WWE: Career highlights of King Barrett, Damien Sandow and the other WWE releasesBy Cassidy| May 25, 2016 WWE Blogs Previous Page After being the first hopeful eliminated from WWE Tough Enough in 2011, Cameron would sign a developmental deal with WWE and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling. After less than a year in developmental, Cameron was brought to the main roster alongside Naomi to serve as the backup dancers for Brodus Clay, dubbed “The Funkadactyls”. This would transition into The Funkadactyls becoming a tag team, feuding with The Bella Twins and, together with Brodus Clay & Tensai, The Funkadactyls were scheduled to face Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, and The Bella Twins at WrestleMania 29, but the match was scrapped due to time constraints with the match instead taking place the next night on RAW. Cameron, Naomi, and their fellow stars of “Total Divas” would then engage in a feud with a contingent of women led by then Divas Champion AJ Lee, pitting the “Total Divas” against the “True Divas” at Survivor Series. Following the split of Brodus Clay & Tensai, Naomi & Cameron would briefly align themselves with R-Truth & Xavier Woods. During a feud with AJ Lee & Tamina, Naomi would suffer an eye injury, leaving Cameron to compete on her own. Cameron would go on to earn her first shot at the Divas Championship at the Elimination Chamber event, beating the champion AJ Lee by disqualification, thus failing to win the title. After losing her rematch for the title, Cameron would take part in the Vickie Guerrero Divas Championship Invitational at WrestleMania 30. Later that year, Cameron and Naomi’s partnership would come to an end due to Cameron’s new attitude and the two former Funkadactyls would feud for much of 2014 and 2015. Following this feud, Cameron would go on a losing streak to various competitors, including a non-title match against then Divas Champion Nikki Bella. Following a hiatus from WWE television, Cameron would return, competing on NXT with her last match in WWE taking place on the February 10 episode of NXT, where she lost to Alexa Bliss. After nearly a twenty year wrestling career where he held over twenty championships between 1972 and 1990, including the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship and the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship, the man known as “Dirty” Dutch Mantel would have stints in WCW and Smoky Mountain Wrestling as a commentator in the early 1990’s before having his first stint in the then WWF as “Uncle Zebekiah”, serving as a manager for The Blu Brothers and Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw. Over the next several years, Mantel would make appearances for and sporadically wrestle for various promotions around the world before returning to WWE in 2013, re-debuting as Zeb Colter on the February 11, 2013 episode of RAW, aligning himself with Jack Swagger as the controversial, outspoken manager of “The Real American” who was thoroughly anti-immigration. The views expressed by Swagger and Colter would get the attention of FOX News, who chastised WWE for pushing a political agenda in their storylines. WWE would respond by having Swagger and Colter break character to explain that, as actors playing a part, their job is to elicit a response from Swagger’s then rival Alberto Del Rio. Swagger and Colter would then invite political pundit Glenn Beck to appear on RAW, but Beck would decline. With Jack Swagger on the shelf with a hand injury, Zeb Colter would become the manager for Antonio Cesaro and, upon Swagger’s return, Swagger and Cesaro would join forces to become the tag team known as “The Real Americans” (with the Swiss-born Cesaro denouncing his heritage in favor of America). The team would last nearly a year, but failed to pick up much traction and, after Cesaro won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 30, Cesaro split from Swagger and Colter in favor of his new manager, Paul Heyman. This would spark a brief feud between Colter and Heyman as Zeb accused Heyman of stealing Cesaro from him. Following this angle, Swagger and Colter would turn face once they started feuding with Rusev & Lana, who were strongly anti-American. During the feud, Zeb Colter would be written off of television with a storyline broken leg that was caused by Rusev. After nearly a year off of television, Zeb Colter would return at WWE Hell in a Cell in October, introducing the returning Alberto Del Rio as his new client. Del Rio would go on to defeat John Cena for the United States Title that night. This would kick off the “MexAmerica” angle where Del Rio & Colter would propose a union of America and Mexico. Following a brief feud with Zeb’s former client, Jack Swagger, the unpopular MexAmerica idea was dropped and Del Rio