A couple of years ago, the WWE signed a famous Mexican luchador who wrestled under the name Mistico. It was a high-profile recruitment, and part of the process of WWE’s developmental system becoming a more public and acknowledged aspect of the product. NXT – the show devoted to wrestlers who are being groomed for the main roster (or who fell off the main roster but still have enough potential not to have been fired), is actually one of the best shows WWE produces, because most of the hour is devoted to in-ring action, and the storylines and comedy moments are kept to a minimum.

Mistico was re-packaged as a luchador in a different mask who went by Sin Cara – part of Vince McMahon’s honestly savvy addiction to “owning” the persona he puts his spotlight on for merchandising purposes. Sin Cara got a splashy debut and a major roster push, only to run smack into a suspension for violating the Substance Abuse Policy, and rumors that he was having trouble adapting to the American style. His character, though, had sufficient momentum that, rather than simply write him out of the show, the WWE acted in the grand lucha tradition by just putting his mask on a different wrestler; another luchador in their developmental system. Those who noticed that, from week to week, Sin Cara might be inexplicably taller, fatter, and have tattoos which appeared or disappeared, were savvy enough students of the game to know that their job was to ignore the discrepancy.

However, perhaps to juice the Spanish-speaking audience, the WWE actually kept both Sin Caras briefly, having the seeming original (actually the fake) turn heel, only to be confronted by the actual original, calling out the impostor who had replaced him and challenging him. Since both characters wore mouth-covering masks, they had to put this whole storyline over in pantomime, which definitely gave it a passion play element.

At last, the “good” Sin Cara (“Sin Cara Azul”, in the original blue mask), and the revealed evil doppelganger “Sin Cara Negro”, faced off in a “Loser Gets Unmasked” match. Sin Cara Negro lost, unmasked, and continued wrestling as an uncomfortably-generic barrio gangbanger character called Hunico.

However, the “real” Sin Cara couldn’t seem to stay out of backstage trouble, and eventually WWE cashed out their investment and sent “Mistico” back to Mexico. However, they didn’t end their investment in Sin Cara – the evil replacement stepped back into the blue mask, was, without any in-story acknowledgement, essentially absorbed into the “good” version of the character, and Hunico simply vanished into the netherspace of abandoned gimmicks. Sin Cara carried on, providing an object lesson that in the chimerical world of wrestler and persona, sometimes persona is stronger than any single wrestler.

This is not a trick WWE has pulled off many times. Masks are nearly always required (See Express, Orient;) but that doesn’t mean they haven’t repeatedly given it the college try. Sometimes the impostors are acknowledged, such as the storyline which led to the main event match now dubbed by fans “Undertaker vs. Underfaker”. Other times the very attempts to bluff these switcharoos past the audience become too-clear illustrations of the limits of McMahon’s power, as when two main event talents, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, decamped for competitor WCW and McMahon attempted to just recast their characters, Diesel and Razor Ramon, respectively, with other wrestlers who were, to be polite, unconvincing duplicates.


Real Razor Ramon


Something…else…

Fake Diesel fared slightly better, he was pulled from the impostor play and went on to a Hall of Fame-worthy career as Kane.

All of this history is, I think, subdermally resonant in the rise of one of the hottest acts in WWE right now, Damien Mizdow.

Damien Sandow re-debuted in WWE (after a brief run as “Idol Stevens”) a couple of years ago, working a very old-school gimmick of an intellectually-superior heel, but doing it with fierce commitment and relish. He would walk down the aisle to the Hallelujah Chorus, and mastered little details like holding the microphone from underneath as if it were a brandy snifter. Apparently he placed a respect-your-elders call to retired wrestler “The Genius” Lanny Poffo to let him know he was going to be reviving some of his old tricks.

Sandow was a big hit and seemed to be marching towards a high place on the card. He won the coveted Money in the Bank briefcase – the last time there were two such briefcases in circulation before the two World Titles in WWE were unified. This seemed to promise at least a brief visit to the main event.

However, his briefcase and, seemingly, his main event momentum, ended up being sacrificed to other concerns, namely working John Cena back into the main event following an injury, and management’s seeming ongoing lack of faith in Daniel Bryan to carry the show as top champion. Sandow lost valiantly and impressively, but lose he did, and seemed to tumble down the card after, losing briefer and briefer matches to lesser and lesser talents.

