Former WWE Superstar Aaron Haddad (Damien Sandow) was a recent guest on the Why It Ended with Robbie E podcast. Sandow opened up about a myriad of professional wrestling related topics related to his time in WWE. Highlights appear below.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On Working With Cody Rhodes & What He Thinks Of Rhodes’ Success Outside Of WWE:
I’m very happy for Cody and Cody and I did a lot of good business together. I never really saw myself in a tag team, but again that is the hand I was dealt. I had no choice but to make it work and put everything I had in it. Again, Cody and I have had some pretty memorable moments as a tag team. We had some memorable moments in our feud too. In South Africa, we were out there 45-46 minutes or something like that where it was all us. It was an outdoor stadium and one of my favorite matches in the WWE, just for the feel and everything. We just called it out there. It was just a great great time. It was after Money in the Bank and we were still Rhodes Scholars and we were working Brodus [Clay] and Tensai. They did a thing where Brodus and Tensai came out and Cody and I lost and got into a fight and ended up fighting each other. That’s what ended up making the show the allotted time, but it was really really fun. We had a great time.
On The Inception Of The Damien Mizdow Character:
Every week I knew what I was doing and after a couple weeks, I kind of got my pulse on OK this is how we can make this work and I just decided to fall down on television one day and we know what happened after that. Yeah [I did it entirely on my own]. I was bored on RAW one night. What’s the worst that could happen? Do something that no one has done before and I am not afraid of taking risks. When I did the segment with Hugh Jackman, they had this awesome Magneto outfit for me and I was like, ‘No give me the worst hoodie, awful Halloween costume that you can get because I’m going to actually think I’m Magneto and the horrible costume is going to make it even better.’ To WWE’s credit, they did it. Again, it’s the freedom you have and me being willing to take risks have paid off for me.
Vince McMahon’s Reaction To The Mizdow Character:
Vince called me over and he was like, ‘Did you fall down?’ ‘Yep.’ He goes, ‘Alright, I’ll be the only one that will pull you back. You have a green light.’ That was it.
On Backstage Reaction To The Mizdow Character & Why The Character Was Successful:
It was positive. Again, WWE is not my sandbox. If I wanted to have creative control, I’d start my own wrestling company. All I could do was the best I could do. There’s no ill feelings toward anybody. There’s no complaining, no ‘woe is me, woe is me.’ Frankly, the reason why Mizdow was over so much is because again I was given something consistent to do. They knew what they got with me. Whatever would be given to me, I don’t think was a question as to whether it would succeed or not; however, they chose to go with different people post-Mizdow too. There’s nothing I can do. I had no known enemies. No one gave me a reason and you know what? I really don’t care what the reason is because life goes on and that’s what you have to do in order to not lose sleep at night.
On Teaming With Curtis Axel:
I had so much fun with that. Curtis Axel was so great to work with. I really can’t say enough good things about him. We did have a lot of freedom and we had a lot of fun. We had some really bitchin’ house show matches. [When the Hulk Hogan stuff happened] it was pretty much don’t wear your makeup anymore. It was pretty well understood that we were not going to do this anymore. We were all in agreement too.
Sandow also opens up about his IMPACT Wrestling run, working with Billy Corgan, and his future in wrestling. Readers can listen to all that and more below:
