Welcome to our latest video on the incredible career of The Miz, one of WWE's greatest superstars of the 21st century! From his humble beginnings on MTV's "The Real World" to becoming a household name in the WWE, The Miz's journey is nothing short of inspiring. Join us as we celebrate the career of The Miz, a true A-Lister in the world of professional wrestling. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more WWE content!
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Make sure you subscribe to Sportskeeda Wrestling for more amazing wrestling content.
You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe
#themiz #miz #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling
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00:00 Is The Miz one of the greatest WWE superstars of his generation?
00:17 He may not be revered and seen level as say a John Cena, Batista, CM Punk, Roman Reigns,
00:23 Seth Rollins, we can go on people that maybe have that reservation in someone else's
00:30 heart, but he's equally important and we have some numbers to prove it.
00:36 Cody Rhodes during his post WWE days in 2016 once said that The Miz deserves as much credit
00:42 as Cena does for his media appearances and his undying work ethic for everything WWE.
00:50 According to us, The Miz has done more than enough to cement himself as one of the greats
00:56 of WWE's modern era.
00:58 Let's dive very deep into the career of The Miz and how AWESOME he went from being
01:05 a locker room reject to a bona fide first ballot hall of famer.
01:10 This is Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin, let us know what you think of The Miz in the
01:13 comments below.
01:14 Mike Mizanin was a college dropout who was not pursuing the business degree he went to
01:19 school for, so maybe in retrospect that was a good idea.
01:23 He did find his way into television not through professional wrestling, but through reality
01:27 TV.
01:28 Our younger Gen Z fans may need to know this.
01:32 Back in the day, reality TV was a massive thing, and yes, it existed a lot sooner than
01:38 you may think.
01:40 It was a phenomenon that really took off and entered the fabric of mainstream pop culture,
01:45 ushered in in a huge way by MTV.
01:48 The Miz found himself in the right place at the right time in 2001 on The Real World.
01:54 Not even 21 yet, he dropped out of college and joined the cast of the hit reality show
01:59 in its 10th season.
02:01 The premise of The Real World was bare bones.
02:03 This is the story of 7 strangers, picked to live in a house, work together, and have their
02:09 lives taped.
02:10 Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
02:15 Although his background in the real world saw him portray a pretty naive young man who
02:20 was protected by his conservative upbringing in Ohio, it was a platform where he showcased
02:26 who The Miz could become to the world in the future.
02:29 A whole 5 years before his WWE main roster debut, he portrayed a character called The
02:36 Miz goofing around with his friends on The Real World.
02:40 It was an alter ego of that young kid named Mike.
02:44 The Miz was a wrestler in the big leagues who could kick everybody's butt and be a
02:48 champion and maybe just his impression of what he thought WWE superstars were in 2001.
02:58 One thing started being real for Mizanin after The Real World.
03:01 He went to California to pursue a career in entertainment but also maintain that love
03:06 for pro wrestling, training with Ultimate Pro Wrestling.
03:10 Yes, The Miz wrestled before he was in WWE.
03:14 In 2004, The Miz would get his first introduction to the WWE audience via a similar platform
03:21 that we had already seen him on, reality television, with the Tough Enough show where regular people
03:27 from athletic ranks would compete for a WWE contract.
03:32 And the person that would win it was MMA fighter Daniel Pewter.
03:35 Considering that his legacy in WWE was very short lived, getting into a shoot submission
03:40 wrestling match with Kurt Angle on TV and then getting his ass kicked by Eddie Guerrero,
03:45 Hardcore Holly and Chris Benoit in a Royal Rumble didn't work out for him.
03:49 The Miz though, on stats alone, may be one of the most successful pro wrestlers to ever
03:53 be presented in Tough Enough, and he didn't win Tough Enough.
03:57 Another familiar person that made their mark with Tough Enough was John Hennigan, known
04:02 to a lot of WWE fans as John Morrison.
04:05 His connection to Miz would be significant, more on that a little bit later.
04:09 The Miz clearly had Mike skills, and that was his strong suit, but still they wanted
04:14 to refine the rest of his wrestling act, and they sent him to Deep South Wrestling and
04:19 Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he began testing his waters within the ranks of WWE.
04:24 It's even the first incarnations of the Miz TV segment.
04:28 WWE was also testing Mizanin in front of live audiences on un-televised Raw house shows.
04:35 The Miz's call up to the main roster of WWE would not be a smooth one.
04:40 It was interesting to see how he would be presented in front of mainstream television
04:45 audiences that knew him as a reality show star, and Vince McMahon had an unusual vision
04:51 for how to utilize him.
04:53 He wanted him to be the Ryan Seacrest of WWE, according to the Miz.
04:58 For those who don't know, Ryan Seacrest was one of the biggest celebrity TV show presenters
05:03 and hosts, very popular with American Idol, and one of the guys that got Keeping Up With
05:07 the Kardashians to become quite the sensation that it was.
05:10 It was a period when WWE was losing quite a bit of mainstream relevance.
05:14 Certainly the wrestling fans were there, but they needed that sports entertainment flair
05:19 to bring in casual eyeballs.
05:21 So Vince McMahon's vision was to try and replicate this and pander to a mainstream audience
05:27 with someone they may know from reality show television.
05:30 Miz wasn't presented as a real wrestler, just a guy with a whole lot of mousse and
05:34 gel in his hair who was the host of the Diva Search.
05:39 Yeah, it was a bit of a bleak period for women in pro wrestling, and they weren't really
05:44 presented as pro wrestlers in WWE, so we can't blame you if you've totally forgotten about
05:50 this or chose to forget it.
05:52 The Diva Search was WWE's weird talent competition to find very beautiful women to eventually
05:58 become WWE performers on screen.
06:01 Miz, for his part, managed to make the most of the role and pivoted to singles competition
06:06 - yes, in the ring wrestling for The Miz - on Smackdown.
06:10 But by The Miz's own confession, hosting the Diva Search was a pretty challenging role.
06:15 The Miz was still in the formative stage of his in-ring pro wrestling career, but still
06:19 picked up a winning streak a few months before it was ended by The Boogeyman.
06:25 That wasn't a bad debut on paper, but it was certainly something in retrospect that
06:30 got marred by an infamous locker room incident.
06:34 Mizanin was someone that the fans exactly didn't even respect as a pro wrestler at
06:39 the time, and apparently the pro wrestlers in WWE didn't respect him either, and respect
06:45 is the core element of everything that people that work in pro wrestling need to get ahead.
06:52 There was this very young guy who was already on reality show television and kind of jumped
06:58 ahead of a lot of independent wrestlers to make it big in the WWE.
07:02 The Miz was eating a chicken sandwich over another wrestler's back, and when that wrestler
07:06 walked into the locker room, he began berating The Miz, as though he was intentionally spreading
07:12 food all over his gear.
07:14 The Miz swears to this day that there wasn't even any crumbs on the wrestler's back,
07:19 but once Chris Benoit walked in, things escalated.
07:23 Benoit instantly turned against a young Miz, banishing him from the locker room over the
07:29 incident.
07:30 Yeah, it seems pretty ridiculous objectively, but WWE was all about protecting their ranks,
07:37 and they felt like Miz was an outsider.
07:39 Now he couldn't even change inside the locker room.
07:42 For six months, The Miz had to find wherever he could in arenas around the world to change
07:48 into his gear.
07:49 This was mostly in tiny janitor rooms, sometimes even the public bathroom, where fans would
07:55 know he was in there doing his business and wait for him to come out.
07:59 Yeah, pretty awkward.
08:00 This went on for six months, and The Miz had to find wherever he could to get down the
08:05 road until The Undertaker intervened and welcomed him back to the locker room.
08:11 When The Undertaker says it's okay, you know it's gotta be okay with everyone else.
08:16 The speculation around this incident and Miz's status within the WWE ranks was pretty simple.
08:22 He was perceived as an outsider reality TV guy, rather than one of the boys who grinded
08:27 his way to get there.
08:29 2007, though, proved to be a big year for The Miz, as he overcame a lot of those backstage
08:35 issues.
08:36 The Miz would find himself on ECW while he still wasn't becoming a big name on SmackDown.
08:42 He had a forgettable program with Kelly Kelly and Layla, and he unsuccessfully challenged
08:47 for the ECW Championship against CM Punk.
08:51 He had to find something that really hooked, and he found it by forming a tag team with
08:56 another tough enough contestant, John Morrison.
09:01 They both had that California swagger, that chip on their shoulder, and now they were
09:06 gonna kick that chip in everyone else's direction.
09:10 This was the true breakout period of his career, and would see him win his first championship
09:14 with the WWE Tag Team Titles.
09:17 Miz and Morrison only took a month from their formation to win those titles, and when you
09:22 think about that, that's significant.
09:24 During their title reign, Miz and Morrison hosted the show on WWE's website called
09:29 "The Dirt Sheet," which was a parody talk show mocking pop culture and essentially all
09:34 of the gossip around wrestling and WWE superstars.
09:38 It gave The Miz a chance to further hone his verbal abilities and trash talk like no other,
09:46 proving that he was becoming one of the most significant and headline-making trash talkers
09:53 in wrestling around this time.
