Whatever happened to?

[Navi]

You would have thought with all the injuries plaguing the WWE these days, they would make an attempt to use the full roster. Not only to stop their healthy guys from getting burned out, but to give the fans some fresh matches. There doesn't always have to be a storyline attached to each one. And that brings me to the point of this thread.

What's happened to Damien Sandow, Fandango and Los Matadores?

Sandow was on TV almost every week as Mizdow last year, and after the split with the Miz, he and Axle became the Mega Powers 2.0. After the Hogan debacle that came to an end, and Sandow has all but disappeared. Axle is still around, and my opinion is Sandow was the better of the two. The guy is great on the mic and pretty decent in the ring. Not heard of him suffering any injury, so just wondering where he's off too. At the recent house shows I've been at, he hasn't even been there either.

With Los Matadores, their time as a matadors was up. It was kind of lame gimmick to start out with, but they made it work for awhile with El Torito along side. I had heard the WWE tried to get Carilto back to repackage them as a threesome, but that didn't work out. Again like Sandow, Los Matadores have disappeared as well.

Fandango got the crowd Fandangoing and it was kind of fun when he came out. He wasn't my favourite, but again here's a guy that's not bad in the ring, and another one to add to the Land of the Lost.

It sort of boggles the mind that the WWE have good talent on the roster but can't seem to get anything going with them. Fans loved Sandow, and it's a waste for him to not be used. Los Matadores are needed in the tag division with the injuries to Kidd and Sin Cara, Fandango well I have no idea. A repackage might be in order as well.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

There is NO REASON WHATSOEVER to not have Sandow hamming it up as the Intellectual savior, being over, and being a glorified jobber. HE should be the perfect slump buster for guys like Neville and Ziggler. Its infuriating.


Same thing for Fandago. But less over.




With all the injuries, they are forced to just slaughter the credibility of everyone on the roster but the very trifle few, and its slowly killing their viewership numbers. People say jobber matches will lose ratings, but not having any stars kills them much more.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I'd like to see Damien Sandow get some air time....and still can't figure why he was dropped after his turn as Mizdow.

That said, it seems WWE has chosen to fill the gap left by guys like Seth Rollins, John Cena and Wade Barrett by giving more space to people coming up from NXT, people new to the company (AJ Styles & Kalisto as a single) and longer matches and segments for the women.

For better or worse, I suppose the company figures allocating time in those directions is preferable to trying to rebuild acts like Fandango & Sandow.

 

[L@RISANO]

I think that Sandow will get a push again soon enough. The Top Brass however, probably don't really have confidence in the Intellectual Saviour gimmick at this point and they are probably attempting to work out something else for him perhaps for Post-Mania.

 

[Piss Bucket]

Fandango's problem is a crap gimmick, and the Fandangoing thing isn't cool any more, not that it ever was to begin with IMO.

As for Sandow, he's not a bad wrestler, and has personality, he's just spent most of his career saddled with rubbish gimmicks, and as a result has failed to get as popular as he probably should be.

 

[CyberPunk]

I have no idea why they can't find something to do for Sandow. While half the roster struggles on mic, here's a man who is not only comfortable on mic, but also pretty entertaining. He is a decent enough wrestler as well. If nothing else, put him behind the commentary table. He'll be gold there, better than what JBL does at least. I find it flabbergasting.

As for Fandango and Los Matadores, I didn't have high hope for them, and it seems WWE doesn't have either.

 

[kadroan]

There is NO REASON WHATSOEVER to not have Sandow hamming it up as the Intellectual savior, being over, and being a glorified jobber. HE should be the perfect slump buster for guys like Neville and Ziggler. Its infuriating.


Same thing for Fandago. But less over.




With all the injuries, they are forced to just slaughter the credibility of everyone on the roster but the very trifle few, and its slowly killing their viewership numbers. People say jobber matches will lose ratings, but not having any stars kills them much more.

I wish they'd reunite the Rhodes Scholars. Tag division is getting kind of bland again. Cody's not doing anything.

 

[stonerfriendlykid]

Along with the 4 you listed, I feel they could be using Mark Henry and Jack Swagger a lot better, even if they aren't going to get a push they are both former world champions that could be built up a bit to help push the newer guys they want to push.

I feel like a lot more could be done also with Breeze and the Ascension.

