Damien Sandow reflects on his WWE career.
Former Mr. Money In The Bank who is also formerly known as "The Intellectual Savior Of The Masses" Damien Sandow went through a number of character changes during his WWE career but in 2014 Shadow began to mock characters and people from all walks of life from LeBron James to Hugh Jackman but the one person who fans loved to see Sandow imitate was "The A-Lister" The Miz. Sandow would go on to copy The Miz's every move and even changed his name to Damien "Mizdow". Sandow sees that portion of his career as a pivotal piece to his current success and during an interview with SportsKeeda he talked about how that constant imitation helped him in his acting career.
"It was funny, I was almost the real actor-wrestler and I went through so many roles without being repackaged. It was just a sort of natural evolution or mental breakdown on television. I think wrestling is some of the best preparation you'll ever find. We have one take to do things. You're in front of a live crowd, so there's a Shakespearean or theatrical element to it." He explained. "You're having to think on your feet, you're having to adapt, and when I left wrestling, I said, 'Look, if I'm going to go into this new world, I have no aspirations of being Anthony Hopkins overnight. I want to learn everything. I want to learn the structure of the theatre, I want to learn everything.' Acting started in theatre, so I studied Shakespearean acting, then I progressed and worked my way up. I intellectualized it a lot, and then once I intellectualized everything I want to. I just let it all go and was completely right-brained, which I believe is the creative side, but you don't forget what you've learned. It's like wrestling - you learn the moves and it's very much a science, then when the moves are down, it becomes an art, and that's when it becomes fun."
There were a number of individuals who Sandow had the chance to work with at house shows and at TV tapings. He was asked about some of his favorite opponents and he name-dropped The Usos, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Tyrus, Big Show and Mark Henry as some of his favorites.
"Him [Tyrus] and I were like the best unsung, unheard of feud I think I've ever had. Obviously Dolph is great in the ring, The Usos are great, the Miz was amazing to work with, but I really enjoyed working with Big Show. We never got to do a lot of knockdown, dragout matches, but we did a lot of entertaining stuff, segments, especially on house shows. Mark Henry is another one, just having fun but they were just good guys." He said.
In 2013 Damien Sandow shocked the WWE Universe and won the Money In The Bank contract. That moment would go on to be overshadowed as Sandow failed to cash in the briefcase on the then-World Heavyweight Champion John Cena. Sandow gave a recount of why he thinks the company never went all in with him and if he thinks things would've been different in his career had he become World Heavyweight Champion.
"It would have been different, but when I was told, 'Look, this is what's going to happen...' - look, this goes for life, you have one of two choices when faced with a circumstance that you don't particularly like. You can say, 'Oh, that really sucks,' and you can whine about it or you can say, 'Can I really do anything to fix this circumstance? No, but what I can do is use this circumstance to my advantage.' I'm like, 'Alright, I've got to put in the performance of my life. I had to cut the promo of my life and wrestle the best match I could'. They gave us three segments so, at that point in my life, shame on me if I couldn't deliver. I think I did and to me it was like, after the fact, I don't think they had any plans of what to do with me. I could only do what was written for me to the best of my ability and I felt like I'd done that. Then it was, 'Okay, you're going to be dressing up as someone new every week,' then, 'You're going to be with Miz'. 'You're going to be with Miz for a second week,' and then I started wrestling the invisible man. Without dropping the case, there would not have been a Mizdow. Would it have been kind of cool to win the belt? Yes, but at the end of the day, I'm remembered for doing something no-one else has done. They haven't had the temerity to try it on TV or do it. I was just in a place where I said, 'I'm going to go for it', so there's always an up side to everything." Sandow detailed.
To read the full interview with Damien Sandow, click here. On a related note, Sandow's former running-mate The Miz is in the midst of trying to win SmackDown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon over and for more on that, click here.
