Sandow is one of the talents I list as a genuine missed opportunity in WWE.
I always credit him with no matter the crap that was thrown at him by creative, he still managed to salvage something and make it entertaining.
For example Damien Mizdow was goofy crazy but he made it where it was genuinely entertaining and amusing and im not a big fan of WWE so called comedy booking but Sandow won me over.
Considering how over he was at that time, the bookers dropped the ball with the pay off to Mizdow, because the underlying current was that Sandow was actually intelligent, a solid worker and more than capable of being more than Miz's lacky and that Sandow was actually low key making Miz look like a fool.

They had a guy that looked good, was a competent wrestler, had a fantastic gift of the gab and had the audience in his hands as an entertainer and they just dropped him which was madness to me.
I see shades of Sandow in Drew Gulak today but like Sandow Gulak also is greatly undervalued by the bookers and does not get to showcase it much.

Sadly the magic in a bottle that Sandow had in WWE did not carry over into his future endeavours.
He went to TNA where he did a Liberace style gimmick that bombed and after a spot of independent acting he has found his way to the NWA where he still shows his charisma but the formula that made Sandow a hit with the audience is not there, most likely largely due to NWA not having a big audience anyway.

 

Short lived comedy act who hasn’t been relevant since. Was ok in the ring, and obviously had charisma, but was never going to be anything more than a midcarder.

 

Yeah, he was never a main event level guy.

 

Another guy who looked better than he was due to the WWE machine behind him and fans really liking midcard goofy heels.

His TNA run was so, so bad.

If Simon Diamond came around today you'd have fans demanding he be world champion too.

 

He was very good at the arrogant/elitist Genius gimmick, and he could work a WWE style match fine. I think the problem was they already knew Miz was the arrogant midcard chickenshit they were gonna run with, so they didn’t need two.

It was a specific gimmick he was great at getting over, and he floundered when given a different creative direction in Impact.

 

He was really good on the mic and played his character to perfection, WWE really fumbled the bag with him. His gimmick probably wasn’t main event credible but he definitely had the talent to evolve into something more appropriate for top level feuds. It was over for him the moment he failed his cash in. Sticking him in a random tag team with a very raw and still developing Cody didn’t help him either. Sandow was ready for a big run pretty much from debut. The Mizdow stuff showed his ability to get over and his comic timing, but it was a career killer, turned him into Santino Marella 2.0

If you can’t tell, i was a big fan haha.

 

Even though some talent get organically red hot with fans in the short term, I suppose what every wrestling company needs to ask themselves is the long-term question - what do we do with this guy? Can they carry a title or a major feud? Are we seeing an uptick on merch and ticket sales etc etc? And if the answer is no then I suppose it’s fair that they don’t run with him.

Fandango was another, got over with the theme. They rode the wave, but long term what can they do with a dancing wrestler?

And (cover your eyes, marks) Sami Zayn. Sure he was white hot, but main event WM? Put the strap on him? Hell no. What would he do after winning? No feuds make sense, nor is he able to lead them.

 

His genius gimmick he did very well. Mizdow he also did well, but that was mostly Mizz making him look good, as we saw during Sandows short time doing other impersonations.

 

Sandow was red hot as Mizdow, and before they turned him into a loser his Intellectual Savior gimmick could’ve been a great fit in the main event.

He was never someone they had any intention of making a star. His TNA run was a strikeout but doesn’t change the fact in WWE they didn’t ever really try with him and that was a miss for them. When someone gets as over as he did (legit a top 5 in last 10 years) and they give as lame of an ending/blow off to the story as they did, followed by doing nothing of note with him two weeks afterwards… it’s mind boggling they didn’t even really try.

 

He was alright, extremely overrated in my eyes but could've been so much more than a comedy jobber for Miz.

 

Sandow/Miz story was just a low card version of The Sami Zayn/Bloodline story. A comedy geek joining forces with a boss and finally turns on him because he is just being used. Difference is Sami worked with Reigns at the top of the card. Sandow got superhot but was ignored as lowcarder.

 

To be honest, I was always surprised they didn't put the briefcase on the line during Cody vs Sandow at Summerslam. I thought for sure that would have been added to Cody's face turn.

Im also surprised they didn't do Miz vs Mizdow at Wrestlemania 31, after their split during the Battle Royal. They could have easily threw a 5 or so minute match on that card instead of that long Rock/Ronda/Triple H./Stephanie segment.

 

Intellectual saviour gimmick was incredible. Could have been a world champ for sure even if just a transitional one.

 

Intellectual Savior and Mizdow were both great.

His worst moment was working the Liberace gimmick in Impact.

 

I thought everything he did in WWE was entertaining.

 

Now he's a manager in Corgan's NWA and does a pretty decent job

 

He was so good as Sandow. When he left WWE he started doing this weird cross dressing character and I hated it. He was best as the heel stuck up intellectual. It was a terrible career move for him to change his gimmick.