Damien Mizdow Has Been the Most Entertaining WWE Wrestler for Months

After spending a year or so doing impressions of various personalities inside and outside of wrestling (see one of Vince McMahon above), Damien Mizdow (née Sandow) was “hired” to be the stunt double for The Miz last August. For my money, this angle of a partnership that has gradually become increasingly ill-fated has been the most enjoyable aspect of the WWE during its stretch.

For the uninitiated, The Miz actually landed on the WWE roster a couple years after creating his alter ego on MTV’s Real World. He’s appeared in a few D-List movies and his self-absorbed wrestling character consequently has delusions of grandeur. Enter Mizdow, who spent 5-6 months as the stunt double, choreographing mannerisms and over-the-top-ly mimicking bodily harm whenever his boss took bumps in the ring. Here’s an illustrative compilation:

Because the WWE crowd genuinely appreciates original wrestlers and storylines, Mizdow started getting the biggest pops of anyone not named Daniel Bryan. Inevitably, The Miz became more and more incensed that his second banana was stealing his spotlight, and relegated him from stunt double to personal assistant. The latest culmination in the angle involved The Miz accidentally “filming” “a” “commercial” for an erectile dysfunction remedy, and hubristically screening it for a group of wrestlers backstage before he realized what he’d done:

That it was his own fault of course did not stop The Miz from blaming Mizdow. It’s not clear precisely when the partnership will officially devolve into a singles feud, but that development was inevitable from the moment they started teaming up — that much was obvious to anyone who’s ever watched wrestling. That being said, WWE’s creative staff is notoriously cavalier at paying real attention to angles outside the main event purview. Along with Miz and Mizdow, they deserve a lot of credit for executing this one exquisitely.