Damien Sandow (Aaron Stevens), who was recently released by WWE, spoke with S.I.’s “Extra Mustard” blog this week about his departure from the company. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On being grateful to Dusty Rhodes for helping him early in his career:
“I’d worked for years at how to present something in the ring. I will also be grateful to Dusty forever. Dusty gave me the idea to wear a bathrobe to the ring. That was a huge piece of the character when he told me, ‘Get a bathrobe like Lou Thesz.’ I remember we were on the computer in his office watching tapes of Lou Thesz, and that’s when he came up with the idea.
“Dusty had a way where, when he would talk to you, he was very fatherly. You felt like you knew him your whole life, yet there was that other part of me saying, ‘This is Dusty Rhodes helping me!’ He was very unique, and there will never be another ‘American Dream.’ I don’t think there is another person who touched as many careers as Dusty.”
On working with The Miz and his Damien Mizdow act:
“When I was with The Miz, ninety-nine percent of what we did was ad-libbed,” said Stevens. “It was so much fun. Mike and I would look at each other and ask, ‘What are you doing?’ He’d said, ‘I don’t know,’ then I’d say, ‘I don’t know,’ and then I’d say,’ Well, let’s go and find out.’ A lot of the magic happened spur of the moment, and that was awesome. I’ll always look back on the chemistry we had as performers with very fond memories.”
On his run in WWE:
“I have accomplished everything I want to accomplish. In the entertainment business, we aspire to entertain people. We entertain by our performances. There is an absolutely an athletic element to the WWE and the performances in the WWE. But I look back at my career and feel the spectrum of emotions I have extracted from the audience in a fairly short time. I can say it was a job well done, and now is time to move onto the next thing.”
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