09:55 This was the mid-2000s.
09:56 Doing digital content like that was still a very fresh concept, and Miz and Morrison
10:02 were running with it.
10:03 As 2008 rolled around, Miz and Morrison would eventually lose their titles, but not before
10:09 ending an impressive 250 days as champions.
10:13 They were probably one of the most significant tag teams in WWE at this time.
10:17 By 2009, it was time for The Miz and Morrison to part ways, and it came in the form of a
10:22 match against Kofi Kingston.
10:24 In the 2009 draft, The Miz would face Kingston, and if he lost, Raw would get a pick.
10:30 As John Morrison accidentally got The Miz disqualified, Raw got a pick over SmackDown,
10:34 and they chose The Miz.
10:35 That's how the team was broken up.
10:37 The Miz would lash out at Morrison, effectively ending their partnership for 11 years.
10:44 He began a new character, dubbing himself "Awesome" in his promos and crossing paths
10:50 with future WrestleMania opponents like John Cena and winning the United States Championship
10:55 from Kofi Kingston.
10:57 The Miz was now a verified single superstar on the rise.
11:03 This marked the first of many, many singles championships for The Miz in WWE.
11:09 Come 2010, it was time for The Miz to level up even in more ways, with the Big Show.
11:16 Yes, they formed a super-powered tag team called ShowMiz, where he won the unified WWE
11:23 tag team titles.
11:24 Around the same time, he was still the WWE United States Tag Team Champion.
11:30 He became the first man in WWE history to hold three championships simultaneously, having
11:35 two of the WWE's tag team titles, along with the US title strap.
11:39 The partnership put Miz on a path for WrestleMania 26.
11:45 Miz would face his former tag team partner defending his tag team titles with Big Show
11:51 as he took on John Morrison and R-Truth in the deserts of Arizona.
11:55 The Miz would have an awesome first big win on the show of shows.
12:00 The partnership with Big Show wouldn't last long after WrestleMania 26, and they lost
12:04 the titles, with Show turning on The Miz.
12:14 The Miz's seven-month run as US Champion also came to an end at the hands of Bret Hart,
12:21 who was quite limited in what he could do physically at the time, more of a cheap pop
12:26 angle than really a valiant title match title change.
12:31 Yeah, Miz was proving himself to be a utility field for WWE at this time, who could get
12:37 electric heat and may have been someone they saw bigger things for in the near future.
12:43 The back-to-back title loss has turned out to be a small bump in the road for The Miz,
12:49 who would step in and win the Money in the Bank briefcase.
12:53 Yes, when you have that, you know there are big things in your future.
12:58 He also became a mentor to Alex Riley in NXT when it was still sort of a game show, effectively
13:05 ending his status as a newcomer in the industry and now being labeled as someone who had accomplishments
13:11 and should be revered whether you liked him or not.
13:15 His former protege from NXT would also serve as a real career-long rival around this point.
13:21 Daniel Bryan, a technical wrestling wizard who came into WWE with a lot of acclaim, would
13:26 challenge The Miz for the United States Championship at Night of Champions in Chicago.
13:31 It was Miz's first real show-stealing match on a pay-per-view, and even in defeat, he
13:37 proved that he could hang with one of those critically acclaimed wrestlers while still
13:40 being perceived as someone put on a pedestal by WWE.
13:44 Yet the reverence wasn't coming from fans.
13:47 He was still seen as that guy who just got into WWE because of the reality show years
13:52 before.
13:53 He wasn't proven to the fans who were still booing him for more than just being a villain.
13:59 Some people just say he didn't deserve it, but by November 2010, he successfully cashed
14:06 in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Monday Night Raw, taking advantage of a prone and
14:12 vulnerable Randy Orton to become WWE Champion.
14:17 It is one of those early, very shocking Money in the Bank cash-ins, and it rocketed Miz
14:23 to a level of fame and disdain at the same time.
14:28 There are many still saying he simply didn't deserve it.
14:31 I can say, covering wrestling at the time, I've never seen a more severe, universal
14:37 backlash to a WWE title change around this time.
14:42 The Miz was at the mountaintop of the wrestling industry, and there were a lot of people that
14:46 didn't like seeing him get there.
14:49 Arn Anderson, who was a WWE producer for many years, revealed on his podcast that there
14:54 was a genuine sense of resentment from the WWE locker room towards the Miz for getting
15:01 this spot.
15:02 It's a competitive business, a cutthroat business, and you can't justify being in
15:06 the WWE if you don't want to be the WWE Champion.
15:11 But still many other superstars supposedly felt that they were far more deserving than
15:16 the Miz was.