abruptly ended his association with Zeb Colter on the December 7, 2015 edition of RAW. This would mark Zeb Colter’s last appearance on WWE television prior to his release. After two years in WWE’s then developmental system, Ohio Valley Wrestling, Santino Marella made his WWE debut on the April 16, 2007 edition of RAW in Milan, Italy as Santino was planted in the crowd for a segment with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and then Intercontinental Champion Umaga. Vince laid out an open challenge to anyone in the crowd to challenge Umaga for the Intercontinental Title and Santino answered the challenge. Then, with some help from Bobby Lashley, Santino would upset Umaga to win the Intercontinental Title in his debut match in what WWE would come to refer to as “The Milan Miracle” (which would also serve as Santino’s nickname). Following his debut, WWE.com offered a backstory for the character, saying that Santino was born in Italy, but moved to Canada as a child and returned to Italy periodically to visit his family, saying that he then moved to the United States to pursue a wrestling career in WWE. Following a feud with Chris Masters over the Intercontinental Title, Santino Marella would lose the Intercontinental Title to Umaga in July. Santino then began an on-screen relationship with Maria shortly before turning heel and becoming a comedy character. Santino’s first heel feud was with WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin over Austin’s movie The Condemned where Santino would mock Austin’s signature catchphrases in broken English. The feud would culminate with Santino being on the receiving end of a Stone Cold Stunner. After becoming jealous of Maria’s Playboy shoot, Santino would begin a feud with Maria and, at WrestleMania 24, Santino would get involved in the Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjack Match and, as a result, would be on the receiving end of a clothesline from Snoop Dogg. The next night on RAW, Santino faced Maria in a match where several of the women in the division ganged up on Santino, allowing Maria to pin Santino, ending their feud. Santino would then form an on-screen relationship with Beth Phoenix, collectively becoming known as “Glamarella” (combining Phoenix’s “Glamazon” nickname and Santino Marella’s name). In one of the more unique matches in the history of SummerSlam, Glamarella would face Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston and Women’s Champion Mickie James in a Mixed Tag Match with both the Intercontinental Championship and the Women’s Championship. Phoenix would get the pin on Mickie James, resulting in Phoenix winning the Women’s Title while Santino won his second Intercontinental Championship. This would start the “Honk-A-Meter” era of Santino Marella where Santino would countdown the weeks until he would beat The Honky Tonk Man’s record 64-week reign as Intercontinental Champion. This would lead to Santino facing The Honky Tonk Man himself at Cyber Sunday with the Intercontinental Title on the line, where Santino would lose by disqualification, keeping the title as a result. After 12 weeks and one day with the Intercontinental Title, Santino would lose the title to William Regal on RAW. During the 2009 Royal Rumble Match, Santino Marella would make history by being eliminated from the match by Kane after just 1.9 seconds in the Royal Rumble Match, beating the 2 second record set by The Warlord back in 1989. Santino Marella would then pursue a spot in the “Miss WrestleMania” Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXV, leading to Santino Marella to dress up as his identical twin sister Santina Marella, going on to win the title of “Miss WrestleMania”. Santino would successfully defend his “Miss WrestleMania” title against Beth Phoenix at Backlash before losing it to Vickie Guerrero on RAW and winning it back at Extreme Rules by defeating Vickie and Chavo Guerrero in a 2-on-1 Handicap Hog Pen Match. As part of the storyline that saw Donald Trump temporarily take over RAW, Santina Marella was fired and the “Miss WrestleMania” title was abandoned. Santino would then form a tag team with Vladimir Kozlov and, after unsuccessfully challenging for the WWE Tag Team Titles for much of 2010, Santino & Kozlov would win a 4-Way Elimination Tag Match on the December 6 edition of RAW, defeating then champions Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel (representing The Nexus), The Usos, and Mark Henry & Yoshi Tatsu. Santino would then enter the 2011 Royal Rumble Match and, unlike his 1.9 second performance two years prior, Santino would actually make it to the final two of the biggest Royal Rumble Match in history before being eliminated by Alberto Del Rio. At WWE Elimination Chamber a month later, Santino & Kozlov would lose the