During this past episode of "Smackdown Live," World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) talent Dolph Ziggler entered the ring as the newly crowned United States Champion after winning the belt in a grueling triple threat match at the "Clash of Champions" pay per view.
However, to everyone's surprise, instead of the usual "I told you so" promo that fans would hear from wrestlers who feel underappreciated, Ziggler did something that totally shocked the WWE universe.
He dropped the belt in the middle of the ring and left.
Ziggler, who has been portraying the bitter and extremely resentful character for quite some time now, has been telling everybody how he feels betrayed because the fans have turned their backs on him. This past Tuesday, it was Ziggler who turned his back to the WWE universe.
"You are not worthy of my presence...none of you are. You don't deserve me!" he exclaimed before dropping the belt and storming off.
While a good majority of WWE fans know that what happened was just a storyline — or a prelude to one — many don't know that there is actually a bit of reality in Ziggler's actions.
During Edge and Christian's Pod of Awesomeness, "The Showoff" revealed that his WWE contract is about to end and he is actually considering leaving the company for real, as he feels that he has been somewhat overlooked during the past few years.
"I have a very short amount of time left to figure out if I want to do that [re-sign] again or if there's something to reach for... It's a show business thing where I love it and in a very short time, I will have to decide if I need to go away and do my own thing or if I need to find a different role here," he said.
For fans who are very informed about the wrestling scene, especially in the far east, the recent development with Ziggler happens to sound very familiar to another wrestler who was underappreciated almost to the point of obscurity — New Japan Pro Wrestling's (NJPW) Tetsuya Naito.
Early in his career, Naito was considered a candidate to be one of the Japanese promotion's top stars. His buildup included being paired up with the extremely popular Hiroshi Tanahashi and the duo actually found moderate success as a tag team.
However, after the pairing, fans soon began to grow tired of Naito and started to turn their backs on the wrestler, viewing him as somebody who received opportunities simply by riding the coattails of his megastar partner. Soon Naito would find himself entering the ring with little to no crowd reaction at all.
This eventually led to Naito's decision to leave the promotion and start touring the world. He joined "Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre," a wrestling promotion based in Mexico where he would turn into the villainous character that he is today.
After his success in Mexico, Naito returned to Japan with his new attitude and improved game, surprising the NJPW fans. He went on to win the NJPW intercontinental championship, but cared little for the title. He showed no respect for the belt and took every opportunity to desecrate it in front of the fans.
This generated the reaction that he wanted. The fans then started taking him seriously, cheering on him despite his villain status. This series of events catapulted him into superstardom, leading to a title reign as the NJPW heavyweight champion and as a two-time G1 Climax winner.
Everything that happened to Naito mirrors what Ziggler is going through right now. The lack of appreciation and the feeling of resentment just might be the push he needs. He already made the first step by disrespecting his singles title just like Naito did. If walking away to figure out what would work for him turned Naito into a top star, it could also work for Ziggler.
