aiming his frustration at the wrong people.