Dolph Ziggler

Nick Nemeth, known by his ring name Dolph Ziggler is a wrestler currently^[when?] working for WWE's RAW Brand. Known best for having a confident in-ring persona...and (to his chagrin) for being the guy that reminds a lot of longtime wrestling fans of a young Curt Hennig.

---

Dolph Ziggler provides examples of the following tropes:

• Aborted Arc: Didn't invoke his rematch clause for the US title, as he the very next week became number one contender for the WWE Championship.
• Alliterative Name: His real name, Nick Nemeth.
• Arch Enemy: He and Kofi Kingston have feuded over the mid card titles almost nonstop. He also feuded with Edge for a while.
  • Zack Ryder has infamously become this, first through several non-title victories over Ziggler spurring a consistent quest for the US Championship, then through use of Twitter and Ryder's Z! True Long Island Story YouTube show, where the heat is turned Up to Eleven between them through Ziggler's villainy.
• Attention Whore: "I'm here to show the world!"
• Awesome but Impractical: The Zig Zag is a jumping reverse bulldog that looks kind of cool and has a quick, snappy motion to it a bit reminiscent of moves like the RKO. Unfortunately, if the opponent can find something sturdy to hold onto - like, say, a ring rope - Ziggler will lose his grip and usually land on the back of his skull.
  • Partially subverted since he recently modified it, so it resembles a more lariat-esque takedown and keeps him from falling directly on his head. Can still be countered by grabbing onto something, though.
• Berserk Button: Inside the ring, he doesn't like failure and will tend to get frustrated. In Real Life...let's just say that he's getting a little bit fed up with the Mr. Perfect comparisons.
  • Zack Ryder's existence.
• Blond Guys Are Evil
• Boring but Practical: His sleeper hold submission. Even as far as submissions go, it's one of the oldest and simplest in the book. But among its benefits is that it's easily executed and can be used on a wider range of opponents.
• Breakup Breakout: The only one amongst the Spirit Squad to find success in WWE as a singles competitor, even managing to become a Triple Crown Champion somewhere along the way.
• Canon Discontinuity: You mean this guy used to be Chavo "Kerwin White" Guerrero's caddy? And they don't bring up his time in the Spirit Squad either - even though he technically won a title (WWE Tag Team Championship) during that stint.
• Card-Carrying Villain: One of the few active wrestlers to use 'insider' jargon in the context of his gimmick. If you look at a lot of his ring costumes nowadays, you'll notice the word Heel (usually accompanied by a Hashtag) printed somewhere. Hell, even his username on Twitter had "HEEL" (yes, in all caps like that) in it at one point - just in case you still didn't know what side of the fence he stood on.
• Catch Phrase: "Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler." (Lasted until he used "I Am Perfection" for the first time.)
  • "Hashtag, #Heel!"
  • Not long after his return to RAW, he would yell "Follow that!" after winning a match. It didn't really stick, but recently revisited a bit for his showoff gimmick.
  • (Recently): "I'm not a showoff..."
    • Alternately: "Yes. I am a showoff."
  • "How damn good am I!?"
  • "...No offense."
  • "Later, marks!"
  • (Usually after a Badass Boast) "The only difference is, I back it up every night."
• Compressed Hair: Dolph Ziggler's hair at the beginning of matches and at the end of matches are two very different things.
• Deadpan Snarker: On NXT season 4. During challenges and matches he's not involved in (as an active wrestler at least), he has a tendency to grab a mic and mock whatever is going on.
  • Has this in spades on the online show he now hosts.
• Discontinuity Nod: After he was Kayfabe fired in the 600th episode of WWE Smackdown, Ziggler makes a hilarious Leaning on the Fourth Wall post on his Twitter account which, among other things, mentions how he "used to caddy around and actually went through a rigorous gymnastics and cheerleader training".
• Dye Hard: See below.
• Expy: Of Mr. Perfect, primarily due to his former theme song, the frizzy blond hair and the agile technician wrestling style. Oh, if only he could do the Perfect Plex.
  • Some say of Billy Gunn. He's got the hair and the moveset.
  • His slicked back bleach blond hair also makes him look a little like a younger Ric Flair.
    • Now he's added in doing the Flair Strut.
  • His showoff gimmick, "Follow that!" catchprase shout, and Mrs. Robinson manager contains shades of Shawn Michaels.
    • He also has used the Superkick and the kip-up on multiple occasions.
• The Fighting Narcissist: "I am perfection!"