 

[The Mattitude Era]

Mizdow was on the Royal Rumble pre-show rumble qualifying match and was still crazy over. Have no idea why they aren't doing anything with him.

I don't really buy the Fandango excuse of the limited gimmick. He was also pretty over at one point, and last time I recall seeing him on my screen (I think he did a face turn and dumped Rosa) the crowd loved it. There's no reason why he shouldn't be involved in stuff. Sure, the gimmick is ridiculous, but it's also fun and entertaining.

As for Los Matadors, they are solid workers. They don't do much for me, but again, when you have solid workers I don't see why you have them on the shelf for weeks to months on end. Especially for a tag team division who WWE is constantly trying to get rolling.

 

[midgensa]

All of these are very solid workers that should have a place on television regularly. It does not make sense at all that Sandow and Fandango are never around.

The Matadors obviously could spice up the weakness of the tag team scene.

I don't get it. Sandow was given a damn breifcase. They thought he had it. He got over ... and they still don't put him out there? It just does not make sense to me.

 

[ShinChan]

I am really a big fan of Damien Sandow. He is just so good at mic and is damn entertaining too. As someone suggested above, Why not remake Rhodes Scholars? WWE is really wasting awesome talents like Cody and Sandow by keeping these potential upper-midcarders as jobbers.

As for Los Matadores, as much as i can remember, they were scheduled to end this gimmick and debut in a new gimmick. No idea what happened to that program!

​

 

[TDFG]

I think the big problem is WWE has almost started to stockpile talent, there must be about 50-60 guys on the roster and then you've about 12-15 Divas as well, it used to be WWE would do some "spring cleaning" and a few stars would make way for some newer talent but that hasn't really happened for some time now.

If your not getting TV time when there is a few injuries and also more TV footage than ever, then it's not looking great.

 

[shalliin]

Actually add in NXT and Performance center and looking at likely over 100-120 potential wrestlers. During the early 2000's and the Wars, they were holding with 60-80 people signed to the company. A lot of them used mostly on house shows or 2nd tier Sat/Sun night programming, with only a core of 35-40 getting real air time on RAW or Smackdown. The problem now is different than then. Now there are too few stars and too many B level roster holders that they over use the ones they count as stars until they get injured and then struggle to fill the time and spots. Instead of doing the smart thing and trying to elevate others into air time, they push harder on the fewer remaining A level players. Look what's happened recently: Rollins went down, Cena was out, rushed back and now gone for longer time, Del Rio was brought back and now he seems to have been injured, there are reports Seamus is hurt. So they have the League, but 3 out of 4 should not be working due to injuries (Barrett still hurt and if no one's noticed hasn't actually been in a match for quite some time).
So current issue is too many people to try and fit on screen that they are mistakenly shoving the same 15-20 people in our face and there's a fan backlash and ratings drops because of it.
Count-Roman, Ambrose, Rusev, Seamus, Del Rio, Owens, Kalisto, New Day, Usos, Wyatt Family get most air time with Big Show, Miz, and Ryback getting next set, followed by every one else. Jericho's return and Styles jumping in are clear attempts to jump ratings. If it wasn't for the injuries and ratings issues, Styles would have been NXT bound, and how do you think that makes Samoan Joe feel? He makes the move and is shoved to NXT to learn WWE style, but AJ signs and is immediately on the main roster in a big storyline and hype focus while Joe's been in WWE a year and aside from his Rumble shocker last year, hasn't even been on a Raw or a Smackdown since.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

There is NO REASON WHATSOEVER to not have Sandow hamming it up as the Intellectual savior, being over, and being a glorified jobber. HE should be the perfect slump buster for guys like Neville and Ziggler. Its infuriating.


Same thing for Fandago. But less over.


With all the injuries, they are forced to just slaughter the credibility of everyone on the roster but the very trifle few, and its slowly killing their viewership numbers. People say jobber matches will lose ratings, but not having any stars kills them much more.

Exactly right NorCal. Sandow has always been over, WWE's use of him has been criminal. He'll never be a main eventer, and in hindsight giving him the MITB briefcase was a mistake, but he's a talented mid-carder who has a role to play. He'd be ideal as a glorified jobber as you say.

Or, I'd look at reforming Rhodes Scholars with Cody Rhodes once he drops the Stardust gimmick. They were a very good team, both very good in-ring performers and would be arguably more valuable as a team than on their own.