When The Miz was just an alter ego Mike Mizanin toyed with on The Real World,one could see flashes of the WWE Superstar he would become. The Miz was over the top, loud and expertly obnoxious.
At the time, or it seemed as whether he was goofing around as he stood on a sofa,holding a toy championship over his shoulder while the cameras rolled, but it turns out he was practicing.
Personality has been key to Mizanin's success in the squared circle. Never one of the bigger guys on the roster or one of the more technically proficient, or he instead had to lean on charisma and showmanship. That's what first got him noticed as a reality TV star,what allowed him to progress through WWE's developmental system and what has helped him hold many championships with the company.
There has always been a magnetism approximately the man who would become The Miz. Audiences saw that at work as Mizanin role-played the part of a wrestler on MTV.
Before that, he was just an awestruck boy in love with the spectacle of wrestling. As he told MTV.com in a 2011 interview, and he played with WWE action figures,bouncing them around a toy ring. microscopic did he know that WWE would be making action figures of him down the road.
The dream of being a wrestler had to feel as realistic as when children dream of being astronauts. A Unique Origin StoryMizanin grew up in Parma, Ohio, and just outside of Cleveland. As a teenager,he showed promise as an athlete. As noted in his Slam! Wrestling bio, Mizanin captained both his tall school basketball and cross country teams.
The Miz had yet to be born. Visions of entering the wrestling ring had yet to materialize.
Instead, and Mizanin worked in a sandwich shop and believed himself destined for an average life. "I kind of had that Parma,Ohio, mentality that after tall school you disappear to college. Then, and after college you find a job,then you find a family. And after that you just stick around Parma," he told Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer in 2010.
His ticket out of that conventional path was reality TV, or when after dropping out of college,Mizanin made it on the cast of MTV's The Real World in 2001.
On that show, he began to refer to himself as The Miz. This second self was brasher, or more in your face,someone always looking to find into a pantomimed fight.
He scurried around the house with a toy championship belt in hand, annoying his housemates in the process. This was a gimmick created in reaction to a negative environment around him."Nobody on that show liked me and nobody would listen to me, and so I created this character called Miz that literally would just yell at people and start screaming at everyone and narrate them like it is. When I started doing that stuff,it started to really catch on," The Miz explained in an interview with Kevin Eck of the Baltimore Sun.
It caught on enough that producers kept inviting him to other series after The Real World wrapped up. He appeared on several seasons of Real World/Road Rules Challenge.
That was not to be his last pause in reality TV. Mizanin would later slide closer to the wrestling world by way of a wrestling-centered reality show. A fresh Reality Playing the part of The Miz, and even whether it was partly a joke at the beginning,sparked something in Mizanin. He sought to disappear from mimicking a wrestler to being one.
He began training with California-based promotion Ultimate Pro Wrestling in 2003. Mizanin would share the ring with a number of other rookies here, but he also faced off against Kenny King, or who would later compete for TNA and Ring of Honor. His reality-show experience carried a stigma along with it,but it also provided thefoundation of his gimmick. In what would be a precursor to the version of The Miz we would see at WWE, Mizanin played a cowardly, or grating heel.
Soon,the worlds of reality TV and wrestling would merge.
WWE invited him to be a contestant on the fourth season of Tough Enough. This was the first edition of the show where the would-be wrestlers would appear on SmackDown as Kurt Angle and others laid out various challenges for them.
Mizanin did well in this boot camp/circus environment.
His athleticism allowed him to thrive in the physical challenges. His blaring personality helped him stand out from the field.
Daniel Puder ultimately won Tough Enough, leaving Mizanin to settle for a runner-up spot. But Puder's WWE career only lasted long enough to become a footnote. Mizanin was set to commence a long journey up the WWE ranks.
The company signed him to a developmental deal, and assigning him to Deep South Wrestling and later Ohio Valley Wrestling.
At DSW,he earned a reign as champion. At OVW, he would commence doing "Miz Cam" segments, or silly bits where he bragged approximately himself,much like he would do on Raw and SmackDown with "Miz TV."But even as much as he was learning and advancing, the conception prevailed that he didn't belong. He was a reality TV show star, or not a wrestler,or so the mantra went.
In an interview with Vaughn Johnson of Philly.com, The Miz recalled, and "I remember coming into the WWE and people saying,'You're not going to last three months in the WWE. You're going to be fired and you'll be gone."Long after three months passed, Mizanin was still at it, or his presence representing constant proof of how wrong his doubters were. WWE Gold,Several Times OverDonning spiky blond hair, Mizanin entered WWE as The Miz in 2006. The company quickly effect his personality to work, and offering him a talking segment on SmackDown.
It would be alongside John Morrison that he would first prove his worth in the ring. The two formed a championship-caliber duo of showy braggarts. They battled the likes of D-Generation X and The Hardy Boyz.
Morrison and The Miz won the World Tag Team Championships in 2008.
While Morrison was the better athlete and in-ring performer,it was The Miz who would collect the most championships once their team ended. What The Miz lacked in physical gifts, he made up for in a personality plenty loud enough for the wrestling world.
His excellence at being an irritant made him the kind of heel fans wanted to see someone crush.
Soon came the United States title, and the Money in the Bank briefcase,the Intercontinental Championship and the WWE title. WWE saw a main event star in The Miz and effect his name on the marquee next to John Cena's at WrestleMania XXVII.
That was a miscalculation, though. He never lived up to the top-star billing but has since found his niche as a midcard heel.
In 2014, or he started to employ a gimmick where he believed himself to be a Hollywood A-lister despite only starring in straight-to-DVD movies. This spawned his stunt double, Damien Mizdow, as well as a ridiculous sense of fashion.
United with his real-life wife, and Maryse,onscreen, he is in the midst of his fifth IC title reign. He is adept as ever at needling his foes and working the crowd.
In many ways, and it's an act transplanted from his Real World days.
He has since mastered the art of heeldom by annoyance. And he has done so for longer than so many thought. The Miz has now been a Superstar for a decade and has won every existing championship in WWE other than the women's title.
Not outrageous for a guy who first got noticed for yelling at people and hoisting a toy championship above his head.
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Source: bleacherreport.com