Damien Sandow

Idol Stevens

Macho Mandow

The Easter Bunny

Sandow signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after receiving numerous try-out matches on *Heat* against opponents such as Steven Richards and Maven. Sandow had his pay-per-view debut match in 2003 at Vengeance as the **Easter Bunny** in a match with the APA. He also participated in an angle where he had his fingers "broken" by Raven on *Heat*.

On August 4, 2006, Sandow made his *SmackDown!* debut as **Idol Stevens** when he was introduced (along with KC James) by Michelle McCool as one of her favorite "teacher's pets". The two went on to defeat Funaki and Scotty 2 Hotty with the help of McCool. The following week, Stevens and James defeated WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London and Brian Kendrick in a non-title match. On the August 18 episode, Stevens and James ambushed the Tag Team Champions.

The two teams began feuding, with London and Kendrick bringing in Ashley Massaro to counteract McCool. The feud briefly encompassed the team of Jamie Noble and Kid Kash, who also wanted a Tag Team Title shot. Stevens and James got their WWE Tag Team Championship shot at No Mercy on October 8, but failed to win the titles. Soon after, both Stevens and James were taken off television.

Stevens was officially released by WWE on August 6, 2007.

On the April 6, 2012 episode of *SmackDown*, Stevens, as **Damien Sandow**, appeared in a pre-taped interview denouncing popular culture and extolling his virtues. After weeks of vignettes, Sandow made his WWE in-ring return under the new gimmick on the May 4 episode of *SmackDown*, but refused to compete against Derrick Bateman, claiming that the audience would neither learn nor benefit from him facing an inferior opponent. On the May 18 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow refused to wrestle against Yoshi Tatsu, but Tatsu accused Sandow of being a coward and Sandow assaulted him. On the May 25 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow defeated Tatsu in his debut match. The following week, he refused to face Ezekiel Jackson, and despite Jackson forcing the match to begin, Sandow won. On the June 8 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow went to attack Hornswoggle but was intercepted by Tyson Kidd before he could do so. The following week on *SmackDown*, Sandow defeated Kidd.

On the June 29 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow defeated Zack Ryder to qualify for the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank. However, the match was won by Dolph Ziggler. On July 23 at *Raw 1000*, Sandow interrupted D-Generation X and claimed that their sophomoric and disgusting behavior had brainwashed society; he also declared that he would be a martyr if DX disposed of him, and DX assaulted him regardless. Sandow then began a feud with Brodus Clay on the July 30 episode of *Raw*, attacking Clay when he laughed at a video of Sandow's beatdown at the hands of DX. Sandow and Clay finally faced off on the August 20 episode of *Raw*, where Sandow won after a roll-up, but was attacked by Clay after the match. On the August 31 *SmackDown*, Sandow had his first singles loss after being intentionally counted out against World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus, who would later hand Sandow his first pinfall loss in October.

On the September 19 *SmackDown*, Sandow aligned himself with Cody Rhodes, and they started a feud with WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane). The duo, which adopted the team name of Team Rhodes Scholars, entered a tournament four days later on *SmackDown*, and defeated the Usos to advance. Team Rhodes Scholars defeated Santino Marella and Zack Ryder in the semi-finals, and then Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara in the finals to earn a shot at the tag titles. Team Rhodes Scholars got their title opportunity against Team Hell No on October 28 at Hell in a Cell, where they won by disqualification, thus Team Hell No retained the titles. This led to a title rematch on the November 14 episode of *Main Event*, which Team Hell No won. During the match, Rhodes suffered several legitimate injuries, placing their partnership on hold.

On the November 23 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow unsuccessfully challenged Kofi Kingston for the Intercontinental Championship, his first singles title opportunity in WWE. From December 2012, Sandow began a regular segment in which he unsuccessfully searched for an 'apprentice' by quizzing members of the audience. Sandow and Rhodes reunited on the December 10 episode of *Raw* and won a fatal four-way tag team elimination match, earning them the right to face Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara in a number one contender tables match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs six days later, which Team Rhodes Scholars won. Team Rhodes Scholars received their title shot on the following episode of *Main Event*, but were again defeated by Team Hell No. On the January 7, 2013, episode of *Raw*, Team Rhodes Scholars defeated Team Hell No in a non-title match to earn another shot at the WWE Tag Team Championship. The title rematch took place on January 27 at the Royal Rumble, where Team Rhodes Scholars once again failed to capture the tag team titles.

