ATH First Round match 1 - Omackeral vs Bounty Hunter

What a doozy of a question. I've flip flopped between two match-ups a few times here, one of which involved another inactive guy, but I'm going with this one because the question is looking for a feud, a good match and an aftermath pay-off rather than a one off match and that has me leaning towards this programme;


The similarities between these two is easy to see. Two blonde former world champions with a flair for the flamboyant, not to mention Superkicks, and a pair who can really get it done in the ring. No, they're not 6'3 nor are they 285lbs but they can go with the very best of them. Shawn Michaels is arguably the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots. He is guaranteed to have a stellar match with anyone, doubly so at WrestleMania. Dolph Ziggler is a man who could possibly have the same in him but we've never got to see him shine at a Mania. The closest we've seen is the night after WrestleMania when he cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase to become champion in what was one of the loudest pops in the last decade. See here;


It shows you that if you give him an actual programme or angle, people react. The ending of Survivor Series a couple of years ago had similar story, Dolph was the sole survivor in a match that included John Cena and Seth Rollins. The people again reacted to this crowning moment with great enthusiasm until he was overshadowed by yet another Authority angle and the arrival of Sting, neither of which you could blame him on.

Dolph has been in limbo for a while but people are always saying ''man, he should go to Japan or tear it up on the indies''. The reason for that is that we all know he can get it done in the ring. We know it. He knows it. His quasi shoot interviews are among the best you'll get but they're always confined to TalkingSmack or backstage exclusives on the Network, depriving the vast majority of his, quite frankly, believable and underrated mic work.

I feel a feud with Shawn would really light a fire under Ziggler and bring out the best in him. When all is said and done, you'd have a stellar match (hey it's H-B-Shizzle at Mania) and you'd have a re-invigorated DZ ready to finally step up full time and become a proper star rather than what they've given us.


So this coming January, they're having an extravaganza for the 25th Anniversary of RAW. Slated to appear are Hall of Fame legends The Undertaker, Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels. Not to be outdone by RAW, Shane McMahon is also inviting some special guests to his show, SmackDown Live the very next night. Shane-O is bringing in some past Rumble match winners in the form of 5 time WWE Champion Bret Hitman Hart serving as special guest GM. He's bringing in Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson' (via satellite...boo!) and since we'll be eminating from Charlotte, North Carolina on that date, who else but The Nature Boy Ric Flair.

Fast forward to January 23rd and we're only 5 days out from the Royal Rumble PPV. Renee Young is in the ring and introduces her very special guest. ''Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome, from Charlotte North Carolina... The Nature Boy Ric Flair''. WOOOOOO! The familiar tune of Naitch hits as his World Champion daughter escorts him onto the stage and embraces with him. From here Ric styles and profiles down the ramp on his own, soaking up the adulation. He motions to Renee to hold the ropes open for him, which she duly does, and in he gets. ''WOOOOOO!''. The crowd woo back. ''WOOOOOO!''. Again, NC obliges.
''Now you sugar'', he says to Renee. Renee does a meek one back and Flair demands a better one and gets it. Ric flirts and messes around for a bit but then he gets down to business. He talks about he and the Horsemen ran this town and how they were jet flyin, limousine riding, kiss stealing, wheeling dealing sons of guns. He talks about his classics with Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, with Harley Race and with Dusty Rhodes baybay! A huge Dusty chant rings out. He says from the moment he laced them up to the moment he hung them up, Old Space Mountain has had the ride of his life.