15:17 Yet here he was, defending the top championship in the business and crushing legends like
15:22 Jerry "The King" Lawler on pay-per-view to further solidify his bad guy status.
15:27 Coming into WrestleMania 27, the Miz, still the WWE Champion, would play a clear supporting
15:33 role to bigger names.
15:36 Enter The Rock.
15:37 The Rock was announced as the host of that year's WrestleMania in Atlanta, and even
15:42 though The Miz was the WWE Champion being chased by John Cena for the main event title
15:48 clash, it was all about The Rock and Cena.
15:51 And this main event title match, where The Miz would be victorious, was just kind of
15:57 an angle to build to another match that would happen down the line with The Rock vs Cena.
16:03 Yeah, technically Miz reached the pinnacle of professional wrestling, but he was still
16:08 in the shadow of other names.
16:10 The Miz would eventually drop the WWE Heavyweight Championship to John Cena in a triple threat
16:16 steel cage match a month later at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view in a well-reviewed match
16:22 that got 4 stars in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
16:25 But still, this would end the biggest period of The Miz's career so far.
16:31 Following the WWE title loss, he was dedicated to elevating another WWE superstar, his NXT
16:37 protege Alex Riley, but it unfortunately didn't work out as hoped.
16:42 Because of his constant failure to regain the WWE Championship, Miz would form a tag
16:47 team called The Awesome Truth, where his resilience and resentment for what he felt was his matched
16:54 up with someone who felt the same way, WWE veteran R-Truth, and they professed that they
16:59 were being denied their main event opportunities by the big brass of the WWE.
17:05 They would start wreaking havoc, interfering in big matches with the likes of CM Punk vs
17:09 Triple H at Night of Champions, Punk vs Cena vs Alberto Del Rio at the Hell in a Cell,
17:15 getting themselves arrested because they hijacked the entire show.
17:19 After WWE official John Laurinaitis reinstated them, they defeated the duo of Triple H and
17:24 CM Punk and hijacked the WWE Championship match between Cena and Del Rio.
17:30 Sick of having his WWE title defenses squandered at the hands of this disruptive force led
17:36 by The Miz and R-Truth, John Cena had no choice but to call in back up, and he chose The Rock.
17:45 At Survivor Series 2011, the world witnessed the in-ring return of The Rock, one of the
17:51 most popular movie stars in the world, to the WWE ring for the first time in 7 and a
17:57 half years, and The Miz got to be a part of this match at the world's most famous arena,
18:02 Madison Square Garden.
18:04 Except it didn't play out in his favor as he's the one who got pinned by The Rock.
18:08 Imagine The Miz telling his younger self that he would one day be in a pay-per-view main
18:14 event facing The Rock.
18:16 I mean, The Miz essentially was doing an impression of The Rock on reality television over a decade
18:22 before this happened.
18:23 Wow, what a life.
18:26 Regardless of how you look at it, it was a great spot for The Miz to be in.
18:30 You don't have to win big matches to be a big player, and The Miz was starting to
18:35 solidify himself as one of the true go-to guys in WWE.
18:40 In 2012, The Miz, while being featured consistently on television and occasionally in title matches,
18:47 dropped down the card a bit, only for a little while.
18:50 On the Raw 1000 special, the same one where CM Punk turned on The Rock, The Miz would
18:57 win his first of many Intercontinental Championships from Christian.
19:03 He only held it for a modest 85 days, I guess in comparison to current Intercontinental
19:08 Champions, which is short compared to the previous reigns he once had when he held a
19:13 9-minute tag team title reign with John Cena.
19:16 Yeah, that was a thing.
19:18 After losing the IC title to Kofi Kingston, The Miz would turn into a good guy for the
19:24 first time in his career at Survivor Series.
19:28 An odd pairing between him and The Nature Boy Ric Flair would see him adopt The Nature
19:33 Boy's signature figure-four leg lock into his moveset.
19:37 But the on-and-off, underwhelming pairing simply didn't stick because the new role
19:42 wasn't working out for the natural abilities of The Miz to get under the skin of fans and
19:49 fellow superstars.
19:50 And there's one key factor.
19:52 The Miz was constantly falling short in his pursuits of titles as a good guy fan favorite.
19:59 He wasn't getting those great reactions like he used to.
20:03 He didn't progress the character.
20:05 It was quite the opposite.
20:07 Even on the mic, which was his biggest strength as a performer, it seemed less than we got
20:13 before.
20:14 It was less awesome.
20:16 In 2013, he found himself on the pre-show of WrestleMania 29, where just a few years
20:23 earlier he was main eventing.
20:25 But he still had a stellar match where he won the Intercontinental Championship from
20:30 Bad News Barrett, only to lose it back to him on Monday Night Raw the very next night.
