Monday, September 10, 2012

Allow me to beg your indulgence...

For my first blog post I was mulling over who to write about, offer an opinion of and discuss in general. It would be easy to pick the likes of Punk, Cena, Lesnar etc. The A-listers as it were. Also the likes of Bryan, Orton and Ziggler (who I have championed for a very long time) would have proved to be a nice first entry but I have decided to go with Damien Sandow, arguably the surprise package of new additions to WWE programming in recent times.

Those au fait with Damien Sandow will know he has been around the block in WWE off and on for nearly a decade. His highest point in his initial run was part of a tag team under the name Idol Stevens, his tag partner was KC James (anyone remember him? Nah didn't think so. The guy lost to Braden Walker, kinda puts it into perspective) and their manager was Michelle McCool. As a team they were dubbed "The Teacher's Pets". Whilst showing some promising signs the team never got off the ground and they were sent back to developmental . Having bounced around in developmental for a few more years to some success (winning the OVW Heavyweight Title) he eventually asked for and was granted his release in 2008.

At this time he went around the indies and eventually ended up back in OVW, however at that time OVW was no longer a farming ground for WWE. To little fan fare he was re-signed by WWE in the summer of 2010 and was sent to developmental in FCW. This would be the first incarnation of Damien Sandow. Sandow debuted as a militant, think la Resistance and Muhammed Hassan, only without the controversy. He formed a tag team with Titus O'Neill and they quickly won the FCW tag team titles. When they lost the titles Sandow turned on O'Neill. He floated about again before adopting the gimmick that we know today of the intellectual saviour of the unwashed masses. With the new gimmick came with it a centre piece in FCW tapings. He won the FCW 15 championship from Tyler Black and went on to have fantastic matches with Black, Dean Ambrose and Richie Steamboat. Having put on consistently good matches and finally having a strong enough gimmick it was only a matter of time before he was called up to the main roster.

His call up took place in April of this year and since then he has shared ring time with the likes of Randy Orton, Sheamus, taking part in the Money in the Bank match and sharing ring time with DX in the opening segment of Raw 1,000. To have this much success in such a short time on the main roster is an indication of how much is thought of the character and the man portraying him. But we have seen this before. Take Alberto Del Rio. Similar hype surrounded him with the vignettes. He debuted with a big win over Rey Mysterio and in under a year had won the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank and his first WWE title but has now arguably plateaued all the while staying in the title picture.

Sandow, like many before him is at the delicate stage with his status on the card, should they pull the trigger and send him upwards and he fails he'll be back in the undercard before we know it, should he succeed we have a heel who can carry a match and has a stronger character than a rich chap talking about destiny. If they leave it too long the likelihood is he'll bounce around meaningless fued after fued, something Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler have gone through after the trigger wasn't pulled on their ascencion up the card.

As for me, the character is fantastic, parrallels have been drawn to Triple H's debut gimmick Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the Greenwich snob. Arguably Sandow is far better on the mic at this stage of his career than H was at the time of the Helmsley gimmick. This is where Sandow's talent really lies, in his mic skills. When he starts speaking I genuinely want to listen to every word he says, that is a strong trait to have in a character. Some have questioned if he is ready as a worker, those who have questions watch some of his FCW matches on youtube, particularily the Ambrose matches. But as of right now if the title went on the best talker Sandow would be a shoe in.

Recently he has had matches against Sheamus, the World champion and Randy Orton. He has scarpered in both matches resulting in his opponent picking up count out wins. His reason for bailing against Sheamus was he was unprepared for Sheamus as it was a spur of the moment match and he needs to scout his opponents. This adds dimension to the straight forward heel character the likes of Del Rio tuned into. Along with when DX jumped he proclaimed that he was a "martyr", he has shown that his character has development possibilities. All these subtleties add more realism and scope going forward with the character.

As for now, he is flirting with the main event players on Smackdown and doing well, hopefully this continues. Sandow may be one to look out for in the Royal Rumble. The main event will be packed anyway with the likes of the Rock, Punk, Cena, Lesnar and Taker. So the option of giving someone a push up the card for the World title is an option. Sandow, to me is a logical choice. Particularily if Sheamus or Orton are the champ heading into Rumble. So I'm going out on a limb now, for me the 2013 Rumble winner will be the intellectual saviour of the unwashed masses.

Oh and you're welcome.

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