Renee shows clips of Flairs historic Rumble win from 1992 and she asks him which current SmackDown Live superstar he thinks could go all the way this Sunday. Ric mentions big bad Baron Corbin. He name checks The Artist Shinsuke Nakamura as one to watch out for but for him he says that Bobby Roode carries himself like a champion and that Bobby is his pick to win the Royal Rumble and go on to main event WrestleMania and it will be Glorious!
Suddenly, all we hear over the PA system is ''no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!''. The cameras pan to the ramp but there's nobody there. We finally catch sight of a disgruntled looking Dolph Ziggler in the bleachers. He's making his way down the steps. He looks really p*ssed off and is keeping his head down as he continues ''No. Not Bobby Roode, not Shinsuke Nakamura, not Baron Corbin, not anyone but Dolph Ziggler is winning the Royal Rumble and going to WrestleMania to get MY MOMENT!'' He gets into the ring. ''Ric, where's my moment?'' He continues, ''What has Dolph Ziggler ever done at WrestleMania?!? Huh?! Sure, I may have made the greatest ever cash in of a Money the Bank briefcase the world has ever seen the night AFTER WrestleMania but where's my WrestleMania moment. WHERE IS IT RIC, WHERE IS IT!?'' Ziggler's face is beet red at this point. Flair takes his shades off and begins speaking in a sombre tone. ''Listen, Kid, you've got all the potential in the world, I believe that... but what are you doing with it?! What have you being doing with it? I see you around and I know you're good. They know it (gesturing to the crowd). Daniel Bryan and Shane Mc Mahon know it. Hell, Vince knows it. But what do you do? Anytime you lose you whine and moan and moan and whine. It's always someone else's fault Ziggler isn't it? Never your own.''. Ziggler is beginning to get really worked up at this point. Flair continues, ''You complain on Twitter and on social media how you never get opportunites... take them dammit, thats what I did. I became the dirtiest player in the game and took took took and look what it did for me. I'm the greatest World Champion there's ever been. 17 times. Look at these, two Hall of Fame rings. Look at them! Take your opportunities!'' Ziggler, with his head lowered starts back ''You're right. You're absolutely right. Ric, I need to take my opportunites and what better way to do that than to go out and do what you did in 1992 and win the Royal Rumble and go on to WrestleMania!'' Flair , smiling, ''That's the spirit kid, go and win the thing... be the best damn show-off you can be!! WOOOO!!!'' Dolph Woo's back. Then Flair, but louder. Then Dolph but louder again. Dolph does the patented Flair strut and let's out a Woo. He then motions for Ric to do the same. Flair struts like only he can do and BAM... Superkick straight on the chin. Dolph leans over a fallen Flair and says ''I'll take more than an opportunity old man'' and locks in his sleeper hold. Flair passes out. Ziggler pries Ric's Hall of Fame rings from both his hands and stuffs them in his crotch, in a blatant show of disrespect. Tye Dillinger, Zack Ryder, Mojo Rawley and Breezango come out from the locker room but DZ hightails it back through the crowd with a scowl on his face.

Royal Rumble rolls around and the card is stacked. Our two championship matches are Brock Lesnar vs Finn Balor for the Universal Title and on the blue brand we have Jinder Mahal vs AJ Styles for the WWE Title. The field for the rumble match itself is unreal too. To name a few we have Rollins, Reigns, Ambrose, Strowman, Miz, Bray Wyatt, Samoa Joe, Orton, Owens, Zayn, Rusev, Corbin, Nakamura, Roode and, of course, Dolph Ziggler. To absolutely everyone’s surprise, entrant #20 is Shawn Michaels! The crowd are going wild and most of the competitors are shocked to see HBK in there. Entrant #28 is Elias and he is met with a Sweet Chin Music the second he enters which sends him straight back over the top rope. #29 is Zack Ryder and he suffers the exact same fate, but this time at the hands of Dolph Ziggler. #30 is on his way and it’s… Roman Reigns. The Shield now have a full complement of fighters and the rest of the ring know they’re in for a fight. Sure enough, The Hounds of Justice go through everyone in their path. Out goes Roode, out goes Corbin, out goes Nakamura. The Shield throw out Shawn Michaels and they throw out Dolph Ziggler, who gave a good account of himself entering at #9. We’re down to The Shield, Miz, Orton and Strowman. They break off into two trios. Shield vs the Rest. Out of nowhere, Orton and Miz start clubbing the Monster and the Shield waste no time in helping eject the big man. Strowman, who is none too pleased grabs Reigns out by the head and pulls him to the floor, eliminating him. Miz hightails it to the corner and tries to hide in plain sight. Orton is left to the Hounds now. They start to double team him. Ambrose holds Orton in place for the Kingslayer knee strike but the Viper moves and Seth smashes Dean. Ambrose loses it and launches himself at Seth and they both tumble over the top to the outside. It’s just Randy Orton and The Miz left . Orton stalks the Miz like a predator. Suddenly Curtis Axel, appears on the apron to distract Orton. He attempts to strike him but Orton avoids it and kicks Axel in the mid-section. He has him in position for a draping DDT off the middle rope. Miz gingerly gets up and starts to stalk Orton. Randy instinctively let’s go of Axel and charges at a terrified Miz. Miz ducks the short arm clothesline and Orton goes to bounce off the opposite side where a waiting Bo Dallas pulls down the top rope and Orton topples over. Miz is going to WrestleMania. The next night on RAW Miz has a massive celebration and tells everyone how he did it all himself (he didn't) and how he's gonna make this the Most Must-See WrestleMania of all time.


