“Very Underrated”: Cody Rhodes’ Former WWE Partner Reveals He Knew 10 Years Ago How Good the American Nightmare Was

Cody Rhodes has surely established himself as one of the biggest names in the WWE right now. The winner of the 2024 Royal Rumble is all geared up to headline WrestleMania as he faces Roman Reigns to finish his story. From AEW star to headlining the showcase of the Immortals, the American Nightmare has come a long way.

It wasn’t long before Cody Rhodes was nothing but a mid-carder, or wasn’t even Cody Rhodes (remember Stardust?). However, there was a tag team gimmick that, according to his tag partner, was very underrated. Who? A name that was once the king of being underrated, is Aron Stevens, FKA Damien Sandow.

Damien Sandow on Cody Rhodes’ underrated potential

In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, the veteran opened up about his time on a tag team with the ‘American Nightmare’. While they did win the tag team #1 contender tournament, they could not capture the tag team gold. However, when asked about Rhodes’ talent and their gimmick, Stevens opened up on their untapped potential. He said, “Cody and I, we were a very underrated tag team. If you look at what we did & the matches we’ve had with various people, we tagged for a minute and, like, we traveled together and stuff.”

He further added, “I’m just very, very happy he is determined and, again, taking the risks that he has and staying true to who he is.”

Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes teamed up back in 2012 to form ‘The Rhodes Scholars’. The heel duo quickly gained popularity among fans, and despite not winning titles together, they slowly started gaining prominence on the roster. However, like all good things, it too came to an end as Sandow betrayed Rhodes by winning the Money in the Bank contract. But as we all know, that solo turn wasn’t going to become what Sandow expected.

The departure of a fan-favorite

In 2013, Damien Sandow won the Money in the Bank briefcase and established himself as one of WWE’s rising stars. Cody Rhodes himself has referred to that ladder fight as one of his favorites throughout his career. However, at the end of that same year, the MITB winner failed in his cash-in attempt against John Cena, and after several seasons full of ups and downs, the wrestler was fired from WWE in 2016.

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Sandow’s career saw him play out several gimmicks. He started as an arrogant intellectual, similar to the gimmick of William Regal. But then he later had a brief tag team run with The Miz as Mizdow. The gimmick was a crowd-pleaser, with everyone rooting for Sandow to get a push toward a title run. However, that too ended abruptly, and later he aligned with Curtis Axel as part of The Meta Powers. And many gimmicks later, Sandow’s WWE career came to an end in 2016. And even though he has now retired from wrestling, he still claims that he is grateful for his run in the WWE.

What do you think? Did Sandow deserve a title run? What did you make of his words about The American Nightmare? Let us know in the comments.

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