WWE Squandering the Potential of Miz-Damien Mizdow Feud

The feud between The Miz and Damien Mizdow has been the WWE equivalent of soggy firecrackers. Onlookers believe they are getting an explosion, but disappointment comes instead. 

A failure to intensify what was once a red-hot rivalry has transformed a story with promise into one the audience now wishes would just wrap up.

Monday's Raw provided the latest installment in Miz vs. Mizdow, and it was hard not to be dumbfounded with how ineffective this has all become. The narcissistic wanna-be movie star took on his former protege in a battle for the right to the Miz brand. Mizdow had Miz's co-star from The Marine 4 at his side and was ready to launch himself into the next stage of his career.

There was no launching in Albany, New York, on Monday night.

Mizdow and Miz had another short, forgettable match. Near the end of it, the enemies collided near the ropes, and the former stunt double and personal assistant hung over the middle rope.  Summer reached up and scratched his eyes.

The betrayal allowed Miz to hit the Skull Crushing Finale for the win.

Even with the stakes this high, even with two fluky finishes preceding this, WWE chose to treat this match as unimportant. This was not the next chapter in a feud gaining momentum; it was a bit of filler shoved into the cracks between more pressing stories.

These two may not even get a chance to outdo this at Extreme Rules. The Miz is likely headed off TV for a while. 

PWInsider's Mike Johnson reports that The Miz is "slated to head to Canada to film Santa's Little Helper for WWE Studios."

Even with The Miz around, there would be no reason to be confident in this rivalry being anything other than a letdown. WWE hasn't done enough to escalate the bad blood between these two. After the great moment at WrestleMania in which Mizdow finally stood up to his boss, we have seen a few ambushes and a trilogy of tepid matches.

Mizdow hasn't had enough chances to tell his story. He hasn't been made to look like a star finally breaking out from under Miz's control. 

Even before this latest match, PWM tweeted about how underwhelming this feud has been: 

It's hard to disagree. According to CageMatch.net, Miz and Mizdow have amassed a total of nine minutes and 54 seconds of ring time in their three bouts. Each contest has been nothing special. They have felt like midcard appetizers rather than the personal war that fans envisioned as Miz abused Mizdow for months on end.

On April 6, The Miz won a quick bout thanks to a schoolboy roll-up and a handful of tights.

It wasn't nearly as intense as it needed to be. The Miz was supposed to be seething. He had just been embarrassed on WWE's biggest stage and was looking to put his former employee in his place.

It really shouldn't even have been an actual match. A brawl before the bell would have been more fitting.

Benjamin Tucker of PWTorch was one of many who were surprised by the brevity of the action as well as the result:

Fans could say to themselves, though, that this was just a way to delay the real clash. Mizdow would have more motivation going forward. It could have worked had these two grown angrier with each other, or had it felt like Mizdow was on the hunt for payback.

No such feelings emerged. WWE simply placed them in the ring again in another shrug-worthy contest. On April 13's Raw, Mizdow stole a win with the same move that did him in the week before.

That presumably set up a rubber match in which things would get serious. They had now traded cheap wins. It was time for a significant one.

WWE didn't think so. It chose to have the match feel big thanks to the "winner keeps the Miz brand" stipulation, but the actual action felt inconsequential. Miz's win felt just as important as Ryback's taking out Adam Rose's cronies dressed like a hot dog and a banana.

After playing the timing so perfectly when Miz and Mizdow were still together, WWE has rushed everything since. 

There should have been a bigger wait before their first in-ring meeting. The split from Summer should have happened a lot later, as Mizdow just started working with her.

Miz vs. Mizdow could have been a funnier version of what Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose was last year. That feud teased the crowd, as Ambrose got his hands on Rollins only to see the heel slip out of his grasp.

It was a compelling chase filled with big moments, from a brawl in the parking lot to Ambrose's bursting out of a wrapped present. 

Miz and Mizdow haven't had any of that. Theirs has been a lifeless narrative that is sure to leave fans looking back years from now and wondering what might have been.