Tuesday rolls around and we're ready to go on Team Blue. Shane and Daniel Bryan are out in the ring and they're saying how disappointed they are that a RAW Superstar won the Royal Rumble match and will be headlining WrestleMania. They said that all is not lost though and that the Smackdown Stars that acquited themselves best in the Rumble match will have a chance to be entered into the Elimination Chamber for their chance to compete for the most prestigious title in WWE history at WrestleMania, the WWE Championship. Randy Orton is placed directly in as he was runner-up and let's face it, was screwed by The Miztourage. Jinder Mahal is owed a chance at redemption after losing his championship to AJ Styles. The best 8 SmackDown Live performers from the Royal Rumble match will go into a series of head-to-head qualifying matches to see who earns their spots. We have Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode vs Baron Corbin, Kevin Owens vs Big E and Dolph Ziggler vs Kofi Kingston.


Nakamura, Roode and Owens all come through their bouts and secure their places in the Chamber, along with Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal. Dolph Ziggler and Kofi are next up and using a roll with a handful of tights, DZ pulls off the win. Dolph gets on the microphone after the match and says that he's the man. He's the main event and he says that he's the one that's gonna steal the show and the headlines at WrestleMania. He reaches into his pants and takes out Ric Flair's HOF rings... ''Grab your opportunites, isn't that what you said Nature Boy?! Well look at me now, one week removed from your inspirational speech and I'm on my way to the big time... WOOOOO!''. He goes on, ''Hey Ric, why don't you cart your geriatric old ass down here so I can say thank you in person. C'mon Naitch, I really could do with another one of your rousing battle speeches before I go to the Elimination Chamber and on to WrestleMania. Awh WrestleMania, isn't that where it all ended for you oh so publically. What was it... ''I'm sorry, I love you''. Oh so emotional. You thought that was a showstealer? Really old man?! It was pathetic. From one washed up piece of garbage to another. Pathetic. At WrestleMania it's me that's gonna go steal the show an.....''

The familiar screech of Shawn Michaels 'Sexy Boy' theme hits as Corey Graves loses it saying ''I thought the Royal Rumble was a once off but The Heartbreak Kid is here in Philadelphia!''. Ziggler is livid but Shawn doesn't care. ''First of all BOYYYYY, you can't steal the show when I'm the one that stops it. Secondly, enjoy your time with Ric's rings because this is the closest you'll ever get to having one in your possesion again. And third of all...'' BAM SWEET CHIN MUSIC straight on the money. Ziggler is out. Shawn takes the rings back, waves to the crowd and heads backstage to give them to Charlotte Flair who thanks Shawn and says she'll return them to her father. They hug and go their seperate ways.