• Finishing Move: The Zig Zag, which has nothing to do with tropes. It's a jumping reverse bulldog...lariat takedown...thing.
  • Alternatively, he'll go for a sleeper hold.
• Handsome Lech: His Ask The Heel segments use the same logo as Brazzers. Brazzers is a porn site.
• Hidden Depths: Fluent in American Sign Language.
• Hot-Blooded: Which really bites him in the ass in matches, his Fatal Flaw is the ease he gets frustrated by failure.
  • Holy crap, when his NXT Rookie Byron Saxton got eliminated, Dolph was channeling Ric Flair levels of hot blooded craziness.
• Important Haircut: Right after the start of his first run on WWE Monday Night Raw.
  • And again after his return to Raw.
• Incoming Ham: Especially since his last US Title run. His theme song started as an easily recognizable, cocky Villain Song. Now it's much louder and much more bombastic.
  • The fact that he's announced by the extremely shrill voice of Vickie Guerrero doesn't help, either.
• Informed Ability: Every time he locks in his sleeper hold, Michael Cole will reference how so many Superstars have gone down to it. Nearly every time, the target's broken out of the hold, and he hasn't actually won a match with it in months.
• Large Ham: Has slowly but surely becoming one since his move to RAW.
• Level Grinding: From Kerwin White's caddy to Spirit Squad tag team champion to giving Batista a half-decent challenge in his debut as Dolph Ziggler to facing down Rey Mysterio and John Morrison for the Intercontinental Championship on several occasions to being a multi-time Intercontnetnal/United States champ and 15-minute awarded World Champion with stellar matches against the likes of Daniel Bryan and Edge under his belt to stealing the show every week, practically making a storyline with Zack Ryder halfway via the Internet, wrestling double duty on consecutive pay-per-views, and even pinning Randy Orton in the middle of the ring, yeah, his career has basically been one big level grind.
• Likes Older Women - Zigzagged. Mainly associated with Vickie Guerrero, but has also been seen (or rather, caught) with the young, beautiful Kaitlyn.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Has been sporting some pretty Bret Hart-esque attire as of late.
• Rearrange the Song: Twice. The first time, right around when Ziggler won his most recent US Championship, the song was re-recorded by a favorite band of Jim Johnston's ^[1] and made more aggressive. Recently, the song was rearranged again and the lyrics changed, ostensibly to fit Ziggler's "showoff" gimmick more, but there are some who believed that the "I Am Perfection" lyrics were at fault for drawing so many Mr. Perfect comparisons, and thus Johnston (and perhaps Ziggler himself) just wanted a song that didn't have the line as many times.
• Screaming Warrior
• Shout-Out: In episode 56 of Z! True Long Island Story, Dolph does a segment while the song "#HEEL" (which was written in his honor) plays in the background.
• Small Name, Big Ego: The name may not be all that small, but his ego is proportionally MASSIVE.
• A Taste of Power / Yank the Dog's Chain: Enjoyed an approximately fifteen-minute reign as the World Champion when Edge was stripped of the title and then "fired", then re-hired and put in a title match against Ziggler, where he won the title back. This reign is counted (as well as Edge winning it back counting as a separate title reign) and actually puts him in rare company as one of WWE's 22 Triple Crown Champions.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Wasn't very keen on having Jack Swagger around at first, seeming to think the latter would steal his thunder. But as Swagger has helped him win a couple of matches, he's warmed to him...a bit.
• Theatrics of Pain: Maybe the best that WWE has at selling other wrestler's offense, which some people think has been to his detriment. He's been mostly a jobber to the stars recently, and some think that he's kept in that role simply because he makes getting his ass kicked entertaining for anybody watching.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He, Vickie, and Jack Swagger have...a strange relationship. More specifically, Vickie is technically Dolph's ex, while Swagger is something of a rival and the three all have very strong personalities, which should cause them to clash much more often than they do.
• Weak but Skilled: Is a smaller wrestler that relies a lot more on his speed and legit talent then throwing people around.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy
• Wrestling Family: Has a younger brother, Ryan, in FCW.

1. ↑ No less than three superstars currently use themes recorded by Downstait, who have also recorded a few other versions that Johnston HASN'T used