It's been a weird few months for Dolph Ziggler. After taking on a pretty rotten gimmick of making fun of other Superstars and walking to the ring without entrance music, he won the United States Championship and decided to relinquish it the following day. He also appeared at the Royal Rumble but was eliminated in short order. Now, he's set to return to SmackDown Live tonight.
Despite that, speculation he's done with the company continues to run rampant and he's made no secret of the fact that he's potentially ready to walk away from WWE because he's unhappy with his role.
However, independent wrestler Bin Hamin has claimed during a recent podcast appearance that Ziggler has signed a new big-money deal which also allows him to pursue his many outside interests.
"Here’s the inside scoop that I’ve kinda been told. After Ziggler laid down the title and went away for 30 days, silently came back as No. 30 in the Rumble, and then tossed out kinda useless. He was already kinda two feet out the door, and it was at the 11th hour that they made him another offer he can’t refuse. Big money, and the fact that, now that he’ll stay, he’s willing to put anybody over, do jobs -– whatever, on TV, and he can leave after his matches, he doesn’t need to stick around the arena, and he can take outside projects as long as they don’t conflict with his schedule. Kinda the sweetheart deal, you know, I’m willing to stay a little bit longer because you met my price."
We obviously need to take this with a pinch of salt for now but you can't blame Ziggler for signing a deal like this. It's just a shame that we can probably forget about him getting a push of any sort because it very much sounds like he'll be an enhancement talent. He is, of course, potentially going to be in the main event of Fastlane so that could change but Ziggler's future isn't looking too bright now.