The next week sees Ziggler goading Charlotte. He's trying to get a reaction from her but she doesn't rise to it. She says her father is 10 times the man Dolph is and that's just a fact. She calls Ziggler wasted potential and says she's had more WrestleMania moments than he has in only a fraction of the time. This tips him over the edge and he stands over Charlotte menacingly. He's right up in her personal space and it's very uncomfortable viewing. He starts to run his fingers through her hair and says ''I can steal the show... but I can also steal Daddy's little girl.'' Charlotte slaps the taste out of his mouth.

A week on and Dolph is facing off against Tye Dillinger. Ziggler is Woo-ing and strutting in a clear attempt to wind up the Flairs. He defeats Tye with a Zig-Zag but straight away puts him in a figure four leg lock. He has it locked in tight and Tye is tapping like crazy. The announcers are really selling this sadistic side of Ziggler.


We're 6 days away from Elimination Chamber and we're at Monday Night Raw in Atlanta, Georgia where WWE are having a WCW appreciation night. Invited guests include Goldberg, Sting and The Four Horsemen. They're all massively over with the local crowd as this is Dubya See Dubya Country. Goldberg has a segment on Miz TV and ends up spearing the life out of Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas to everyone's delight. Sting is seeing hanging out with Finn Balor throughout the night and The Horsemen are reminsiscing about old feuds but also speaking about their daughters Charlotte, the present and Tessa Blanchard, the future. As the Horsemen backstage in the parking garage about to get into their limosine, Ric Flair gets an urgent call regarding his daughter. He tells the rest of them he's gotta go and as they head off he's attacked by a hooded figure. The man in the hoodie throws him into the garage door and begins to pummel him. We see that it's SmackDown Live's Dolph Ziggler! Ziggler has come to Raw to get to Flair. He bloodies the Hall of Famer up and makes his escape before anyone can get to him. There's dead air as the commentary team are too shocked to utter any words.


It's Sunday and it's Elimination Chamber time. Randy Orton vs Jinder Mahal vs Bobby Roode vs Kevin Owens vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Dolph Ziggler. It's a hard hitting affair as Nakamura Kinshasa's the life out of Jinder and eliminates him early. Roode, Orton, Nakamura and Owens are all in the mix while Ziggler is still in his pod. The three faces team up on KO and each hit them with their finishers. Glorious DDT, Kinshasa and and an RKO are enough to eliminate Owens. As he's pinned, the last pod containing Ziggler opens. He's in no rush to come out and stays in it. As the officials are helping Owens out of the Chamber a, camera man goes for a close up of Ziggler. He drops the camera and Superkicks Ziggler straight into the mush. The crowd are going nuts. He takes off his cap and reveals himself to be the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels as the audience goes spare. Shawn tosses Ziggler to the wolves and one Glorious DDT later, Dolph's WrestleMania dream is done.


The next night on RAW, Shawn Michaels opens the show. He says he is retired from wrestling and that he has no more matches left in him... but he does have a fight in him. He looks into the camera and simply says ''Dolph Ziggler. Shawn Michaels. WrestleMania. Show.... OFF''.


On Smackdown Live, a furious Ziggler says Shawn has made the biggest mistake of not just his career but his life. He says what he did to Ric Flair is going to be nothing compared to what he does to Michaels. ''Shawn, You cost me my dream you son of a bitch. You may have retired Ric Flair... but at WrestleMania I'm going to end you...permanently. ''



