Sandow or Mizdow

[Wrestling Mind 300]

Damien Sandow the intellectual savior of the masses, the winner of the 2013 Smackdown mitb who then when on to unsuccessfully cash in against John Cena and was not able to recapture the level of momentum he once had. He then when on to start his impersonation gimmick ( which I thought was a punishment for something he did off screen) which included a great impersonation of Vince McMahon jobbing every week.

This would eventually end up with Damien Sandow becoming Damien Mizdow the stuntdouble of the miz. I thought the gimmick was stupid at first but Damien Mizdow was able to make it work as the gimmick was over with the crowd and as a result it lead to them winning the tag Team championships.

The Andre the giant Battle royal saw Mizdow stand up to the miz eliminating him starting the rivalry which could culminate at Extreme Rules.

The Sandow gimmick had world heavyweight champion written all over it with the way he carried himself combined with the promos he cut and his in ring work however, I did see Mizdow as a face comedy gimmick however I slowly see him climbing up the ranks with this gimmick given the reactions his been getting and challenging for the United and Intercontinental championships.

What your thoughts on Damien Sandow/Mizdow?

 

[hacksawrowdyhogan]

Sandow was becoming one of my favorite wrestlers. Most wrestling guys come off as dumb and speak with poorly chosen words. Damien was different, he spoke with ease and fluidity.

Guess it is true, cream rises to the top.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I enjoyed Sandow's "Intellectual Savior" bit and thought it ended too soon .....could it have been discontinued because it sounded too much like Bad News Barrett's routine?

At any rate, the path WWE management chose for Damien was unusual, to say the least. If he was doing penance for something, good for him for making the best of it and turning it into a plus.

However, for all of it, who knows how the powers-that-be really regard him? He is a good ring worker, he's got size and is apparently willing to do what it takes to succeed. The guy ought to tone up his body; he needs a bit of sculpting to his upper body and should reduce that gut somewhat........and take his old name back.

 

[Prince Vee]

I too started to like Damien Mizdow a lot in the past few months. He could've probably got lost like Curtis Axel and his bullshit Axelmania gimmick but instead he grabbed whatever the opportunity he got and climbed his way out of the jobber zone!

But I don't want him to stay as Mizdow forever! Instead he should make his enter as Damien Sandow at the Extreme Rules. Because Mizdow gimmick doesn't have a huge horizon it ends up as soon as his Mix feud ends..

Cheers!!

 

[The Brain]

I enjoyed Sandow's "Intellectual Savior" bit and thought it ended too soon

Agreed. That should have lasted longer. I don't know about world champion like someone mentioned but Sandow had a good mid card gimmick going and would have made a solid IC champ.

Mizdow has been played out for a while now. It was somewhat funny at first but I said around Survivor Series that I was already tired of it. Sandow finally turned against Miz at mania and immediately lost to him on Raw. They took forever to do the turn, couldn't they wait a couple weeks to give them a match on PPV? I'm afraid Miz is probably right. In a couple months nobody will care about Sandow anymore when he isn't working with Miz. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[Stan Hansen]

Sandow > Mizdow

I would much prefer the Sandow character to Mizdow. Though Sandow has made Mizdow work incredibly well and got over regardless.

He's a guy that may never make it to a main event level but he's a solid long term mid-card level talent that could carry a mid-card feud with just about anyone. He fits in tag team settings or on his own. A tag team between BNB and Sandow would work nicely at some point. Both characters fit well and can work. They can talk, too. They would help the tag division.

The Sandow gimmick was changed too soon and he needs to get back to it. He would be a good feud for a guy like Bryan with the IC title, though it will be harder for him to be a real heel in the near future due to how over he's been with the Mizdow gimmick.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

I don't know about pissing someone off backstage. I always saw Sandow's briefcase being a victim of the decision to unify the two world titles, and I believe that plan was in play when Cena returned from inhury to beat Del Rio. Sandow likely would have had a successful cash in had there been a secondary world title for him to win, but since the plan was for one world title, he wasn't seen as the guy for the whole company.

My guess is they didn't know what to do with him, he did the impressions gimmick once, someone (probably Vince) loved it and it stuck around. It's been well documented that Triple H has always been high on Sandow, probably by viture of both sharing a mentor in Killer Kowlaski. I think Sandow has a bright future in WWE, most likely in the mid card.