On the February 1 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow and Rhodes briefly dissolved Team Rhodes Scholars while remaining "best friends", only to reunite on February 17 at the pre-show of Elimination Chamber in a loss to the team of Brodus Clay and Tensai. Sandow and Rhodes then aligned themselves with The Bella Twins in a feud against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and the Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi). The two teams were originally booked to face each other in an eight-person mixed tag team match on April 7 at WrestleMania 29, but their match was cut due to time constraints. The match instead took place the following night on *Raw*, where Tons of Funk and the Funkadactyls emerged victorious.

On the May 15, 2013 episode of *NXT*, Sandow unsuccessfully challenged Big E Langston for the NXT Championship. While Sandow hosted a series of mental challenges on *SmackDown*, Sheamus repeatedly interrupted Sandow and tried to solve the challenges. However, when Sheamus failed to solve the puzzles, he instead resorted to physical violence by attacking Sandow. On June 16, during the Payback pre-show, Sandow was defeated by Sheamus. The following night on *Raw*, Team Rhodes Scholars defeated Sheamus in a handicap match after Sandow pinned him with a roll-up. The rivalry culminated in a Dublin Street Fight on the June 28 *SmackDown*, where Sheamus defeated Sandow.

The July 14 Money in the Bank pay-per-view marked the beginning of the end for Team Rhodes Scholars. Both Rhodes and Sandow entered the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match; just as Rhodes was about to win the match, Sandow threw Rhodes off the ladder and retrieved the briefcase himself to earn the opportunity to challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship at any time of his choosing within the next year. Despite winning the briefcase, Sandow went on to lose many matches before his cash-in, with a total of 1 win and 12 losses on *Raw* and *SmackDown*. The split of Team Rhodes Scholars was confirmed the next night on *Raw* when Rhodes attacked Sandow. Rhodes dominated the feud between him and Sandow; throwing Sandow's briefcase into the Gulf of Mexico, which forced Sandow to introduce a new custom-made briefcase; thwarting Sandow's attempt to cash-in on a vulnerable Alberto Del Rio; and defeating Sandow twice in singles matches, one of which was at SummerSlam.

After moving on from his feud with Rhodes, Sandow went on to lose to the likes of R-Truth, Santino Marella and Dolph Ziggler. On the October 28 *Raw*, Sandow confronted World Heavyweight Champion John Cena; stating his belief that Cena's arm was still injured following Cena's match against Alberto Del Rio at Hell in a Cell, Sandow assaulted Cena's arm and then cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, but Cena won the match by pinfall. This made Sandow the second wrestler to fail to win a title upon cash-in (after Cena himself), and the first to lose a cash-in outright.

After Sandow's cash-in, he was noted to have become more generic as he stopped doing cartwheels and started wearing plain black ring attire. Sandow's misfortune continued when he challenged Intercontinental Champion Big E Langston to a title match at TLC and lost. In January 2014, Sandow entered the 2014 Royal Rumble and was the first eliminated, courtesy of CM Punk. He then started a losing streak that lasted until May, which included him losing to the likes of Darren Young, being pinned in an eight-man tag match, and losing to Sin Cara in one minute.

On the April 28 *Raw*, Sandow dressed as Magneto to confront guest star Hugh Jackman and Dolph Ziggler, which resulted in Sandow being attacked by both Jackman and Ziggler. On the May 12 *Raw* and its pre-show, Sandow started delivering worked shoot comments displaying his apparent dissatisfaction at his position in WWE, resulting in his microphone being turned off. Sandow later made comments with allusions to being handcuffed.

Sandow then transitioned into a comedic impersonator, and from May 20 he started to dress as a different character every week, sometimes wrestling as them. These characters included Sherlock Holmes, Bruce Springsteen, Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere, a rapper called D-Sizzle and an interpretive dancer. He also mimicked other wrestlers, such as Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Vince McMahon.