From here I'd let them have a really hard hitting NO DQ match with a bit of blood which would look great in Ziggler's hair. Not only is Shawn Mr WrestleMania but he can damn well pull out amazing street fights on the big stages, look at his bouts with HHH at SummerSlam and again vs Mr Mc Mahon at Mania 22. I'd have the match start out really hard hitting with weapons and nasty tactics but evolve into a really great wrestling bout and have the commentators sell the fact that they both want to show the world why they are what they say they are, among the best athletes the WWE has ever had. Have Graves say that he thinks he can see a bit of respect coming through in their exchanges. I'd have plenty of near falls and false finishes. For the finish, I'd have Ric Flair come out and inadvertantly cause a distraction to Shawn which allows Dolph the win off a Zig Zag. Flair would be crying as usual and Shawn would be disappointed while Dolph looks intense. Flair comes in and hugs Shawn and says that he's sorry and he loves him, in a throwback to his own retirement match. They hug it out. They both look at Ziggler. He's still got an angry face on him. Flair offers him a handshake. He takes it. Shawn offers him a handshake but Ziggler refuses. HBK offers it again and Ziggler again declines. Flair shouts at Dolph ''Be a man!''. Finally Dolph shakes his hand and pulls him in and they embrace. Shawn raises his hand and puts him over as the winner. SMASH!!! Dolph nails Shawn with his own version of Sweet Chin Music. He looks down at him and sadistically says ''SHOW STOPPED''. Flair is in bits as Ziggler makes his way to the back as the crowd go mental at him.



Not only do we have an interesting and dynamic programme spanning three PPVs but we also get a great Shawn Michaels Mania match which will draw on massively. From here Ziggler can set his sights on AJ Styles if he's still champion and that would be a match that would more than deliver on a PPV. The essential end result is that we essentially get a new re-born star with so much more worth than he's possibly ever had before. After that who knows.....

I find it interesting that you say ''Dolph Ziggler, really...bit late for him isn't it?'' and then go on to mention The Miz in the very same breath. Only a couple of years ago, Miz was the very definition of meh. He was trading wins with Wade Barrett on the WrestleMania Pre-show and had that really odd face turn. Here was a former World Champion who's career was in stall mode and never looked like getting out of second gear. Basically he was channel changing material and nobody really cared for him. Sound familiar? However, with the right booking, focus on a star's ability and presentation, a talented superstar can come back from limbo and have an absolute career renaissance -See Mike Mizanin.


Another problem you had with my scenario was the insertion of Shawn Michaels into the Royal Rumble. First of all, you've doe the exact same thing for his in ring return!!! Exact same. Anyway, I digress because the Rumble is one of those things were booking and storylines aren't necessary for a good debut/return/suprise. Anyone can show up and sometimes they do, even your suggested HBK opponent AJ Styles debuted at the Royal Rumble!


Let's see what other issues you have with the programme:

NOPE, Ziggler looks like a chump so far, runs from the dregs of SD after attacking an old man, beats Kofi Kingston by grabbing the tights, then gets put in his place by HBK before having the taste slapped from his mouth by Charlotte the next week... is this supposed to be building up Ziggler (who many don't think much of atm) for his biggest match ever?

Well let's see, he beat Kofi Kingston by grabbing the tights to take his spot in the Elimination Chamber, thereby depriving Kofi of an appearance in the structure which fans would love to see. Kofi is phenomenal in those type of matches. Fans and even fellow New Day members have said they'd love Kingston to win the big one. DZ costing him (and the fans) his spot in such a cheap way would put heat on him. The upsides are 1) Ziggler and Kofi can have a mini feud between now and Mania, which always delivers. 2) Kofi can slot back in with his New Day crew and move on 3) Ziggler in the Chamber is a great fit. The Charlotte scene is another way to show the viewer that Dolph is willing to stoop to any levels to get his name out there and seize opportunties. The fact it's Charlotte works because of his ongoing antagonising of Ric Flair. Nobody has ever disrespected her like that, she's an athlete, not a piece of meat and we all know Flair is very protective of her. It makes sense.


What else did you say:

This Ziggler storyline seems to be all about Flair not HBK. I get the idea behind it but just feel I got AJ to drag HBK out of retirement while HBK could have easily been played by someone else in your story. The non retired HHH for example. Instead HBK seems to go out of his way to once again make Ziggler look less than at elimination chamber in your story and even if you put Ziggler over at mania the fans will not be going into the bout with any expectations re Dolph
Speaking of the bout at Mania... Why does HBK ask for it? hasn't he already gotten retribution for Flair? hasn't he already screwed Ziggler out of what was motivating his current heel run?

