 At the SmackDown tapings on January 4, Ziggler lost the Intercontinental Championship to Kingston after a five-month reign at 160 days. That same night, Ziggler won a four-way match against Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, and The Big Show to become the number one contender to the World Heavyweight Championship. Ziggler received his match for the championship at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view against Edge, but was unsuccessful. On February 4, Ziggler's girlfriend Vickie Guerrero, who was the acting General Manager of SmackDown, announced that she had banned the spear – Edge's finishing move – and if Edge used it during the rematch between the two, Ziggler would be automatically awarded the championship. In the interim, Ziggler's second rookie, Byron Saxton, was also voted off of NXT. On the February 11 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler received a rematch for the championship, only to lose after being speared. On the February 14 episode of Raw, Guerrero announced that Edge had lost the championship due to using the spear and that Ziggler would be crowned the new champion. On SmackDown on February 18, Guerrero fired Edge, claiming that he had attacked SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long several weeks prior, and awarded Ziggler the championship during a coronation ceremony later that night. Long returned during the ceremony however, and Guerrero revealed Ziggler as the attacker after being accused of orchestrating the attack by Long. Long rehired Edge and gave him his rematch, in which Edge regained the championship. Ziggler's first World Championship reign lasted only 11 minutes and 23 seconds. After the match, Long fired Ziggler in storyline.
