Goodbye Barrett, Riley, and Sandow

Hey there folks, Jordan Bass (@JordanJoMo on Instagram) here once again for another blog here on TheWrestlingClassic.com.

This past Friday we received the news of the releases of the following members of the WWE roster: Zeb Colter, El Torito, Hornswoggle, Cameron, Santino Marella, Alex Riley, Damien Sandow, and the departure of Wade Barrett.

The releases of the first 5 didn’t really upset me. Colter and Marella had no reason to still be employed, Cameron was a long time coming, Hornswoggle hasn’t done anything in a long time, and El Torito wasn’t going to do anything now that the Matadors are no longer a thing. However, the releases of Riley and Sandow and Barrett’s departure really hit me hard.

All three men will go down as three of the most screwed over superstars in WWE history.

Image via WWE.com

Riley was so incredibly over after turning on The Miz in 2011. It looked like he was in line to be the second biggest babyface on Raw right behind Cena, but soon he was just on Superstars facing the likes of Michael McGillicutty, JTG, Primo, and Drew McIntyre, yet he was still extremely over. I will never understand why he got such a depush while he was still super over and in the same year that they did the big turn on The Miz. Alex Riley was an energetic, charismatic, fun face. He had the look, the athletic ability, he was enjoyable to watch, and he truly had it all. He looked like someone that would be on all the promotional material like pay-per-view posters, programs, the trucks, etcetera. He also clearly loved pro wrestling and wanted to be something, just as he deserved to be. His career truly makes me upset thinking about how big he could have been and then they pushed him off the map.

Image via WWE.com

Damien Sandow was missed opportunity after missed opportunity. He debuted his Sandow gimmick back in early 2012 post-Wrestlemania and had a nice undefeated run for a while as the “Intellectual Savior of the Masses” becoming a quite over heel. He then formed a tag team with Cody Rhodes known as Team Rhodes Scholars that was a very entertaining team. Sandow entered a good feud with Sheamus heading into Payback 2013 after the Rhodes Scholars split for about a month. They reformed heading into Money in the Bank 2013 where Sandow split off from Rhodes after shoving him off the ladder to retrieve the Money in the Bank briefcase. This is where I thought Sandow was on his way to huge things. However, post-Money in the Bank, he came up short in his feud with Rhodes and moved on to being basically a jobber. He lost to Santino Marella to the Cobra on Main Event as Mr. Money in the Bank for god’s sake. To top it all off, he lost his cash-in to John Cena. While the match itself was great, that was the beginning of the end for Sandow. Sandow went on to be a midcarder for the remainder of the year before falling to total jobber status, losing to the likes of Darren Young and Dolph Ziggler on Smackdown at the beginning of 2014, as well as quickly getting eliminated in the 2014 Royal Rumble.

Image via WWE.com

He then became an impressionist where he dressed up as a different ridiculous character every week. This led to him becoming Damien Mizdow where he was Miz’s “stunt double” and he would impersonate everything The Miz did. This got Sandow incredibly over with the crowd to the point that they built to a split between the two at Wrestlemania 31 in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal where Sandow threw out The Miz from the match and nearly won the whole thing by almost eliminating the winner, Big Show, multiple times. After Mania, he continued the Mizdow gimmick for a few weeks, which was a bad move, before losing the feud to The Miz and no longer being Mizdow. The week after losing to Miz, Sandow cut a great, heartfelt promo on Raw where he talked about his career leading up to that point and he was just totally honest and it was real and full of real emotions. He was also very over in that promo. He was then interrupted by Curtis Axel and he, well, mocked him in a very childish manner. That was very lame but I wasn’t too upset because hey, it looked like Sandow was on his way to actually being something. But no, after beating Axel on Smackdown later that week (and coming out to an awesome Hallelujah chorus rock remix), he soon became “Macho Mandow”, a literal Randy Savage knockoff and he teamed with Curtis Axel who was dressed as Hulk Hogan. They were a short lived comedy tag team and after the whole Hogan scandal last summer, they disappeared from television. Sandow didn’t really reappear until the Royal Rumble kickoff show (his only appearance in between was on an episode of Main Event where he defeated Heath Slater) where he teamed with Darren Young in a losing effort, but my god was he over or what. A big pop when he came out, chants for him throughout the match, the fans still loved him. He made a few sporadic appearances after that on Superstars, Main Event, and Smackdown, before now getting released. It just honestly depresses me because I know how hard Sandow tried to become relevant, and even at jobber status he still was relevant with the fans. I hope to see him get major success outside WWE like I know he can.

Image via WWE.com

Wade Barrett. Bad News Barrett. King Barrett. Whatever you prefer to call him, I like to call him one of WWE’s biggest missed opportunities of all time. Now that isn’t all on WWE, Barrett did suffer a few injuries in his career that held him back, but Wade Barrett was a guy that I always thought would be World Champion one day. I still firmly believe he should have won the WWE Championship from Randy Orton back at Survivor Series 2010 while he was still the leader of The Nexus. That would’ve catapulted him so high and would’ve made The Nexus a much more threatening group as a whole. However, he came up short on multiple pay-per-views in 2010 before ultimately being kicked out of his own group and going to Smackdown to create a new group known as “The Corre”. That group was far less successful than The Nexus ever was, they lost to Kingston, Santino, Kane, and Big Show in 90 seconds at Wrestlemania 27 and split after about 5 months as a faction. Barrett went on to be a singles competitor after that and was actually doing rather well in that role, feuding with Bryan, Gabriel, Sheamus, and Orton in mid to late 2011. Barrett’s feud with Orton really put him on the map, his team even beat Team Orton at Survivor Series 2011 as Barrett pinned Orton and him and Rhodes were sole survivors. Barrett was on a role and in a very prominent position on Smackdown before getting injured heading into Wrestlemania 28. That injury put him out of action until about September of 2012, later that year.

