He signed them with a pink pen with a long pink feather on top. According to him, the pen is a family heirloom dating back to the earliest days of the Sandow family and was even used to sign the Declaration of Independence — in invisible, of course. I had the pleasure of speaking with him again Thursday morning, this time over the phone as he was helping to promote WWE's live event at the Wells Fargo Center Sunday.
Once again, Sandow was on, especially when he explained his actions here in Philadelphia back on July 14 when he won his coveted Money in the Bank briefcase. In reality, Sandow pushed his former tag team partner off the ladder in order to claim the briefcase for himself. But the story he told me was hilarious. But it's that level of detail that makes Sandow so entertaining and so talented. Fans appreciate that level of investment even when they're being made fun of.
The pen with pink feather and the story of how he won the Money in the Bank briefcase are just two examples of what makes Sandow such an asset to WWE. Sandow didn't learn these sensibilities all on his own. He was taught some them when he was first being trained to become a professional wrestler. The late, great Killer Kowalski, who was a legend himself in the wrestling business and trained other legends, most notably Triple H, trained Sandow. Kowalski came from a time period where the most important thing wasn't how fancy your moves were, it was about doing what you had to do to sell tickets, or, as Jim Ross would say, "Putting a butt every 18 inches.
Standing out is something Sandow does very well. From his large, but somehow well-groomed beard, to his pink tights, Sandow doesn't have the cookie-cutter look that has plagued professional wrestling lately. Kowalski not only taught Sandow about what it took to become a star in and out of the ring, but he also helped him navigate the pit falls of being a young independent wrestler.
Sandow is a polished professional wrestler, but when looking at his matches most would notice that his move set isn't all that large. Not to say he isn't capable of doing a lot of moves, but his main concern isn't doing a plethora of them. His main concern is doing what is necessary to draw a reaction from the audience in the stands and the audience watching on television. What he doesn't do in the ring he makes up for with his presentation.
The way he comes to the ring, his music, the way he holds a microphone, his in-ring attire is all apart of the package that make up Sandow. What that results in is good business. It meant more than winning titles, to see the outpouring of emotions. And the feeling is mutual. I have always listened to them, the fans. I viewed my boss as whoever paid for a ticket. Did WWE say why they were releasing you?
Parting ways is never a pleasant thing. When I was being called, I was thinking about the other guy — the guy who has to give a guy this news.
Thank you for everything. It was awesome. I had already run that spectrum with the fans. A lot of times, in pro sports , you have egos involved. My ego was solely about getting the fans to react one way or another.
When you say it was mutual, do you mean your release had come up before, or that you were OK with their decision? Not so much my release, but all the options. There were many different options I was exploring. I just wanted to look into every route that was possible.
What were some of those routes? I actually kind of wanted to cool off for a month or two. What more could I have done after that? There were talks about repackaging me. There were talks about me doing a parody of current events. There were several things that were on the table. The WWE is great at defining and presenting characters in the best possible way.
All I could do was hit a grand slam every time I got to go out there. I got the opportunity to do that. I traveled the world. I had a bunch of fun. What more could I ask for? Now I can go into those other avenues. I will always be very proud of being associated with them. I had been in the developmental territory.
I had been talking about different character ideas with people. At the time, NXT had just started to take shape. It was a very exciting time in developmental. As it started to take on a life of its own, there were a lot of people that were watching us down in Florida a lot closer.
My one direction at that point was to do anything I could to stand out. It really was like freedom. And then, what if I wore pink trunks? After the pink trunks got a reaction, it was Dusty Rhodes that suggested that I get a bathrobe like Lou Thesz used to wear, and wear it to the ring.
And that robe was used to present the pink trunks. I would take the robe off, and people would see the pink trunks for the first time. They were aghast by it. It was so much fun. It kind of just took on a life of its own. They gave me freedom to execute the character as I saw fit. I had my guidelines and stuff of course. And people were awesome in helping me. Triple H was awesome, Brian James was great. Mike Rotunda, he was very instrumental in helping me out.
There were a lot of guys in WWE who helped me. I was also given a lot of freedom. And a lot of times, the way this business is, I needed that freedom to connect to the crowd. You definitely connected, and about year into your run, you won the Money in the Bank briefcase. Did you think you were about to take that next big step then? I absolutely did think I was going to take that big step.
I put everything I had into it. If the stream is moving one way, then you have to go in that direction. Whether that means you focus on certain characters, or a certain situation, then you have to follow it. The Meta Powers lost a tag team match to the Ascension at Payback. He came out wearing his old blue robe and ring attire. However, he wrestled as a face instead of a heel. On November 13, Damien Sandow made his return on television on Main Event, this time having completely reverted to his 'Intellectual Savior of the Masses' gimmick and defeated Heath Slater.
After being released from WWE, Haddad announced on his official Twitter account that he would once again be taking independent bookings, returning to his Aaron Stevens ring name because the name Damien Sandow was trademarked by WWE. He said he "took select dates" for wrestling, wanting to "say thank you to the fans", "to meet them, and have a chance to talk to them".
Haddad is also booked to make his Warriors of Wrestling debut on August 6 and his Tier 1 Wrestling debut the following day on August 7. Damo successfully defended the belt. A week later, he announced that he would be the special guest referee in the No. At the end of that match, he would be attacked by Galloway over his frustrations due to losing the match. The next week, after Galloway explained his actions, Aron would interrupt him and brawl with him before being separated by officials, thus igniting a feud between the two.
The next week, he would defeat Eli Drake in the semi-finals and go on to face rival Drew Galloway in the finals of the tournament at Bound for Glory.
But due to Galloway's injury, his semi-finals opponent Eddie Edwards took his spot and faced Rex instead. Rex would go on to win the championship at bound for glory by split decision. On the October 20th episode of Impact during a segment of "Fact of Life" with Eli Drake, Rex showed signs of a heel turn by saying that he was the man on Impact, having defeated then world champion Eddie Edwards to win the Impact Grand Championship and insulting Jessie Godderz, steaming from a controversial win Rex had won the previous week.
The segment was interrupted by EC3 who attacked Drake, during the struggle, Rex attacked EC3, after being knocked down by the former in his attempt to attack Drake, confirming his heel turn. The double team attack was stopped however by Jessie Godderz who began fighting Rex. Moose successfully retained his title against Aron Rex in a rematch the following week. After a hiatus, Rex returned on the January 12, episode of Impact Wrestling debuting a Liberace-inspired character, with a new clean shaven look and sporting plucked eyebrows, lip gloss, a fur coat, naked trunks and oversized rings on all fingers, along with Rockstar Spud as his new manager.
He would cut a promo before being interrupted by Robbie E where he would attack Robbie while claiming that the " 1 rule to being 'Rexcellent' is violence is not the answer. After a year-long hiatus from professional wrestling, using the ring name Aron Stevens , he returned to the ring on September 30, Pro Wrestling Explore. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Damien Sandow. Edit this page.
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