20:37 2013 felt like a significant drop-off for The Miz.
20:41 There's just a difference between fighting for a world title and the Intercontinental
20:46 Championship.
20:47 He failed in his continuous pursuit of the IC title and had forgettable feuds with Fandango,
20:52 a one-sided losing rivalry against Randy Orton.
20:57 Which isn't bad, you're in the ring with Randy Orton, but it wasn't moving the needle.
21:01 Then he was on the beating side of one with Kofi Kingston.
21:05 In 2014, The Miz returned to Ha Ha Hollywood, where he would film his iconic role in the
21:11 straight-to-DVD action hit film series The Marine, where he returned as a bad guy once
21:18 more.
21:19 Mizness continued with the Intercontinental title, involving Dolph Ziggler.
21:23 They had an emotional back and forth, but Miz once again wasn't coming out on top.
21:28 He then went on to have a memorable partnership with Damien Sandow, an interesting situation
21:35 where a now Hollywood-envisioned superstar in The Miz needed a stunt double.
21:41 Damien Mizdow, who would literally mimic everything The Miz did.
21:46 The partnership proved to be an entertaining pairing, one that lent itself to Miz's
21:52 willingness to take any opportunity and maximize it as much as possible.
21:57 And doing it with Damien was the perfect pairing.
22:01 The Miz by his side, The Miz would flip-flop between the United States and Intercontinental
22:06 title pictures, failing to win both, but still delivering on those minutes on TV.
22:12 Miz and Mizdow finally got gold as they formed a tag team championship pairing, but it only
22:18 lasted a few weeks before the Usos took them away.
22:23 2015 kicked in with a different relationship between The Miz and the WWE Universe.
22:29 They were cheering Mizdow a lot more than The Miz, leaving the A-lister a tad bit jealous.
22:36 And you don't make a movie star jealous.
22:38 He demoted The Mizdow to his personal assistant, culminating in a second Andre the Giant Memorial
22:45 Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31.
22:48 Mizdow got the big reaction, and when he finally snapped at The Miz and eliminated him before
22:54 the big show tossed him out, it really provoked a perfectly timed match of The Protégé turning
23:02 on The Teacher.
23:03 You would think giving the younger popular superstar the momentum with the big win would
23:07 have been the way to go, but that doesn't really sum up what WWE was doing around this
23:12 time.
23:13 And nothing else really will.
23:15 Except for Seth Rollins and maybe Kevin Owens or John Cena, in 2015 it wasn't exactly
23:20 a good year to be a WWE superstar outside of the main event scene.
23:25 But that wasn't a completely different story come 2016.
23:29 WrestleMania 32 marked a major shift in WWE programming.
23:32 It felt like the direction of the company's programming changed overnight.
23:37 The Miz was once again in the hunt for the Intercontinental Championship on the show
23:40 of shows, WrestleMania 32, in a jam-packed ladder match.
23:45 But Zack Ryder, yeah bro, Zack Ryder would have his crowning moment, only for the next
23:51 night to be a very big moment for The Miz yet again.
23:55 It was full circle for him on the Raw after WrestleMania when a returning Maryse helped
24:00 him capture the Intercontinental Championship from Zack Ryder.
24:04 Yes, spoiling the week for him.
24:07 It was a frustrating moment for fans of Ryder, and he finally had a WrestleMania moment only
24:11 for it to be taken away by a dastardly heel who now was being accompanied by his French-Canadian
24:18 wife.
24:19 That didn't take too long to see that they were profoundly going to be seen and presented
24:23 on screen as a pair.
24:24 Aligning with Maryse entered a new phase of Miz's career.
24:28 If not maybe the greatest Intercontinental reigns of the 21st century, he was dialed in
24:33 and kicking some ass.
24:35 All of the Hollywood elements were truly, really there.
24:38 He had an outstanding title defense against Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and Cesaro in a fatal
24:43 four-way match after getting drafted to SmackDown Live after the brand split was reintroduced.
24:49 SmackDown Live was the undisputed number one wrestling show in 2016, and when people talk
24:54 about how incredible it was, Miz was one of the big reasons behind that.
24:58 He was getting all of the heat with his verbal tirades directed at then-general manager Daniel
25:04 Bryan on Talking Smack.
25:07 This took Miz to a whole new level.
25:09 He resented that his Intercontinental Championship was not on the same platform as other championships.
25:15 Despite being decorated, despite being a long-term veteran, he shared his resentment with figures
25:21 on screen who were performing as authority figures, one that he had a long history with
25:26 and one of his best matches with in Daniel Bryan.
25:29 By this point, Miz wasn't the underdog rookie anymore.
25:32 He was a bona fide 10-year veteran who had a real chip on his shoulder and the Intercontinental
25:37 title around his waist.
25:39 He earned respect while getting booed.
25:41 It's crazy to think that there may have been some people who didn't take the Miz as
25:45 seriously as he should be seen as a main eventer, but that 2016 run with the IC title solidified
25:53 him.
25:54 Yes, he may have had it before, but it was definitely his best run with the title itself.
25:59 It culminated in No Mercy 2016, where he took on the valiant Dolph Ziggler, a very passionate
26:05 performer who had been in the ranks with him for a long time.
26:08 They put everything on the line in their championship vs career match, with The Miz making it crystal
26:15 clear that if the show-off Dolph Ziggler lost, he had to leave WWE and NXT would not be an
26:21 option either.
26:22 The storytelling and the stakes at hand made it the most anticipated match going into No
26:27 Mercy that year, even with AJ Styles defending the WWE Championship against John Cena and
26:32 Dean Ambrose.
26:34 Because of the US presidential debate, WWE decided to put the World Championship match
26:38 on first, and although Miz and Ziggler should have headlined the pay-per-view, it didn't.
26:43 This didn't stop them from having the match of the night, as Dolph Ziggler triumphed over
26:48 The Miz with all odds against him capturing the Intercontinental title.
26:53 It was truly one of his most definitive moments in WWE, and it would not be possible without
26:59 The Miz.
27:00 The stipulation of Ziggler leaving WWE certainly added a lot of drama, but it wouldn't have
27:04 had 10% of that effect if The Miz wasn't there to play the foil to play the true villain
27:10 that he was becoming, maybe one of the all-time great villains in this millennium with WWE.
27:15 The Miz was always one to take an opportunity, and he embraced this, more than people were
27:20 even very aware of at the time, a guy living his dream, giving him further respect amongst
27:25 the same fans that maybe years earlier didn't respect him.
27:29 As the year came to a close, he found himself with the Intercontinental Championship yet
27:33 again, but would lose it to Dean Ambrose at the beginning of 2017.
27:37 But considering that he was a part of the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match
27:41 with major stars like Cena, Ambrose, Styles, and Bray Wyatt, he still very much was a player
27:47 at the top level.
27:49 Miz and Maryse went on to feud with John Cena and Nikki Bella, who were quite the celebrity
27:54 couple at the time, and they had a great job parodying the power couple to prove that they
27:59 were a power couple, leading into a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania 33.
28:04 You can tell they had a lot of fun with this.
28:06 They were always going to lose that mixed tag team match, especially considering that
28:11 Cena went on to propose to Nikki Bella in the ring in something that was not a well-kept
28:16 secret.
28:17 This saw Dean Ambrose come over to Raw with the Intercontinental Championship.
28:21 The Miz would get it from him and hold onto it for the entirety of 2017 with the help
28:27 of his goon squad, The Miztourage, which included Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas, along with Maryse.
28:34 Towards the end of the year, The Miz would lose that title to The Big Dog, Roman Reigns,
28:37 only to win it back from him at the 25th anniversary of Raw, as The Big Dog was moving on to his
28:43 annual WrestleMania campaign.
28:45 It was quite the trend for Miz, though.
28:47 In the span of 15 months, he lost the Intercontinental title and won it back from three different
28:52 superstars, Ziggler, Ambrose, and Reigns.
28:55 He then had an interesting pairing with Asuka for the inaugural edition of the Mixed Match
28:59 Challenge, which was kind of non-canon to everything else going on with WWE and streamed
29:04 on Facebook.
29:05 The Intergender Tag Team Tournament had an interesting issue with it.
29:09 Asuka still had her protected undefeated streak, so it seemed predictable that they would win
29:13 the whole thing, and they did.
29:15 Another accomplishment for The Miz, nonetheless.
29:17 He went on to lose the IC title to Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 34 in a really strong triple
29:23 threat match, before he was sent back to SmackDown in 2018 in the Superstar Shake-Up.
29:29 Do you know who else was on SmackDown around this time?
29:32 A returning and medically cleared foe from his past, Daniel Bryan.
29:37 It made perfect sense for these two bitter rivals to pick up where they left off, all
29:42 based on that famous Talking Smack promo from 2016.
29:46 The feud dragged on for a good part of 2018, but unfortunately it just didn't deliver
29:52 from a match quality standpoint like we got years earlier.
29:55 They couldn't recreate the magic of that heat they had two years prior, and although
30:00 The Miz was on the winning side of things quite a bit, it ended with Daniel Bryan defeating
30:04 him for the WWE title number one contender spot.
