What is the Worst WWE Gimmick of 2015?
By Todd Boyer
As the year comes to a close, we look back at the worst WWE gimmick of 2015.
No matter where in the WWE, you are going to have either a character with an over gimmick. This includes a Lunatic Fringe in Dean Ambrose or a bad gimmick as in a party pooper in Adam Rose.
2015 is not without it’s bad gimmicks; to name a few, comic book villain Stardust or the Road Warrior wannabees in the Ascension. But unfortunately, the trio now known as the Cosmic Wasteland is not the worst gimmick of 2015.
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The worst gimmick in the WWE in 2015 was the Meta Powers, comprised up of the Tag team of Macho Mandow (Damien Sandow) and AxelMania (Curtis Axel). Why was the gimmick the worst gimmick of 2015 you may ask? The reasoning is that it started off poorly and ended in controversy.
The gimmick started when Curtis Axel was supposed to enter the 2015 Royal Rumble at the No. 6 spot. However, he was blindsided by Erick Rowan, thus never being eliminated (though he never officially entered into the Royal Rumble matchup). Following the Royal Rumble Curtis Axel started wearing Hulk Hogan-esque shirts that read “#AxelMania”. But Axel’s part of the story pauses, after being the first superstar eliminated in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale.
In 2014, Damien Sandow went into a transition from the Intellectual Savior to the Masses into a comedic impersonator of celebrities to historical figures.
Following the brief stint as an impersonator, Sandow started teaming with The Miz and billed himself as Damien Mizdow. Mizdow started off as the Hollywood A-Lister’s stunt double, mimicking the Miz’s mannerisms in and out of the ring. During his stint as the Miz’s stunt double, Mizdow became one of the most over superstars in the WWE.
Following his split up from the Miz, Sandow came out to thank the fans and apologizing for the impersonations, only to be interrupted by Axelmania and started parroting Axel. Sandow finished off the segment by beating Axel with a Hogan Leg Drop.
Following a match on the following SmackDown against Axel, Sandow began coming out dressed as Randy Savage, billing himself as Macho Mandow. The pair began a short feud with the Ascension, as the Meta Powers, following Mandow coming out to save AxelMania.
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Unfortunately for the Meta Powers, their tag team started off as soon as it started, with the controversial firing of Hulk Hogan.
Why was this gimmick the worst gimmick of 2015? The main reason is that you took one of the most over superstars in the WWE, Damien Sandow, and the WWE creative threw Sandow into a gimmick tag team with pair mimicking WWE Hall of Famers. The whole idea of Sandow as a Macho Man impersonator was laughable at best and was arguably one of the worst impersonations of Sandow’s WWE career.