Assorted Topics

Dolph Ziggler beat Miz for the Intercontinental Championship at Summerslam. That's great. When Ziggler and Barrett had that great match for the title on Raw, I had a feeling Ziggler would eventually win it. Barrett suffered an injury. Miz ended up getting it. And his title reign did not last that long. I would have had Miz retain at Summerslam in some cheap fashion and have Dolph win it at Night of Champions. I can't think of any title changes that might happen at that PPV that will give you that "feel good" moment. Fans like Dolph Ziggler and wanted him to get some gold. Extending the journey to that title win for another month would not have been that bad. Ziggler still would have gotten the title and it might have been a great moment for Night of Champions. It isn't like Summerslam lacked moments and title changes.

Speaking of title changes, Paige regained the Diva's Championship. That was quick. Birthday gift? Or was there more to it than that? The title was on AJ Lee. She dropped it to Paige. Paige dropped it back to AJ Lee. AJ Lee dropped it back to Paige. That is peculiar booking. It is not unusual for a centerpiece to win consecutive title reigns like that, but she's usually trading it with different women and not the same woman over a matter of months. I know I compared this feud to Orton/Christian, which featured Christian regaining the title before dropping it back to Orton, but I didn't really feel they needed to drop it back to Paige, especially so soon.

Is there more to it? There are rumors that AJ Lee will be leaving the WWE, possibly for good this time. Jim Ross predicted that Paige would regain the title at Summerslam and AJ would distance herself from the WWE. That is a bold prediction to make. He didn't make it sound like it would definitely happen, but half his prediction came through. If it looks like AJ really is leaving, I'll talk about it more then.

How about Jack Swagger? That wasn't a true flag match he had with Rusev at Summerslam. That was disappointing. The way they had the match, I can agree with Rusev winning. And the feud is now over. How is the WWE handling Swagger after this feud? He was obviously connecting well with the fans during that feud. It was going to be interesting to see what they did with him after. They took Zeb away from him. He seems to be getting a losing streak. He does seem to be entering a feud with Bo Dallas.

Burial? Are they slowly deflating him? Are they taking the training wheels off to see how Swagger can do on his own? Is it a lack of good opponents to develop for him? I don't see this as a true burial or anything bad for him. Some guys go on losing streaks for months that eventually turn into some kind of storyline. After his loss on Raw this week, it was obvious Swagger was already in a storyline and feud. And that is good for him. You have some former World Champions that just seem to float around aimlessly. Sheamus, despite having a title, seems lost in the shuffle. Swagger has an actual story going for him. I see Bo Dallas as a future lower-midcarder, unless they do something different with him, but he is still relevant right now. And this is a feud I can picture Swagger winning. That is, if they are serious about giving him a fair opportunity. If Swagger continues to connect well with the fans, they might start pushing him up again. I am not going to complain about what they are doing with Swagger now.

TNA is switching Impact Wrestling to Wednesdays. That kind of ruins my predictions for how their ratings will do this year. It is actually a smart move. No NFL on Wednesdays. If the WWE should move Smackdown to Thursdays, which would have killed TNA, TNA won't end up having to deal with that. I don't think their ratings will jump all the way to a 2.0, but they will avoid competition that would have hurt their ratings a lot.