30:08 The Miz made it in the WWE World Cup, which was a way of playing off the popularity of
30:13 FIFA World Cup around that time that took place earlier that year.
30:16 Miz made it all the way to the finals, where he was supposed to face Dolph Ziggler.
30:20 An injury led to him being replaced by Shane McMahon, who won the WWE World Cup and declared
30:26 himself to be the best in the world.
30:28 Remember that?
30:29 We don't blame you if you don't really remember it.
30:32 It didn't actually lead to anything kind of good.
30:34 The Miz turned out to be a good guy again.
30:36 He was earning that respect, and when he teamed up with Shane McMahon, they were called the
30:40 best tag team in the world.
30:43 Come Royal Rumble 2019, they would win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships in a wholesome
30:48 moment.
30:49 But they had a run that wasn't exactly that, as it ended a few weeks later when the Usos
30:54 captured the titles from them.
30:56 After they failed to win it back, it was Shane McMahon who turned on the Miz to become a
31:00 bad guy and set up a WrestleMania grudge match in New Jersey.
31:05 At this point, the Shane McMahon match was actually a good spot to be in in WrestleMania.
31:09 You knew you were going to get a lot of time, and you knew you were going to be a part of
31:12 a crazy bump.
31:13 In the past few years, Shane had classic Kalamazell matches with The Undertaker, a banger with
31:17 AJ Styles, and was Daniel Bryan's in-ring partner for his return.
31:22 This match didn't quite live up to those ones, but it certainly was one of Miz's biggest
31:27 matches on a WrestleMania, despite dominating Shane.
31:31 There was another superstar shake-up around this time.
31:33 The Miz would change brands for the third time since the brand split was reintroduced
31:37 in 2016, and would be on the losing effort of going after Shane McMahon in a steel cage.
31:43 Despite having moved over to Raw in April, he changed brands yet again when the WWE Draft
31:48 was formally reintroduced and the wild card thing happened.
31:52 It wasn't really a great year for the Miz overall.
31:54 Since he was playing the good guy persona, it felt like there was a ceiling on his ability
31:58 to have that emotional breakthrough moment, especially when he pursued the Universal Championship
32:04 that was held by the demonic Bray Wyatt, who tormented his family at the end of the year.
32:10 This failed run as a babyface saw him turn villainous once more, this time with the returning
32:16 John Morrison.
32:18 They quickly captured the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, but Miz had to pull out of
32:22 WrestleMania 36 due to the COVID-19 concerns that were widespread, with the tag team titles
32:28 being defended in a triple threat match with only one representative from each team.
32:35 They lost the titles to the New Day at a post-WrestleMania 36 card, and Miz and Morrison would prove
32:40 to be valuable players to WWE during the pandemic era.
32:44 The Miz in particular didn't get the same credit that other top stars around this time
32:48 like Bayley, Drew McIntyre, Sasha Banks, Asuka, and Bobby Lashley did.
32:52 The Miz though, still was a critical utility player.
32:56 But his fortunes would change later that year when surprise surprise, he was drafted to
33:02 Raw.
33:03 He took John Morrison with him and would successfully capture the Money in the Bank
33:07 briefcase for a second time in his career, convincing Otis to give it to him.
33:18 The Miz though was always a safer option long term for WWE, and went on to cash in the briefcase
33:24 at the Elimination Chamber 2021 by dethroning Drew McIntyre.
33:27 It came with a big assist from Bobby Lashley who was being set up for the next man in line
33:33 position.
33:34 By becoming WWE Champion, The Miz became the first acknowledged two time Grand Slam Champion
33:41 in WWE history.
33:43 He was a team player.
33:44 When he knew his role, he was going to be a transitional champion to help other people
33:48 on the company along.
33:49 It was a far cry from his WWE title run in 2010-2011.
33:55 Just 8 days into his title run, Bobby Lashley would dominate him and win his first WWE Championship
34:02 on Monday Night Raw.
34:04 The Miz, a celebrity in his own right, would be trusted to tangle with another celebrity
34:08 at WrestleMania 37, the first big WWE event to return in front of live fans coming out
34:14 of the pandemic.
34:15 It would be a tag team match with him and Morrison taking on Damian Priest and the most
34:20 popular musician in the world, Bad Bunny.
34:23 Every single person in this match knocked it out of the park.
34:27 Unfortunately for The Miz, the rest of the year would be a little bit insignificant since
34:31 he tore his ACL.
34:32 It would be one of the first major injuries to put him on the shelf.
34:36 He returned and betrayed John Morrison again and then took off for the 30th season of Dancing
34:42 with the Stars.
34:43 Yeah, he was still a celebrity outside of WWE too.