And yet, he still seemed to have believers, and his microphone skills, and residual affection from fans. On a night when Hugh Jackman was guest-hosting the flagship show Monday Night RAW to promote his new X-Men movie, Sandow won an on-line poll at WWE’s website titled “Who Should Hugh Jackman punch on RAW?” This was real, and a reference to Jackman’s previous guest-hosting stint, when he punched primo heel Dolph Ziggler and gave him a legit hairline jaw fracture. That Sandow won the poll was, in its own sadistic way, a sign of affection from the audience.

The confrontation involved Sandow coming to the ring dressed in a cheap costume, pretending to be X-Men villain Magneto, and then trying to use his “powers of magnetism” on Hugh Jackman. It’s one of those bits whose stupidity is only matched by the way Sandow’s commitment to it dares you to look beyond said stupidity.

Sandow later wrestled Dolph Ziggler in the Magneto costume, which was a sign that management noticed how Sandow had managed to pop the audience.

He started appearing, and wrestling, in other costumes as historical figures, local sports heroes from whatever town the show was in that night, fictional characters, even WWE boss Vince McMahon. He wrestled as Davy Crockett in Tennessee, as Abe Lincoln in Illinois. When there was a lumberjack match – a gimmick match in which wrestlers from the locker room surround the ring on the floor and beat up any wrestler ejected from the ring, Sandow was the only one – perhaps in gimmick history – to dress as an actual lumberjack.

And so what at first seemed like a cruel prank being played repeatedly on a once-rising talent became something more weirdly compelling. He seemed trapped in some larger compulsion – he HAD to dress up. No one had ever pushed the notion of a wrestling character set adrift from their gimmick into such existential territory before; he was a dedicated, very technically-skilled performer acting as an empty frame to be filled by whatever cheap trick the night called for.

And in one of those uncanny moments of serendipity that wrestling storytelling is able to accommodate, it turned into something amazing. One night, wrestler The Miz – whose recent gimmick as a vain Hollywood bigshot-in-his-own-eyes has fit almost uncomfortably well, suffered a concussion in a match. And by that Monday’s RAW, he had been announced for a match but not yet cleared to compete. So instead, he came out and announced that tonight, instead of wrestling himself, he would allow the job to be taken by his Hollywood “stunt double” – Damien Mizdow.

I was in attendance at that RAW, my first as an adult, and I count myself lucky even if the rest of the show was lackluster. Damien Sandow came out to The Miz’s entrance music, wearing a replica of his outfit, mimicking all his signature poses and gestures. In the match, he used The Miz’s moves – effectively. Again, “Mizdow”‘s skill and commitment to a stupid bit made it uncommonly fun to watch.

Soon “Mizdow” was accompanying Miz to ringside at all his matches. And then, the friendly-doppelganger relationship evolved, with “Mizdow” mirroring all of the Miz’s moves from the floor. When Miz threw a punch, Mizdow punched air. When Miz got thrown, Mizdow threw himself to the ground to the laughter of the crowd. When Miz was being interviewed, Mizdow stood behind his shoulder, silently mouthing the words nearly in unison.

WWE rarely does comedy well on-purpose (see Bunny Suit – man currently wrestling in) but this didn’t feel like something planned. It was just a crazy accident that a creative performer ran with; and Mizdow soon had momentum of his own. Again, his seemingly helpless in-character compulsion to act as perpetual shadow and second fiddle to a more prominent character ironically pushed him to the forefront. The duo began wrestling as a tag team, and the crowd immediately started chants of “We Want Mizdow”, essentially turning one half of a heel tag team face by audience fiat.

This was the major narrative fulcrum of the tag team championship match at this Sunday’s pay-per-view Survivor Series, which featured multiple teased tags to Mizdow, until finally he got in at the very end and scored the winning pin instead of Miz; foreshadowing what will surely be a future breakup that cements Mizdow’s face status and sets off a fun midcard rivalry. It’s Sandow/Mizdow’s first championship reign in WWE, and while it’s not the World Heavyweight Championship his fans might have hoped for, it’s a sign of the uncanny way some talents can claw their way back from seemingly any indignity (see Bryan, Daniel – therapy skits featuring.)

The following night on RAW, Miz came out wielding both tag team championship belts. Mizdow, perfectly, carried two belts of his own – merchandise replicas. Again, he’s great with the details, and right now, in a WWE where multiple main eventers are rehabbing from injury, the World Champion Brock Lesnar is too expensive to have on TV for the next couple of months, and no one can figure out what era label or tone or giveaway will lure people to subscribe to the damn network already, it’s good to know that, at least for the moment, there’s a marvelous little bit of can’t-miss bizarro being perpetuated every week by one man whose strange star-making quality is simply that he’s trying to be the best stunt double he can be.

My favorite thing about wrestling right now
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