Dolph Ziggler was NXT Champion for only a few short weeks, but planned to have a much longer reign with the title in NXT.
He won the championship from Bron Breakker on NXT, even defending the championship against him last week at NXT: Stand and Deliver.
However, in an impromptu match on the Raw after Wrestlemania, Bron Breakker defeated Dolph Ziggler, ending his reign as the NXT Champion.
Dolph Ziggler as NXT Champion was one of the shortest reigns in the companies history. Fans were shocked when he won the championship just weeks ago.
Now over 40 years old, he is one of the veteran wrestlers in WWE, having debuted in 2006 as part of the Spirit Squad. This made his NXT appearance a shock, as it is usually reserved for rookie wrestlers who aren’t yet ready for Raw or Smackdown.
His NXT Championship victory was unexpected, but was a fantastic moment for a crowd which has long supported Dolph Ziggler. He has not won a world championship in WWE since 2013, but this NXT Championship win was a high point for Dolph Ziggler over the past 10 years.
Whilst he reign was short, former NXT Champion Dolph Ziggler was planned to have a much more comprehensive run in NXT, before the anarchy of Monday Night Raw derailed those plans.
Dolph Ziggler as NXT Champion
Former NXT Champion Dolph Ziggler had a short reign with the championship, but according to some backstage, he was meant to have a much lengthier run with the belt.
Original plans had him keeping the belt for longer and becoming a fixture in NXT, although as usual in WWE, plans change.
On today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez revealed that people close to NXT contacted him and revealed that the plans were for Dolph Ziggler to be NXT Champion “for a while”.
He also mentioned how an advert for NXT, ran during Monday Night Raw, showed Dolph Ziggler as the NXT Champion, not Bron Breakker.
“ I heard from someone who is close to folks in NXT and they know a lot about what’s going on there. They said, ‘you know, it looks like Ziggler is going to be champion for a while‘.
This was Saturday. So then Monday at about 11:30 or so, I heard actually from several people that we’re gonna have an NXT title change on the show tonight. One person said ‘NXT title change tonight’ and the other person specified that it was gonna be Bron Breakker beating Dolph Ziggler to win the title back on Raw…”
“Then, about 45 minutes later, they have a commercial for NXT. And the commercial for NXT, the whole commercial is about how Dolph Ziggler beat Bron Breakker and we’re gonna get the fallout on NXT, which oddly enough they said, ‘NXT tonight at 9:00.’
It was tomorrow’s commercial that they aired on the wrong day and the commercial that they had, had been created with the idea that Ziggler was still the champion.”
Taking the championship off Dolph Ziggler put a halt to some dream matches in NXT for the Show off. GUNTER recently faced NXT Champion Bron Breakker on NXT, a match which impressed many fans.
However, Dolph Ziggler vs Gunther was a dream match for many and fans will be sad that we never see the two men share a ring together.
Bryan Alveraz also theorized that Bron Breakker was set to be called up the main roster, and was the reason he lost the NXT Championship prior to Wrestlemania 38. However, he looks set to stay in NXT for longer and hone his craft before moving up to Raw or Smackdown.
Bron Breakker is expected to be called up to the WWE main roster in 2024, potentially continuing his feud with Dolph Ziggler on Raw or Smackdown.
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