The Miz and Damien Mizdow

The Miz and Damien Mizdow were a professional wrestling tag team in WWE. The team's gimmick was that Miz was an arrogant movie star and Mizdow was his stunt double. Miz won the Intercontinental Championship once with Mizdow's assistance, and together they held the WWE Tag Team Championship once. Mizdow's impersonations of Miz won him a Slammy Award for the LOL Moment of the Year in 2014.

History

The Miz returned to Raw in June 2014 after a two-month hiatus, adapting the on-screen character of a Hollywood A-Lister. During this time, Damien Sandow had transitioned from his "Intellectual Savior of the Masses" character to a comedic impersonator, impersonating several celebrities, historical figures, and wrestlers.^[2] The team was created on August 25, 2014.^[3] Sandow then billed himself as Damien Mizdow and became the stunt double of The Miz, mimicking every move Miz made during his matches and mannerisms when not wrestling.^[4] At Night of Champions, Mizdow helped Miz to win the Intercontinental Championship from Dolph Ziggler.^[5] The following night on Raw, Miz lost the title back to Ziggler.^[6] At Hell in a Cell, Miz was unsuccessful to win the United States Championship against Sheamus, even though Mizdow was present. The fans soon started cheering Mizdow while booing The Miz.

At Survivor Series, The Miz and Mizdow captured the WWE Tag Team Championship by defeating the defending champions Gold and Stardust, The Usos, and Los Matadores, in a four-way tag team match.^[7] At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, they were defeated by The Usos via disqualification, but still retained the championship. On the December 29 episode of Raw, they lost the titles to The Usos.^[8] On the January 9, 2015 episode of SmackDown, Miz and Mizdow failed to regain the titles in a triple threat tag team match. At Royal Rumble, Miz and Mizdow challenged The Usos for the titles once again in a losing effort. Later that night, both Miz and Mizdow competed in the Rumble match with Miz entering at No. 1, but was eliminated by the returning Bubba Ray Dudley and Mizdow entering at No. 21. Miz would try to take Mizdow's spot, only for Roman Reigns to push him off the apron, allowing Mizdow to enter, where he would be quickly eliminated by Rusev.

On the February 2 episode of Raw, Miz would fire Mizdow as his stunt double after Mizdow began to gain more attention from fans before quickly rehiring Mizdow as his personal assistant. Further tensions between the two would arise as on the February 16 episode of Raw, Mizdow would lose his match against Bad News Barrett after constant distractions from Miz. On the March 2 episode of Raw, Mizdow would mock Miz during a screening of Miz's new commercial, causing Miz to slap Mizdow, with Mizdow reluctantly apologising. Later that week on the March 5 episode of SmackDown, Miz and Mizdow would be defeated by The New Day members Kofi Kingston and Big E after Miz would refuse to tag in Mizdow, which resulted in Mizdow leaving the ring apron and turning his back from the ring. After several weeks of slowly dissolving, on the March 16 episode of Raw, after The Miz lost his match against Ryback, he delivered a Skull Crushing Finale to Mizdow.^[9] At WrestleMania 31, Mizdow eliminated The Miz in the André the Giant Battle Royal Match to cement his face turn, only to be eliminated by Big Show, who won the match in the process. Miz and Mizdow would give each other the Skull-Crushing Finale to each other on Raw and SmackDown, respectively, after their matches. This led to a match on Raw, which Miz would win. Later, after Miz showed a trailer for his new movie The Marine 4: Moving Target, Mizdow came out and attacked Miz. He then turned and kissed Miz's co-star in the movie Summer Rae. The Miz and Mizdow faced each other in a match to determine who would keep The Miz brand on the April 20 episode of Raw. During the match, the villainous Summer Rae betrayed Mizdow, allowing Miz to perform a Skull-Crushing Finale for the win.

In wrestling

Miz and Mizdow during Miz's 4th Intercontinental Championship reign

• Finishing moves
  • Skull-Crushing Finale (Full nelson facebuster)^[10]
• Signature moves
  • Awesome Clothesline^[11] (Modified running corner clothesline)^[12][13]
  • Figure-four leglock^[14]
• Nicknames
  • "The Moneymaker" (The Miz)
  • "The Stunt Double" (Damien Mizdow)
• Entrance themes
  • "I Came to Play" with Hollywood Intro by Downstait

Championships and accomplishments

• WWE
  • WWE Intercontinental Championship (1 time) – The Miz
  • WWE Tag Team Championship (1 time)
  • Slammy Award (1 time)
    • LOL Moment of the Year (2014) Being The Miz's stunt double – Damien Mizdow

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Miz and Damien Mizdow.

• The Miz's WWE profile
• Damien Mizdow's WWE profile