ziggler returned at the royal rumble on january 28, 2018, as the surprise #30 entrant in the men's royal rumble match. after eliminating goldust, however, ziggler was eliminated by finn bálor. after the february 6 episode of "smackdown", commissioner shane mcmahon announced on twitter that the winner of a match between ziggler and baron corbin the following week would be added to the wwe championship match to make it a fatal four-way at fastlane. before that match started, kevin owens and sami zayn attacked corbin in the backstage area and later went after ziggler to prevent either from being added. in response, shane scheduled owens to face corbin and zayn to face ziggler with both corbin and ziggler being added if they won their respective matches, while also threatening that if owens or zayn interfered in the other's match, that person would be removed from the title match. corbin and ziggler won their respective matches, thus making it a fatal five-way for the wwe championship at fastlane. over the following weeks, ziggler was attacked by owens during a match against zayn and interfered in several of his opponent's matches, including the newly added john cena for what would later be a six-pack challenge. on the pay-per-view, styles would retain his title by pinning kevin owens. ziggler took part in the andré the giant memorial battle royal at wrestlemania 34, but did not win the trophy.