From August, Sandow formed an alliance with The Miz, whose persona was that of an arrogant movie star. Sandow was 'hired' by Miz to be his "stunt double", which initially entailed him taking bumps for Miz and later expanded to him mimicking every move Miz made during his matches, as well as Miz's mannerisms when not wrestling. During this period, Sandow's ring name was tweaked to **Damien Mizdow** to reflect his new role.

At Night of Champions in September, Mizdow's interference helped Miz win the Intercontinental Championship from Dolph Ziggler. Miz lost his title back to Ziggler the following night in a rematch on *Raw*. Mizdow's antics soon endeared him to WWE fans and he became popular with live audiences, who would often boo Miz during matches and chant "We want Mizdow!".

At Survivor Series, Mizdow and Miz won the WWE Tag Team Championship after defeating defending champions Gold and Stardust, The Usos and Los Matadores in Fatal 4-Way tag team match. By this time, Mizdow had become one of the most popular wrestlers in WWE.

On the December 29 episode of *Raw*, they lost the titles to The Usos. On the same night, they were defeated by the debuting Ascension. Miz and Mizdow then began to show dissension, with Miz becoming angry at Mizdow's positive crowd reactions and accusing Mizdow of trying to 'upstage' him. On the February 2 episode of *Raw*, The Miz relegated Mizdow from being a stunt double to a personal assistant.

Mizdow turned face for the first time in his WWE career, when he finally split away from The Miz at WrestleMania 31 in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but he was the last wrestler eliminated, courtesy of Big Show. Post-WrestleMania, Mizdow (now accompanied by The Miz's *The Marine 4: Moving Target* co-star Summer Rae) then feuded with The Miz over the next several weeks, trading victories on *Raw* before challenging Miz to a match for the rights to the Miz brand on the April 20 episode. The Miz won the match after Summer Rae betrayed Mizdow by raking him in the eyes, allowing Miz to hit the Skull-Crushing Finale and pick up the win. As a result of the loss, Mizdow returned to his former name, **Damien Sandow**.

Returning to the Damien Sandow ring name on the April 27 episode of *Raw*, Sandow was thanking fans for their support when he was interrupted by Curtis Axel. Sandow began to parrot after Axel, who had been mimicking Hulk Hogan. Sandow won the ensuing scuffle with a Hogan leg drop. On the April 30 episode of *SmackDown*, Sandow parroted ring announcer JoJo before facing and defeating Axel. In May 2015, Sandow began impersonating Randy Savage as **Macho Mandow**, while he and Axel suffered attacks by The Ascension to start a feud. Mandow and Axel's alliance was known as The Meta Powers, a parody of The Mega Powers. At Payback, the Meta Powers were defeated by the Ascension. The Meta Powers stopped their respective impersonations from July 24, after WWE severed ties with Hulk Hogan.

The end of The Meta Powers marked a further decline in Sandow's fortunes. From July to October 2015, Sandow never wrestled a televised match, being restricted to wrestling dark matches or at live events.

Sandow returned to television on the November 14, 2015 episode of *Main Event* as his original "Intellectual Savior" character, defeating Heath Slater. Following that, Sandow never won another televised match for WWE. At the 2016 Royal Rumble kickoff, Sandow and Darren Young failed to qualify for the Royal Rumble match when they lost a four-way tag team match. At WrestleMania 32, Sandow was quickly eliminated from the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal by Shaquille O'Neal. Sandow returned to *Raw* on April 25, but his match against Baron Corbin never started due to Dolph Ziggler attacking Corbin. Corbin defeated Sandow in under two minutes on that week's *SmackDown*. On the May 2 episode of *Raw*, Sandow competed in a battle royal for a shot at the WWE United States Championship, but was eliminated early in the match. Sandow's final two televised matches for WWE saw him lose to Titus O'Neil on *Main Event* and Darren Young on *Superstars*; Sandow wrestled the latter match as a heel. On May 6, 2016, Sandow was released from WWE.