Sandow on moment he knew he wanted to leave WWE

[Squirrel Master]

The intellectual savior of the masses

[Mozenrath]

Jan 19, 2019 21:50:44 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Him not winning the Andre was absolutely stupid. There was just plain zero reason for him not to, especially given Big Show subsequently just lost to Roman then disappeared for most of the year.

It's not even like I hate that Big Show won it, since obviously it kinda ties into the spirit of the thing, and since if they're going to treat him like an odds-on favorite in these kinds of matches, he ought to win them on occasion, but it was still something Sandow would have probably milked for all it was worth.

[Deleted]

I only really saw one segment from his TNA run and it sucked, but I was a big Sandow fan during his WWE run. It was also during the Mizdow stuff that I became a Miz fan.

And even though he was nothing special in the ring, I predicted that he'd be a World Champ at some point. I was a bit off on that one.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Jan 19, 2019 23:19:24 GMT -5 Mister Pigwell said:

Jan 19, 2019 23:10:19 GMT -5 nate5054 said:

Why does his TNA run have anything to do with how misused he was in WWE? He was entertaining as hell in WWE (ok, that awful Macho Man impersonation aside).

Because now we see why he wasn't pushed.

We as internet fans often get stuck in the MAN WWE ARE IDIOTS THIS GUY IS OBVIOUSLY INCREDIBLE trap. We get up our own asses where we can't understand why a favorite can't get a huge push and wonder what management has against a guy.

Then stuff like the TNA run happens and we have to collectively eat crow and admit that those in power were 100% right all along. WWE did a bang up job hiding his weaknesses and accentuating his strengths. They did their job so well we kinda fell for thinking that he was being misused when in fact he was being used in the only way to really use him.

Bingo. There were a ton of people, plenty on this very board, who thought the guy was a future world champion and were disappointed as hell when his MITB cash in didn’t actually get him the title. Most of those same people now saying “I always knew he wasn’t that good”.

[thelonewolf527]

Jan 19, 2019 21:50:44 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Him not winning the Andre was absolutely stupid. There was just plain zero reason for him not to, especially given Big Show subsequently just lost to Roman then disappeared for most of the year.

That's why he won the battle royal. It made him look good, which made Roman look good when he beat him in the LMS match.

I still maintain that the obvious large wrestler needs to win battle royals from time to time to keep the illusion that they're the favorites. Just like Nia Jax at Evolution.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Here’s how bad his Liberace gimmick was, despite being a former wwe guy and receiving a major push when he arrived to tna, the Liberace bullshit happened and he was never called back, he then had to retire.

[Ganon83]

Miz is really good at getting people over.

Look at how long Riley was on the roster and how he still kept getting pops when he showed up on the main roster even when he had done nothing for years at that point. Same thing with Sandow.

Bryan would have gotten over eventually without Miz but Miz definitely helped kickstart the car for him

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Jan 19, 2019 23:25:16 GMT -5 Mister Pigwell said:

^There's still value to him I feel. He just needs a character to really shine.

A place like Chikara would be right up his alley if he was willing to try it out. Get a crazy comicbook character or something and just go for it.

I disagree, he was only successful because he had the wwe machine behind him along with a character created for him and promos written specifically for said character.

This hid his many negatives and accentuated the positives.

He got over because of the Damien Sandow character, but without it and needing to come up with stuff for himself? He’s rotten.

His wrestling style wouldn’t make it in Chikara. The f***er had matches with Eddie Edwards and Trevor Lee, and they sucked. There’s something wrong with you if you can’t have a good match with those two,

[Deleted]

He was awful in his tna run but I feel like he doesnt get enough credit for how over he was in wwe.

Sure, you take his TNA gimmick and put it in wwe and hed be released quickly but cena beating him on his cash in with one arm tied really destroyed any goodwill I had at the time. That really pissed me off.

[Deleted]

Jan 20, 2019 2:21:21 GMT -5 Ganon83 said:

Miz is really good at getting people over.

Look at how long Riley was on the roster and how he still kept getting pops when he showed up on the main roster even when he had done nothing for years at that point. Same thing with Sandow.

Bryan would have gotten over eventually without Miz but Miz definitely helped kickstart the car for him

He got people more interested in Bo and Axel as the Miztourage too, and Maryse was never this over in her first run.

[06vwgti]

I always liked the intellectual savior gimmick and it was getting over, but I wasn't a fan of WWE neutering the gimmick and making him AGGRESSIVE

[Deleted]

He was only ever good as the Intellectual Savior. Pink trunks. Purple knee pads. And robe. THAT could have taken him to the main event.

Don’t give me that black trunks, t-shirt wearing SRS Sandow. That killed his career. He was just another guy.

Mizdow got him over I admit... but it made no sense for an intellectual snob like Sandow to be doing “stunt double” and impersonation acts. That would be seen as the lowest form of art to somebody like him.

[Dub H]

Jan 20, 2019 18:19:44 GMT -5 06vwgti said:

I always liked the intellectual savior gimmick and it was getting over, but I wasn't a fan of WWE neutering the gimmick and making him AGGRESSIVE

At that time for some reason if you were to be a top heel you had to be SERIOUS AND AGGRESSIVE.

[Sparvid]

Jan 19, 2019 21:50:44 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Him not winning the Andre was absolutely stupid. There was just plain zero reason for him not to, especially given Big Show subsequently just lost to Roman then disappeared for most of the year.

And it was so stupid from a logical point of view. "Oh, me, The Miz and Big Show are the final three in a battle royal. Let's pick this moment to turn on Miz! What can ever go wrong with being alone in the ring with Big Show?"

Why not have Miz and Sandow eliminate Big Show together (or Sandow doing most of the work/distraction and Miz taking credit) and when Miz orders Sandow to just eliminate himself so that he can get the win, then he can refuse and attack Miz instead.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Jan 20, 2019 23:15:36 GMT -5 Sparvid said:

Jan 19, 2019 21:50:44 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Him not winning the Andre was absolutely stupid. There was just plain zero reason for him not to, especially given Big Show subsequently just lost to Roman then disappeared for most of the year.

And it was so stupid from a logical point of view. "Oh, me, The Miz and Big Show are the final three in a battle royal. Let's pick this moment to turn on Miz! What can ever go wrong with being alone in the ring with Big Show?"

Why not have Miz and Sandow eliminate Big Show together (or Sandow doing most of the work/distraction and Miz taking credit) and when Miz orders Sandow to just eliminate himself so that he can get the win, then he can refuse and attack Miz instead.

That seemed like such a no brainer ending. And then didn't he lose the blowoff to the Miz? On TV???

[avenger]

Jan 20, 2019 18:28:57 GMT -5 @negan said:

He was only ever good as the Intellectual Savior. Pink trunks. Purple knee pads. And robe. THAT could have taken him to the main event.

Don’t give me that black trunks, t-shirt wearing SRS Sandow. That killed his career. He was just another guy.

Mizdow got him over I admit... but it made no sense for an intellectual snob like Sandow to be doing “stunt double” and impersonation acts. That would be seen as the lowest form of art to somebody like him.

To me, Sandow always came across as an actor who could wrestle at a competent level. The whole "intellectual saviour of the masses" was a rip-off of Lanny Poffo's Genius, all the way down to the ring attire and the cartwheels.

In black trunks, he had to become his own character - and floundered.

Then, as Mizdow, he literally started off copying what Miz was doing - if Miz was attacked, Mizdow would sell it as well, which is what made it funny, and got it over. Sometimes he was over-elaborate, but he basically became a face version of the Miz.

Once the split happened, he stopped copying Miz, and had to do his own thing, until the feud ended, and he started doing new impressions leading to the Meta Powers gimmick.

Seems a rare example of the WWE knowing exactly what they had - a guy that could do other people's gimmicks, but lacked the originality to do something new - and utilised him perfectly.