on the october 28, 2014, episode of "raw", ziggler and john cena shook hands together backstage, which the authority interpreted as a deal to plot against them. as a result, ziggler was put in a match against kane, which ziggler won. ziggler then joined team cena at survivor series. on the november 10 episode of "raw", ziggler was brutally attacked by the returning luke harper. the following week, harper was awarded a title match against ziggler, which harper won with assistance from the authority, ending ziggler's reign at 56 days. at survivor series, ziggler emerged as the sole survivor for a second time. ziggler contributed to rusev being counted out, then after all his teammates were eliminated, he pinned kane and luke harper. triple h twice prevented ziggler from pinning final opponent seth rollins, but the debuting sting provided an assist to help ziggler win the match, thus ousting the authority from power. at on december 14, ziggler defeated harper in a ladder match to win his fourth intercontinental championship. on the december 16 episode of "smackdown", ziggler finally defeated seth rollins in a singles match after failing numerous times before. three days later, "rolling stone" named ziggler as the 2014 wwe wrestler of the year. on the first "raw" of 2015 (dated january 5), the recently reinstated authority forced ziggler to defend his intercontinental championship against bad news barrett and he initially won. after barrett then attacked and injured ziggler's shoulder, kane declared the match as two-out-of-three falls, barrett proceeded to defeat ziggler for the title after kane distracted him. later that night, ziggler alongside ryback and erick rowan were fired by the authority.