So, Sandow “new” gimmick is mimicking whoever is near him,

not necessarily The Miz.Will this work will for him just like the

Mizdow character did, or will it be a flop ?

The Motive Behind It :

The Motive behind (basically) keeping the mimicking gimmick

is probably “why change it if it’s working “. I mean, the surprising

success the stunt double character has is undeniable. At a point,

Mizdow was at least one of the 3 most over superstars in WWE.

Everybody was asking for a match between him and The Miz at

‘Mania (which never took place, but that’s another story). So,

no need to change that, it’s perfectly working , Right ?

Why Only Now ?

Before getting into the real subject, I would like to throw a small

question out there : Why didn’t you follow the same principle with

his original character ? Sandow was killing it as The Intellectual

Savior of The Masses. He was something fresh and innovative,

you don’t see that a lot. He destroyed whomever he had a “mic

battle” with. His promos were some of the best in the company .

Not that he lost his mic skills now but, that character was just

perfect for him to showcase them. In simple words, everybody

couldn’t be hoping for the return of this character for no reason.

Staleness Awaits :

One of the main drawbacks of this character is that it is highly

prone to staleness. It’s an action gimmick (this term probably

never existed) rather than a “real” gimmick i.e. it’s defined by

what the man does rather than who the man is. I believe such

gimmicks are more prone to staleness than others. They have

a higher level of repetitiveness and a lower level of substance.

Meaning that whoever plays such gimmick doesn’t interact with

the outer world in a proper way; his actions do not change as a

response to external factor because there is nothing behind

them, and because they are, well, who he is.

But, It Worked With The Miz

First of all, this is not as much of an action gimmick as his current

one; he was The Miz stunt double, he did what he did according to

that, and then some. Other than that, not everybody is The Miz.

The A-Lister work during that angle is very underrated. The Miz is

extremely good at getting the whoever he is working with over. The

popularity of Alex Riley, Bryan and Mizdow grew exponentially while

they were working with him, and that can’t be a fluke. Unfortunately,

the Marine 4 star (or co-star) doesn’t get enough credit for that.

Will It Work ?

I dare not say that it won’t after everything Sandow made work . He

is a world-class entertainer and the fans really like him. All I can say

is : Don’t take his success as Mizdow as a guarantee to this gimmick

success, this is anything but a safe move. Another concern is while

the guy is (at least) an Intercontenintal champion’s material, he will

never reach such heights with a seriousness-free character, which is

not so fair for a very good wrestler, a great talker, a workhorse and a

dedicated worker like Sandow.