Dolph Ziggler becomes NXT Champion on 3/8 WWE NXT 2.0

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Originally published at Dolph Ziggler becomes NXT Champion on 3/8 WWE NXT 2.0

Dolph Ziggler captures the NXT Title.

In the main event of NXT Roadblock, Dolph Ziggler became the new NXT Champion. He bested Tommaso Ciampa and Bron Breakker with some assistance from Robert Roode.

As Breakker had Ciampa covered, Roode pulled the referee out of the ring. Ziggler was able to make his way over to Ciampa and soon after, Ziggler won the NXT Championship.

.@HEELZiggler is the NEWWWWW NXT Champion!!! #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/HwRqnLwl0C

— NXT Roadblock is LIVE on USA Network! (@WWENXT) March 9, 2022

The is the first time that Ziggler has held an NXT Championship. This title win brings Ziggler to a total of eight different titles held in WWE.

upNXT will be sharing their thoughts about the title change live on Twitch and their recap show is going to be up on the POST Wrestling site after their recording.

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Interesting……if they are putting the strap on him, I hope they take him off the main roster completely. There is no wrestler on the main roster who is more stale then this man, hopefully he can use this to change and freshen up his character.

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Nothing says developmental like giving the title to a 41-year-old who has been on the main roster for 16 years. I really wonder how much longer this show stays on network TV

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If it wasn’t clear by now who’s running NXT, now it should be.

I told people repeatedly that McMahon’s NXT would fail miserably cause his vision of what makes the next whatever was ridiculously outmoded and outdated. Sure enough, we get this last night. Oh, I already know what someone’s gonna say…

“But Bron didn’t lose, so he can still get the belt back!!!”

To which my reply would be…

“You silly little simp, that’s BESIDE THE POINT!!! BRON SHOULD NOT HAVE LOST TO ANYONE!!! THIS IS PRECISELY THE KIND OF STUPIDITY THAT SUNK…”

Sigh. Within a 72 hour stretch or just under it from the close of Revolution early Monday morning to the end of McMahonXT on Tuesday night, it tells you everything you need to know about not just the present for both companies but the future. AEW’s future whether folks want to admit this or not, really couldn’t be brighter right now. Craziest part is, they don’t even have what figures to be their formal feeder system up and running yet in ROH. Even with Dark and Dark Elevation, AEW’s set for the now and ‘down the line’ however that shakes out. They don’t have to rush Kenny Omega back, cause they don’t NEED TO. Their roster can handle the weight of his absence for an extended stretch.

Bron Brekker by all accounts, was a CAN’T MISS prospect that WWE predictably MISSED ON. Again, he had no business losing. His first defeat of any kind, should’ve come on Raw or SD AFTER HE RELINQUISHED THE NXT CHAMPIONSHIP. If it were me, his first loss wouldn’t have come until he was on SD. Kid Steiner losing the title, even under Triple Threat rules means he’s no longer the champ. Don’t proceed to insult my intelligence with WWE Logic, I want no part of it. A huge difference right now between the two companies, is that AEW doesn’t have folks eating losses they don’t need to. Even losses have a purpose. Punk lost twice in Chicago to bring him to where he landed at for Revolution coming out to his AFI stuff like this was ROH. Thunder Rosa took the loss on Sunday night to bring us to where we will likely end up next Wednesday night in Texas, with Rosa staring down her hated archnemesis with the title on the line in what figures to be a Steel Cage match to ensure none of Britt’s camp can or will intervene on her behalf.

Ziggler becoming champ of WWE’s developmental screams what it is with this company. Its future is in its past. Ziggler hadn’t been a World Champion in 9 years prior to last night. Aside from getting a WWE Championship match 3 years ago, Ziggler could only occupy breathing space with a World Champ either in line at catering or on their way to a plane. Ziggler beating Ciampa to become NXT Champ, oy vey. Hell, just the thought of a 41 year old as champ of their developmental is enough to make me laugh. It’s funny, but not ha ha funny.

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Is Dolph champion to elevate NXT? If that is the case, what’s that say about Bron’s ability to do so? And then you have Bron suppose to go to Raw and big a deal but couldn’t carry NXT in their eyes.

So does that mean Bron on Raw > Bron on NXT and Dolph from Raw helps NXT more than Bron on NXT. What a weird way to build up a rebrand and a new “star”. It’s almost an admission he can’t be a star unless on WWE’s flagship show. Which speaks more to how WWE views their own brand than the talent they need to cultivate into individual brands and stars.

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Developmental talent needs veterans to work with. That’s always been a model of NXT prior and post 2.0. Previous to Ziggler you had WWE or Indie Veterans like Samoa Joe, Balor, Roode, McIntyre, etc. as champion working with newer talent in NXT.

Even in its earliest years veterans like Cesaro would go to NXT and beat Sami Zayn.

I don’t see this as being massively different to that.

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None of them went backwards to do it. That is the difference. When we saw other talent go back to NXT on USA, it didn’t bring viewers. So not sure what the goal is here.

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I don’t disagree but those guys were all “fresh” talent to WWE. They were never called down from the main roster to win a title.

There’s also no reason for Breaker to lose the title so quickly and to Ziggler. They’re just clearly booking week to week and there is no long-term plan. Ziggler was jobbing in minutes to the Street Profits not that long ago

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Balor and Joe both went back “down” to NXT after being on the main roster and won championships while they were there. Beating guys like Adam Cole and Karrion Kross. And did draw some interest in NXT for a brief time period.

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t mind Ziggler coming in and winning the championship. He’s still a great worker and would have fit right into NXT pre 2.0 working with Balor, Cole, O’Reiley, etc. But I agree that I don’t have any faith in the booking to make the most of it or for Bron Breaker to come away from it feeling in any way elevated.

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True but it’s not like Joe or Balor were essentially jobbers on RAW at the same time that they were NXT champion. Ziggler is playing the exact same character on both shows.

Ziggler has meant nothing for years and having him go over the young guy you’re trying to build is beyond stupid.

They should have just fed Styles to Breaker instead of Waller, which was pointless.

Having Breaker go over Ziggler over Mania weekend will mean nothing. This whole thing would be like if XPac went down to OVW in 2002 and took the title off Brock.

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I think as always, people are overreacting to this and there is a lot of hyperbole going around, but with that said I would have preferred Ziggler not win the title right away.

I love the idea of these kids working with vets like Ziggler, that kind of thing is great for their development and quite frankly these are guys I dont want to see on the main roster anymore (at least for now). Where I have an issue, is that Ziggler really is treated like a mid card guy at best on the main roster, and he’s going from mid card to champ instantly. If were up to me, I’d send Ziggler there permanently and if I was going to put the title on him, I’d wait until he has been there for a little while first and ideally build him up a bit.

Whatever, it is what it is, I dont really care that much about NXT 2.0 anyways. Hopefully he helps guys like Bron develop and hopefully he’s not bouncing back and forth between rosters.