WWE Tag Team Titles to Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel after two months with the tag titles. Later that year, Vladimir Kozlov was released from his WWE contract, bringing an end to the Santino & Kozlov team. Santino then entered a feud with then United States Champion Jack Swagger, winning the title from Swagger on the March 5, 2012 edition of RAW. Santino would hold onto the United States Title for most of 2012 before losing the championship to Cesaro on the SummerSlam pre-show, ending the longest title reign of Santino’s WWE career at five months. Santino then aligned himself with The Great Khali and Hornswoggle, feuding with Cesaro & Jack Swagger for a short time. After a short hiatus from WWE television, Santino would return, this time starting an on-screen relationship with Emma and the on-screen couple would feud with Fandango & Summer Rae. After being plagued with neck injuries in recent years, Santino would announce his retirement from in-ring competition on July 6, 2014. Santino would then make sporadic appearances, serving as the Guest General Manager of SmackDown in December 2014 and presenting a Slammy Award on the December 21, 2015 episode of RAW. Santino’s final television appearance for WWE was on a special Christmas Eve edition of SmackDown where he hosted a Christmas party that was ruined by The Ascension. Of all the people to be let go from WWE on the aforementioned “Black Friday”, Damien Sandow is the only Superstar to have been released twice by the company. Aaron Haddad originally signed with WWE back in 2002, competing in dark matches before technically making his pay-per-view debut at Vengeance 2003, dressed as the Easter Bunny and competing in the APA Invitational Bar Room Brawl. Haddad would then be given a slight alteration of his independent ring name, becoming known as Aaron “The Idol” Stevens, being sent to WWE’s developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling. After three years in developmental, Haddad would make his SmackDown debut as Idol Stevens on August 4, 2006, being teamed up with KC James and managed by Michelle McCool. Idol Stevens & KC James would then feud with then WWE Tag Team Champions Paul London & Brian Kendrick, even receiving a shot at the tag titles at No Mercy 2006, but the team failed to win the titles and were soon sent back to OVW. Returning to the developmental territory as a singles competitor, Idol Stevens would win the OVW Heavyweight Championship, but would lose the title a couple of months later. Stevens was then released from his WWE contract on August 6, 2007. After a couple years on the independent scene, Aaron Haddad would re-sign with WWE on July 14, 2010, changing his ring name to “Damien Sandow” and getting assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (WWE’s new developmental territory after parting ways with OVW). After a couple of years in FCW, Sandow would start to appear in vignettes leading up to his re-debut, portraying a condescending, intellectual heel character. Sandow would make his re-debut on SmackDown on May 4, 2012, but the self-proclaimed “Intellectual Savior of the Masses” would refuse to compete for his first couple of weeks on the main roster, claiming that his proposed opponents were inferior to him. Damien Sandow would make his in-ring debut on May 25, 2012, defeating Yoshi Tatsu, which would start a winning streak for Sandow as Damien would go on to defeat Ezekiel Jackson, Tyson Kidd, and Zack Ryder. Sandow then took part in the World Heavyweight Championship Money-in-the-Bank Ladder Match, but did not win the briefcase on that night. On the RAW 1000 special, Sandow would interrupt the reunion of D-Generation X with Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, & X-Pac, saying that DX’s sophomoric humor has “brainwashed” society and that if they strike him down, he will become a “martyr”. DX would do just that with Triple H putting the exclamation point on the beat down with a Pedigree in the center of the ring. Damien Sandow would then form a tag team with Cody Rhodes, collectively becoming known as Team Rhodes Scholars and beginning a feud with then WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No. Team Rhodes Scholars would then enter a tournament to name new #1 Contenders for the WWE Tag Team Titles, ultimately winning the tournament to earn a shot at the titles, facing Team Hell No for the WWE Tag Team Titles at WWE Hell in a Cell. Team Rhodes Scholars would win the match by disqualification, meaning that Team Hell No kept the titles. This would lead to a rematch for the titles, but during the rematch, Cody Rhodes would suffer an injury, temporarily splitting up the team. After a month as a singles competitor, Sandow would reunite with Cody Rhodes and Team Rhodes Scholars would pick up