When Damien
Sandow won the blue Money in the Bank briefcase for a guaranteed shot at
the world heavyweight championship (back when it was its own title),
the implication was clear: WWE saw him as a potential main event level
player, so he was given a golden ticket to the main event.
Somewhere along the line that changed.
By the time he got around to
cashing in that golden ticket, he had done a stupid number of jobs and
looked like the least credible threat possible to then holder of the Big
Gold Belt, John Cena. Sure enough, despite a valiant effort (one many
believed actually helped him), he failed to successfully turn his golden
ticket into a main event run.
One and done.
Then, everything went south. He
continued doing jobs, which was bad enough, but he was also backed into
a corner creatively. His character, previously a colorful but arrogant
heel, was toned down to such an extreme he became, well, just a guy who
wrestled and lost.
So, a jobber.
A wrestler can still be
successful in that role, as evidenced by Heath Slater getting the
absolute most out of his status as the top jobber in the industry right
now. Not everyone can be a main event talent, after all. WWE puts on
wrestling shows, sure, but it's about variety more than anything. Slater
may not be happy with the fact that he's probably never winning a major
title but he's got to understand, if nothing else, that he's the very
best at what he's asked to do.
That's why it's so good to see
Sandow may have finally found his calling, the one thing he's the very
best at in WWE: the character actor.
Exhibit A -- Magneto:
Exhibit B -- Damien Sherlock:
Why does it work? Like Slater
and his zest for putting over whomever he's tasked with putting over,
Sandow doesn't half-ass it when he's asked to portray these ridiculous
characters. He 100-percent commits to it and because of that, it's
highly entertaining.
Here's to hoping WWE continues taking him down this path. Are you not interested in seeing how much more he can do?
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