The Mizdow gimmick has a limited shelf life. Sooner or later Damien needs to stop being Miz. The two are probably going to lock horns at Extreme Rules, possibly with the stipulation that the loser has to give up The Miz gimmick. Most likely Miz loses, and we get a month of Miz coming out as a depressed Mike Mizanin to generic music and plain tights, before a final match between the two or some outcome where Mizdow has to give Miz back him gimmick.

The question is, where does the very over Sandow go from here? He needs a new gimmick, I don't think the intellectual savior is going to work as a babyface. Does he get generic new theme music and just be Sandow? Does he stay as a comedy act impersonating his opponents? How does Charlie Haas feel about this?

 

[wwetnafan2k15]

I don't know about pissing someone off backstage. I always saw Sandow's briefcase being a victim of the decision to unify the two world titles, and I believe that plan was in play when Cena returned from inhury to beat Del Rio. Sandow likely would have had a successful cash in had there been a secondary world title for him to win, but since the plan was for one world title, he wasn't seen as the guy for the whole company.

My guess is they didn't know what to do with him, he did the impressions gimmick once, someone (probably Vince) loved it and it stuck around. It's been well documented that Triple H has always been high on Sandow, probably by viture of both sharing a mentor in Killer Kowlaski. I think Sandow has a bright future in WWE, most likely in the mid card.

The Mizdow gimmick has a limited shelf life. Sooner or later Damien needs to stop being Miz. The two are probably going to lock horns at Extreme Rules, possibly with the stipulation that the loser has to give up The Miz gimmick. Most likely Miz loses, and we get a month of Miz coming out as a depressed Mike Mizanin to generic music and plain tights, before a final match between the two or some outcome where Mizdow has to give Miz back him gimmick.

The question is, where does the very over Sandow go from here? He needs a new gimmick, I don't think the intellectual savior is going to work as a babyface. Does he get generic new theme music and just be Sandow? Does he stay as a comedy act impersonating his opponents? How does Charlie Haas feel about this?

He started working as a babyface with the intellectual savior gimmick on Main Event, it seemed to work pretty well. https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=WL&v=P6HoTopSaMM

 

[FromGlasgow]

I definently think he's capable of getting to world title level, I also think he's been given crappy jobber type gimmicks and actually got each one of them over and only seems to keep improving.

 

[Navi]

The first time I saw Sandow live here in Toronto he was in his "Intellectual Saviour" phase. He came out to a chorus of boo's and proceeded to tell us that he was better than everyone there. He then went back behind the curtain and popped up on the tron. He said that when he came back out, he wanted a standing ovation, and we all had to bow down to him. Well that did it, when he came back through the curtain the boo's almost blew the roof off the building. It was absolutely hilarious and I've liked him ever since.

I think he's a great talent both in the ring and on the mic, and he entertains the crap out of me.

 

[SoulTrain4]

He's a great role player, very talented guy but Miz >>>> Sandow/Mizdow and it's not really even close.

I think dude is dead in the water right after this feud with Miz is over, it happened to Bryan and A-RY, being Miz's protege guarantees you will get over as a babyface at least long enough to kick his ass and then it's a toss up after that.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I liked him better in the intellectual gimmick than as Mizdow. The Mizdow stuff was funny, but his best work was in his heel run as the intellectual character and that can still work as a face if he only mocks heels. Sandow never recovered from his failed Money In The Bank cash-in attempt and the impressions gimmick did him absolutely no favors up until the Mizdow angle started. They had the potential for a nice Wrestlemania moment for Mizdow had they gone about the Andre Battle Royal differently. Miz and Mizdow team up to eliminate Big Show, then Mizdow stands up to Miz to win the thing. This sets up the possibility for an Extreme Rules match when a promo argument the next night on Raw would follow Mizdow's Wrestlemania victory. Mizdow winning at Extreme Rules would get him the momentum he would need to re-enter the intellectual gimmick as a threat to one of the midcard titles. Without a second World Championship being around in today's WWE though, he'll never make it past the midcard. I like Mizdow/Sandow, but due to the current title structure and how he has been booked, things are not looking so great right now. He really needs that Extreme Rules match with Miz or else he might get lost in the shuffle this summer.

 

[SoulTrain4]

There's no returning to the intellectual gimmick. You can't go from genius to goof back to genius. He is going to have to find something else to do.