Image via WWE.com

Barrett could’ve had a big return, maybe attacking World Champion Sheamus or returning to be a part of Team Ziggler in the UK heading into Survivor Series 2012, but instead he squashed Yoshi Tatsu on Smackdown and had some more squashes in the weeks following. He never really entered a feud until he began a feud with Kofi Kingston at the end of 2012 that culminated with him becoming Intercontinental Champion for a second time. At the beginning of 2012 in a huge win for Barrett, he beat Randy Orton 100% clean on Raw in a very good match. I thought for sure Barrett was moving on to big things after that. However, shortly after he became highly unimportant and was basically a fall guy on Smackdown, losing to Del Rio among others. Barrett then lost his title at Wrestlemania 29 to The Miz before winning the title back the very next night on Raw in a stellar match. He went on to lose his title in a triple threat match at Payback to Curtis Axel and Barrett wasn’t the same after that for the rest of the year. He disappeared from television and returned with his “Bad News” Barrett gimmick and he didn’t wrestle a match until the night after Wrestlemania 30, even though he entered himself in the 2014 Royal Rumble, but never actually entered the match. He beat Rey Mysterio on the Raw after Mania 30 and then beat Big E for the Intercontinental Championship at Extreme Rules to become a 4 time Intercontinental Champion. Barrett was finally back on a roll, even being an important factor for the months following, but then he suffered yet another injury, this time heading into Money in the Bank 2014. This was a huge blow for his career as he was on a roll and then he got hurt, such bad timing.

Image WWE.com

He returned and beat Cesaro before winning the Intercontinental Championship again, this time beating Dolph Ziggler, and he became a 5 time Intercontinental Champion, a huge career feat. But his winning ways didn’t last long. He lost to Sin Cara on Smackdown and then beat him when the title was on the line, but he was nowhere to be seen on Raw. Heading into Wrestlemania 31, he lost every single match he was involved in and even in the multi-man tag matches, Barrett as INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION was the one who took the falls. I will never understand what the point was behind making Barrett look like a total goof and a bad champion. He lost the title in a Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 31. About a month or so after Wrestlemania, it looked as though Barrett was back on the right track as he won King of the Ring, but that just led to him entering a long comedy feud with R-Truth. After Summerslam, Barrett was off TV for about a month filming a WWE Studios film and then he returned and formed a tag team with Sheamus. He continued his allegiance with Sheamus until they formed the League of Nations with Rusev and Del Rio. Barrett got hurt again while the group existed and was a total afterthought as he never wrestled because obviously he couldn’t. Even when he was healthy, he was still the 4^th wheel. His last appearance was the night after Wrestlemania 32 where he was kicked out of the League and beat down by his partners. It sucks that a career you expected such big things out of had to end the way it did and Barrett is so immensely talented both in the ring and out of it. Whatever he chooses to do now, he’ll be successful at it because he’s just a naturally talented guy.

It truly blows that not only three great talents, but three of my favorite wrestlers of the past 10 years are no longer with the company. Barrett Riley, and Sandow have left lasting memories with me as a wrestling fan and I appreciate all that they’ve done so much. I want to thank them for their time in WWE and all they did.

Matches to watch from Barrett, Riley, and Sandow:

Barrett:

• Wade Barrett vs. Daniel Bryan from Summerslam 2011 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Wade Barrett vs. Trent Barreta from Superstars 8/18/11 (https://youtu.be/lxVMzW7qM8U)
• Wade Barrett vs. Randy Orton in a Falls Count Anywhere Match from Smackdown 12/30/11 (https://youtu.be/p9p3fUr1lr4)
• Wade Barrett vs. The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship from Raw 4/8/13 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Wade Barrett vs. Daniel Bryan in a Steel Cage Match from Smackdown 8/23/13 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Bad News Barrett vs. Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship from Raw 6/23/14 (can be found on WWE Network)
• King Barrett vs. Neville from Smackdown 11/12/15 (can be found on WWE Network and Hulu)

Riley:

• Alex Riley vs. Kaval from NXT 6/15/10 (https://youtu.be/c_3v9NVc2wI)
• Alex Riley vs. The Miz from Capitol Punishment 2011 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Alex Riley vs. Jack Swagger from Superstars 7/28/11 (https://youtu.be/mE8jZmE3lMk)
• Alex Riley vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger vs. John Morrison for the United States Championship from Night of Champions 2011 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Alex Riley vs. Michael McGillicutty from Superstars 11/24/11 (https://youtu.be/-9c-fuuR1Z0)
• Alex Riley vs. The Miz from Superstars 4/26/12 (Episode: https://youtu.be/7CuJJjX92r0 Time Stamp: 27:00)
• Alex Riley vs. Drew McIntyre from 8/16/12 (Episode: https://youtu.be/Z34jm_uJOG0 Time Stamp: 17:00)

Sandow:

• Damien Sandow vs. Sheamus from Payback 2013 Kickoff Show (https://youtu.be/PTUgyUF3Elc)
• Damien Sandow vs. Randy Orton from Raw 8/12/13 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes from Summerslam 2013 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Damien Sandow vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship from Raw 10/28/13 (https://youtu.be/gPmUIv4Tf6c)
• Damien Sandow vs. John Cena from Raw 1/13/14 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Damien Sandow vs. Dolph Ziggler from Smackdown 3/20/14 (can be found on WWE Network)
• Damien Mizdow vs. Stardust from Raw 3/30/15 (can be found on WWE Network)

Thanks for reading! More blogs will be coming this month so stay tuned! Any feedback in the comments section would be greatly appreciated!