Damien Sandow and the WHC MITB Briefcase

[Troy]

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Damien Sandow won the World Heavyweight Championship MITB ladder match at Money In the Bank two days ago. This gives him a shot at the World Heavyweight title anytime in the next 12 months. It has been a fast rise for Sandow who only debuted the character on WWE tv around fifteen months ago. He had previously worked on Smackdown in 2006 as Idol Stevens in a tag team with KC James that was managed by Michelle McCool. The team did alright in the limited time they were on the brand but didn't last long. He was released but has worked his way back to a WWE contract and back onto the main roster. He has found the right gimmick for him to make himself stand out from the pack and one that can take him to the mainevent. He had a good run with Rhodes as Rhodes Scholars but it did drag on too long after they failed to win the tag team titles. He had some fantastic matches during that time with the current world champion Sheamus and he showed that he could hang with the top stars. He didn't really have any clear direction over the past couple of months but now with this MITB win they can start building him to the Smackdown mainevent scene. He is a fantastic talker who can back it up in the ring and now he has his chance to see if he can get over enough and win the World title.

Your thoughts on Sandow winning the WHC MITB briefcase? When would you like to see him cash it in? Do you think that he will successfully cash it in? Is Sandow mainevent material?

 

[Rated R Superstar]

I personally would love to see him cash it in on someone like Sheamus. Just imagine the PPV matches those 2 could pull off! Would be incredible.

 

[Gimmick]

I'm fine with Sandow winning it. I still would have preferred Rhodes winning it in the end as I feel he deserves it a lot more, but they certainly could have put it on someone worse.

Hard to say when he'll cash it in, I could maybe see them waiting a while before pulling the trigger. Right now they seem content on giving Del Rio a run as World champion a bit longer and going through with a Sandow/Rhodes feud.

 

[Chris]

I'm happy with this, thought they were going to do something with Sandow since he was getting a good bit of airtime with the Sheamus feud and did damn good with that. I can see him in the main event (well, as main event as the WHC is) pretty easily so I'm interested to see where they go with it.

 

[Keith]

Am pleased with him getting it, his character and mic skills fit this perfectly and he is certainly decent in the ring too. Think they should put off the Cash-In for at least six months as he has climbed the ranks fast and it needs a bit of time for fans to really believe in him as a threat.

Wouldn't mind seeing him put his Briefcase on the line in a series against midcarders, it would be something new for the briefcase winner and could get him some good wins along the way. Maybe have a feud with someone like Jericho in the ran up to cashing in.

 

[Deezy]

I just want Sandow to do promos about him and his briefcase for along time. No teasing the cash in like Ziggler, he can put anyone over as long as he gets the mic after every match and cuts promos. He will be a champ noone questions just off his promo ability, which is the most important thing in pro-wrestling. Be technical with springboard planchas don't get you anywhere.

 

[Troy]

I was very happy that Sandow was given the win and that there is at least the potential for him to win the World title. I also don't want to see him doing false cash-ins month after month, try something different for once to make this MITB reign stand out. I also don't really want to see another match with the briefcase on the line, I fail to see the point of them because they never change hands (unless someone is injured like Kennedy was). Have his feud with Rhodes, where hopefully he goes over and then feed him another face midcarder for him to go over. Bit sick of seeing MITB winners get buried and then have the cash in and win. Try to book them so that they at least look credible before the eventual cash in.

Wouldn't mind Sheamus and Sandow feuding over the world title.

 

[Deezy]

Just a thought, but didn't Zigglers jobfest actually make his cash in all the more better? Would that crowd have been as joyous if he was beating everyone? I don't think so, I think the IWC collectively losing their shit over his won/loss record all those months just made them sooo much happier he actually did it. Kind of like, if you were a Boston Red Sox fan in 04.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Hopefully the dont job him into the dirt like they've done with so many other MITB winners, hard to buy a guy as a Champ when he gets squashed by Brodus Clay in a 30 second match.

 

[CGS]

Just a thought, but didn't Zigglers jobfest actually make his cash in all the more better? Would that crowd have been as joyous if he was beating everyone? I don't think so, I think the IWC collectively losing their shit over his won/loss record all those months just made them sooo much happier he actually did it. Kind of like, if you were a Boston Red Sox fan in 04.

Honestly I don't think so. If anything it hurts his credibility a bit. I dunno I have a problem with guys going on losing streak and then winning the big one outta nowhere. It's like, you can't beat half the roster and haven't been able to for like 2-3 months now....and now your supposed to be one of the top guys in the company? The initial cash in is big but I just dont see the long term success from it all.

 

[Keith]

Honestly I don't think so. If anything it hurts his credibility a bit. I dunno I have a problem with guys going on losing streak and then winning the big one outta nowhere. It's like, you can't beat half the roster and haven't been able to for like 2-3 months now....and now your supposed to be one of the top guys in the company? The initial cash in is big but I just dont see the long term success from it all.

Pretty much my thoughts.

 

[Deezy]

That losing streak turned Ziggler face, it's not the first time a losing streak turns a heel, last one was MVP, would've worked too if he wasn't a hophead thumbing his nose at WWE's weed policy.

Losing streaks turn characters, face turns heel after a losing streak and a heel turns face off one.

MITB winner kept strong works right? Because it worked soooo well for Miz. Only person he put over during that time was to get the US title off him and everyone knew that. Did it help his credibility? No, and I know what people are going to say "Miz sux" "apples n oranges". And I'm going to say...Not really.

 

[CGS]

I wouldn't even say the losing streak turned him face though. He was still a clean cut heel until Payback. Didn't even show no signs of turning. Even then what about Byans streak before he won?

Honestly I get why they do it but I think he whole losing streak to turn someone face is the weakest way to execute a face turn and you risk just turning the guy into a laughing stock if you don't do it correctly.

Also if you wanna talk about Miz the reverse is basically what killed him off. He had a brilliant run all the way to the main event scene then after the Summer 2011 its like WWE just didn't know what the fuck too do with him anymore so what happened? Yup a losing streak and eventually everyone stopped caring. He was still petty good up and credibility up until Just after EC when it became clear that WWE just basically wanted him to set up Rock/Cena.

 

[Troy]

Just a thought, but didn't Zigglers jobfest actually make his cash in all the more better? Would that crowd have been as joyous if he was beating everyone? I don't think so, I think the IWC collectively losing their shit over his won/loss record all those months just made them sooo much happier he actually did it. Kind of like, if you were a Boston Red Sox fan in 04.

The issue I have with it is that WWE have done it so often and it is lazy booking. They continue to book MITB winners poorly and all it does is make the champion look even weaker when the eventual cash in occurs since they are losing to a guy that hasn't won a match in however many months. I want them to do something different this time with a MITB briefcase holder and instead of having them lose frequently and doing false cash in after false cash in. Repeating the same storyline for yet another WHC MITB winner will be boring.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Honestly I don't think so. If anything it hurts his credibility a bit. I dunno I have a problem with guys going on losing streak and then winning the big one outta nowhere. It's like, you can't beat half the roster and haven't been able to for like 2-3 months now....and now your supposed to be one of the top guys in the company? The initial cash in is big but I just dont see the long term success from it all.

Agreed. The initial cash in may have the added shock factor but the long term damage outweighs that. How is anyone meant to take a guy seriously as World Champ when weeks/months earlier he was jobbing in 30 second squashes. Its what happened to Ziggler, Swagger and Punks cash ins, you just couldn't take them seriously as Champs, they were never built up as Champs. WWE seems to have this ass backwards logic of giving a guy the Belt and then building him up to Main Event status, we've seen it numerous times in the past few years, shock only lasts so long before reality sets in.