There was a time when I absolutely despised The Miz. I, like many others, was first introduced to Mike Mizanin on “The Real World.” He was very young at the time and came off as a complete jerk, was not socially aware, and somewhat ignorant about important aspects of life. While I did very much appreciate his fandom of wrestling, being a fan myself, he also came off a little goofy and immature, clearly wanting to be like The Rock, which is the inspiration for the name “The Miz.” He even carried his replica championship around the house, annoying the other roommates and the audience. This was not a good look. I am also a lifelong fan and while o do possess a few replica belts, I would never run around like an idiot with them, embarrassing myself. To his credit, though, it’s part of his journey as a person and as a wrestler. It helped shape who he is.
For years, I unfairly criticized him for his ring work, his sometimes cringey mic work at first, and really anything. I wasn’t the only one and beyond dealing with wrestling fans unfairly hating on the guy, which I doubt he cared about anyway, he got it worse from the locker room. I say locker room as a general term for the wrestlers in the company as a group, but he was often kicked out of the literal locker room. While I still disliked his character, over the years I grew to respect him because he put in the work, realized his dream, and went through things he shouldn’t have had to. Even so, it still took me well over a decade to become a full fledged fan.
I say all this for context because it leads to the topic of this blog. After his time on Tough Enough, which really got him in the door, he started on the roster. At first, he was just a hype guy while wrestling was not really the main focus. While this was definitely a rough patch for him, I’m sure he would change nothing, as participating in things like the Diva Search helped him meet his future wife Maryse.
He started to come into his own when he was drafted to the WWE’s ECW brand and was teamed with John Morrison. Their act really got over and they eventually became Tag Team Champions. Fast forward a couple of years and he won his first singles Championship, the US Title. In a bizarre, yet in hindsight brilliant move, The Miz was paired with perennial Indy Wrestler Bryan Danielson as the latter’s “pro” on NXT, when it was still a game show of sorts. Like many others, I found it ridiculous that The Miz was the pro for an accomplished wrestler, but this was clearly WWE trolling their audience and it worked. Danielson, now christened Daniel Bryan, would become a long-term on and off for for The Miz for years on end after this.
Not long after his initial feud with Bryan, The Miz found himself winning the 2010 Money In the Bank contract, allowing him to cash in at any time on the World Champion of his choosing for up to a year. At the time, I wrote this off and figured he’d just be the first MITB winner to fail his cash-in. Even though he had proven himself by this point as a very solid mid-carder with exceptional mic skills, I still feel like this main event push wasn’t warranted. I say this now as a fan of the guy and not as a hater. It just wasn’t the right time. In November of 2010, he cashed in on Randy Orton to become the WWE Champion. Ten years later when he did the same thing, this time on Drew McIntyre, it again just didn’t feel right. The first time he just wasn’t ready yet and the second time didn’t work because at that particular point, his booking didn’t make him look like a main event guy. Here’s where I get to the meat of the story!
Quick pretext before the point of this blog
In 2016, Daniel Bryan had to unfortunately retire due to injury. At the time we thought it was for good so I’ll skip the fact that he eventually returned. He and Renee Young were the hosts of the after Smackdown review and interview show Talking Smack. One particular episode, Intercontinental Champion at the time The Miz, and his now wife Maryse were guests. Bryan criticized The Miz’ work ethic. It escalated soon and The Miz let out of of the best promos of his career, likely because it struck a cord on a personal level and became somewhat of a shoot. He tore into Bryan and it got so heated that Bryan left the set and even Maryse was taken aback by her husband’s passion. It made for quality TV! I watched this in amazement, as I agreed with a lot of things The Miz had to say. I also thought to myself, “where was this intensity hiding this whole time?” I was truly floored. It was at this moment that I threw away my preconceived notions and became a fan of The Miz. It also made me realize that promos that have realness in them and especially ones that come from the heart are much better than scripted ones. Look no further than how the promo skills of Roman Reigns changed for the better.
I’m a firm believer, especially in wrestling, that you need to strike when the iron is hot. At this point in time, because of the Talking Smack segment and a few other similar hate hitting promos on the likes of Enzo Amore and Barkk okay Corbin, The Miz was the hottest act in the company. Unfortunately, I ultimately don’t think they fully capitalized on this and by the time he won the WWE Title for the second time, the momentum was lost and his booking hadn’t been what it used to. That’s why I wanted to do some fantasy booking and correct this situation.
I’d start giving The Miz big wins on TV and PPV’s. Because I have him eventually become the WWE Champion, he’s gotta lose the Intercontinental Title, a belt which he really revived the prestige of by this point. Despite the loss, I’d continue to book The Miz strong. Now we come to January of 2017 and specifically, the Royal Rumble. One thing I’d keep the same, specifically due to the rise of The Miz, is John Cena defeating AJ Styles for the WWE Title. It’ll become more clear soon. Later that night, instead of Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble, I’d have The Miz win it, really going with his momentum.
Some things going forward stay the same but in different timeframes. For instance, one particular WrestleMania match that was being built up at the time was a mixed tag team match of The Miz and Maryse vs. John Cena and Nikki Bella, which lead to the real life proposal of John to Nikki. While we know that didn’t exactly work out, that’s neither here nor there. The Miz and Maryse were at their best on the Road to WrestleMania, with hilarious parodies of their opponents. The funniest was Maryse’s uncanny portrayal of Nikki, specifically focusing on Nikki’s annoying speech inflections. It was comedy gold and it brought heat to the feud. However, with Cena going into WrestleMania as WWE Champion and Royal Rumble winner The Miz challenging, I’d put the mixed tag earlier at the PPV before WrestleMania. That way, the result of that match can stay and same, along with the Cena proposal, but still keeping momentum going for The Miz.
Now the WrestleMania main event of John Cena and The Miz for the WWE Title is much more credible than that exact match that happened six years earlier. Much like their WrestleMania 27 encounter, at WrestleMania 33 The Miz walks away as the WWE Champion. I’d then give him a solid run with the belt. This prevents things like Jinder Mahal becoming WWE Champion, something I and many fans wish never happened. Eventually, he’d lose the Title to AJ Styles later that year, who was the one that defeated Jinder for the Title anyway. Hopefully, from this point on The Miz would continue to cut amazing promos and become pushed strongly from time to time, again revisiting his feud with Daniel Bryan upon Bryan coming out retirement. This situation that I spoke about here would have been the perfect time for The Miz to be WWE Champion and look good doing it, unlike the times when it did happen. Like the title of this post, I truly believe this was when The Miz was at his most…AWESOME!!!
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