First of all, HHH would be a no go. Hunter is always heel in these mega matches and that's how it should be. He's the tyrannical monster that held Daniel Bryan down, that beat Sting. The reason for HBK is that Michaels adores Flair. This is no secret. They had probably the most emotional match in history at WrestleMania 24 and even behind the scenes it was a massive deal to both men, which WWE even recognises. They gifted each other Rolex watches with personal inscriptions on them to mark the occasion.



Flair went into the HOF the night before this and this is intrinsically linked to the match they had too, hence the Hall of Fame rings being disresepected getting Shawn's back up. I would have Ziggler destroy/steal Flair's personalised Rolex for maximum effect too. That would insure that the Superkick in the Chamber doesn't even come close to getting retribution for the dastardly acts of the rings, the assaults, the rolex and the Charlotte situation. There's loads there and that's why Shawn wants to make him pay. It's quite believable that Shawn would come back to defend his mentor's legacy, one which he put a beautiful stamp on himself at Mania. I find it a lot more legitimate than him coming back because he's punked out by a jealous AJ Styles.


Lastly, you add

I would be a bit p*ssed if HBK did come out of retirement for one last Mania moment only for it to be a screwy unclean finish. I mean if you are going to put Ziggler over, why not at least let him look strong in the match and get a clean win?

You're p*ssed off? That's good! The story is doing what I want it to do. Ziggler is a heel. He doesn't need the clean win. However, you'll notice that Dolph didn't cause the screwy finish, Flair did. Ziggler merely took his opportunity which is a delightful bookend to the 'opportunity' promo he had with Ric Flair to kick this whole thing off. How many times have seen competitors hugging it out after a big Mania match. The heel shows grudging resepect. It's been done. No need for a feel good moment here, we can have that later on in a World Title match perhaps. Besides, Ziggler still gets over as a massive c*nt for ruining a potentially beautiful 'I love you/I respect you moment'. He moves on and Shawn does what he does best, has a barnstormer at WrestleMania despite not picking up the win. Fun fact , despite being Mr. WrestleMania Shawn has a record of 6-11. He's lost nearly twice as many as he's won. Of his 17 matches, only four have been in the main event. In other words, Michaels seamlessly fits in here without hurting anyone, he's well able to pull it off.


You picked AJ Styles and that's a great choice for a WrestleMania match, you'll get no complaints from me there. However, the feud isn't really a go-er for me. Firstly, AJ is one of the most beloved talents on the entire roster. The fans want to love him. Even when he was heel with Gallows and Anderson, the fans loved him. After that he was wildly cheered against Shane Mc Mahon and John Cena, to the point where the audience pretty much highjacked the show with their incessant chants of ''AJ Styles'' clap clap clap clap clap. The powers that be have gone all in on the Phenomenal One and I think he's gonna be the main man on SmackDown for the foreseeable future.


A programme with Shawn Michaels isn't gonna be the main event of WrestleMania in 2018. I'm sorry, but it's not. You talk about giving the rub to someone but Styles is above needing the rub at this point. Ziggler though, he sure could use it. Styles has had matches with Chris Jericho and Shane McMahon at WrestleMania thus far, it's time to put him in a World Title match on the Grandest Stage of Them All and your feud wouldn't do that for him.


Your end game doesn't even have a victor. You said it doesn't matter who wins. That to me is a massive oversight in this question. You said the match exists to get AJ over. AJ is already over, ridiculously so. He's probably the most over performer on SmackDown, if not the entire WWE.
For a one off Mania match between AJ Styles and Shawn Michaels, I like your idea. For a feud with no given winner or pay-off... in the words of AJ's own theme song nah I don't want none.