34:47 In 2022, The Miz and Maryse had a brief feud with Edge and Beth Phoenix.
34:52 During that Power Couple vs Power Couple play, The Miz was entrusted with the duty of being
34:57 Logan Paul's tag team partner for his big tag team match at WrestleMania.
35:03 Yeah, once again The Miz was that guy they could go to for these special roles.
35:08 After the duo successfully beat the Mysterios, The Miz was immediately turned on by Logan
35:12 Paul, setting up a future Summerslam match.
35:16 Post-WrestleMania, Miz took yet another name from NXT, this time the Black and Gold NXT,
35:22 under his wing with Tommaso Ciampa.
35:25 Ciampa's presence wasn't enough at Summerslam as Logan Paul, the internet celebrity darling,
35:31 defeated The Miz in his singles debut.
35:33 A very strong match by the way, but once again Logan Paul can't have that breakout performance
35:39 without having the right dance partner.
35:41 After Summerslam, there was this weird Dexter Lumis feud that just sort of fizzled out after
35:47 a weird plot twist revealed that The Miz was paying Dexter to stage the attacks on him.
35:53 Yeah, we don't get that one either.
35:54 Miz's WrestleMania season was once again upon him, but this time taking place in Los
35:59 Angeles.
36:00 Oh yeah, so the movie star, reality star guy is going to have a big role.
36:04 Well he was the host of WrestleMania, but technically didn't have any announced matches
36:08 ahead of time.
36:09 But he would be in three if you count the fact that Shane McMahon had to be replaced
36:13 in one of these random made matches by Snoop Dogg of all people.
36:16 Yes, the same guy who defeated John Cena at the main event of WrestleMania years prior
36:21 was now being on the receiving end of an elbow drop from Snoop Dogg.
36:26 He also took on Pat McAfee that weekend.
36:28 He was literally without a single win in the entirety of 2023 by this point.
36:33 But The Miz wasn't in a stage of his career where wins and losses mattered that much.
36:38 He finally snapped the streak against Ciampa and later had a brief feud with LA Knight
36:44 who had multiple matches together.
36:46 Gunther, the ring general was on a path of destruction as the reigning defending WWE
36:51 Intercontinental Champion.
36:52 It was time for him to take on someone who now had verified respect in the eyes of the
36:58 locker room and the fans and was seen as one of the greatest IC champions of the current
37:03 millennium, The Miz.
37:05 They would tangle at Survivor Series and even in a losing effort, Miz had maybe one of his
37:11 best pay-per-view matches ever.
37:13 It was another sign of his ability to elevate other people on the card and make them even
37:19 bigger, despite them being the champion in that match.
37:22 The Miz proved that he can make his opponents look good and still snap back to relevancy
37:25 quicker than almost any wrestler on earth.
37:28 That's a talent you can't teach.
37:30 In 2024, he reunited with R-Truth and won the Raw Tag Team Championships, which now
37:35 have evolved into the beautiful World Tag Team Championships.
37:40 Throughout his career, he's had fun moments with R-Truth, but the fact that they got to
37:43 have this one at WrestleMania in a ladder match was quite special.
37:47 And that's where we are today.
37:49 We know the focus of his on-screen accomplishments is undeniable, but there are so much more
37:54 behind the scenes.
37:55 The Miz remains a rare example of a star that has lasted through the old-school toxic days
38:01 of the near-end of the ruthless aggression times, through all of the different transitions
38:06 in WWE ownership that we've seen.
38:08 He has proven himself to be a true, enduring superstar who long ago shed the whole "reality
38:15 superstar" guy who's now a WWE superstar.
38:18 Sure, he may not have the in-ring prowess of other talents, but that's not the point.
38:24 But in the end, this isn't going to be a matter of how much people talk about his overall
38:28 legacy in the ring, but his overall legacy at being a true, successful, wrestling, career-length
38:35 superstar and reaching the pinnacle of the industry by achieving everything along the
38:39 way.
38:40 The Miz has Maryse as his wife and two wonderful children.
38:44 He is someone who has accomplished enough that when you think of him walking out of
38:47 the ring, you think of him walking into the Hall of Fame at the same time.
38:53 He wasn't born into the business.
38:54 He wasn't the best looking.
38:55 He wasn't the most athletic.
38:57 He's like a kid in class who isn't as talented as his peers, but works twice as hard to make
39:02 it to the top.
39:04 Outside of his wrestling character, he's a genuine inspiration to anyone who has a
39:08 dream and wants to achieve it.
39:10 Mike Mizanin is one of wrestling's greatest success stories, and undeniably one of the
39:16 greats of the modern era of WWE.
39:19 Thank you for watching.
39:21 [MUSIC]