where they left off, again becoming the #1 Contenders for the WWE Tag Team Titles. The team would again fail to take the titles from Team Hell No before Team Rhodes Scholars moved on to a feud with Tons of Funk, aligning themselves with The Bella Twins to counteract The Funkadactyls. Team Rhodes Scholars would continue to compete as a team until WWE Money-in-the-Bank, where both Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes would enter the World Heavyweight Championship Money-in-the-Bank Ladder Match. During the match, Cody Rhodes was about to win the match before Sandow turned on his tag team partner, shoving Rhodes off of a ladder before climbing the ladder himself and retrieving the briefcase to win the match. After winning the Money-in-the-Bank briefcase, Sandow would naturally feud with his now former tag team partner Cody Rhodes, which saw Rhodes throw Sandow’s Money-in-the-Bank briefcase into the Gulf of Mexico and repeatedly keep Sandow from cashing in the contract. After losing to Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam, Sandow would go on a losing streak, losing to the likes of R-Truth, Santino Marella, and Dolph Ziggler. On the October 28 edition of RAW, Damien Sandow would attack the arm of World Heavyweight Champion John Cena, believing Cena was still suffering from his title match against Alberto Del Rio at WWE Hell in a Cell the previous night. After the assault, Sandow would cash in his Money-in-the-Bank contract to earn an impromptu shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, but John Cena would ultimately win the match, pinning Sandow to retain the title, making Sandow the first and only Money-in-the-Bank winner (to date) to cash in the Money-in-the-Bank contract and lose his title match by pinfall. After a disappointing run for several months, things started to turn around for Damien Sandow in 2014 once Sandow started doing impersonations of various celebrities and fellow wrestlers. This trend would start with Sandow’s portrayal of X-Men villain Magneto and, in the following weeks, Sandow would portray the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Bruce Springsteen, Abraham Lincoln, and Paul Revere before turning to portraying other WWE stars like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Vince McMahon. However, Sandow’s big break came when he become The Miz’s “stunt double”, tweaking his ring name to “Damien Mizdow”. Mizdow would then begin to mimic every move The Miz would make in and out of the ring, which included mouthing the words that Miz would say and copying the bumps that Miz would take during a match. Mizdow’s dedication and entertaining mimicking of The Miz would earn Mizdow the adulation of the fans as the fans would start chanting for Mizdow. At Survivor Series, The Miz & Damien Mizdow would defeat then champions Gold & Stardust, The Usos, and Los Matadores in a Fatal 4-Way Tag Match to win the WWE Tag Team Titles, which was Mizdow’s first and only title win on the main roster. After losing the WWE Tag Team Titles a little over a month later, Miz & Mizdow would begin to show dissension with The Miz growing jealous of the fans’ support of Mizdow with The Miz changing Mizdow’s position to “personal assistant” in an attempt to get Mizdow to stop copying him. During the Andre The Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31, Damien Mizdow would turn face by eliminating The Miz from the battle royal, making it to the end of the match before being eliminated by Big Show. Mizdow would then feud with The Miz, culminating in a match on RAW with the rights to the “Miz” brand on the line, which The Miz won with an assist from Summer Rae. Mizdow would then return to using the Damien Sandow ring name for a short time, but when he was confronted by Curtis Axel on an episode of RAW, Sandow would begin mimicking Axel’s portrayal of Hulk Hogan, sparking a feud between Sandow and Axel. This feud would transform into a partnership as Sandow would start mimicking “Macho Man” Randy Savage, becoming known as “Macho Mandow” with the team becoming known as The Meta Powers. The team was short-lived, however, once WWE cut ties with Hulk Hogan and Sandow would return to his initial “Intellectual Savior of the Masses” gimmick. Sandow would be used as an enhancement talent for various matches and, despite his popularity, would never gain traction again in WWE. Damien Sandow’s final match in WWE was on the May 6 episode of WWE Superstars where he lost to Darren Young. Following his release, Aaron Haddad would comment that he presented several ways for WWE to use him, including repackaging his character and transitioning him to being a commentator, but he didn’t “fit” into WWE’s plans. What were your favorite moments of these Superstars? Post your comments in the box below.
