The Miz sat down for a lengthy interview with Chris Von Vliet that dropped on Tuesday. During the discussion, he spoke at length about important moments in his career, such as his early feud with John Cena and when he impersonated The Rock, as well as less pleasant times, like when he was banished from the WWE locker room for six months.
Before he was “The Miz,” Mike Mizanin first came to the public eye as a reality television star courtesy of MTV’s “The Real World” and various spin-off shows like “Road Rules.” He told Von Vliet that his work on MTV led to him getting booked on college circuits, where people would ask him to cut promos as “The Miz.”
These appearances led to his participation in the fourth season of “Tough Enough,” where contestants competed for a WWE contract. Though he came up short on “Tough Enough,” he was nonetheless offered a developmental deal and began working his way up the WWE system.
The Miz has long been noted for his ability to feed into fans’ reactions. As for this knack to lock in with the audience, The Miz credited his work with John Cena.
“Were you always that in tune to the crowd?” Von Vliet asked.
“No, Cena got me there,” he answered.
He then explained Cena also provided major career inspiration by being part of his first major singles feud following the dissolution of his tag team with John Morrison.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is it! This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. This is my chance. This is my shot,’” he said.
However, after some hype, he lost to Cena in decisive fashion on pay-per-view. Though feeling deflated, he said a conversation with Arn Anderson about not being ready for a star on the level of Cena taught him to “go back down and dig deep and start building myself little by little.”
The Miz then worked his way up and won the WWE Championship. He was then booked to defend it against Cena at WrestleMania 27. The build to the match saw The Miz impersonate The Rock, who would serve as WrestleMania host, during an episode of Raw.
The Miz said: “I remember the promo I cut, where I walked out as The Rock. I didn’t think it was going to work at all. I went out, did the whole Rock thing, and then I cut a promo, and I remember The Rock calling me, leaving a message, being like, ‘Dude, that was it. That was amazing. That’s how you step up to the plate. Blah, blah, blah.’ I’m like, Oh man, I’m ready.”
While he was eventually anointed a star by the likes of The Rock and Cena, The Miz still had to pay his dues during his early years in WWE. One of the most infamous chapters of this time came when he was temporarily banished from the WWE locker room.
“What am I doing here? I’m a grown man, a WWE superstar, and I’m changing in a broom closet,” The Miz recalled. “I’m going to bathroom with fans, and fans are going, ‘Hey, I think I saw The Miz just go in the stall,’ and meanwhile my music’s about to play in five minutes. Like, was there ever a time I wanted to quit? Yeah, but I don’t quit.”
The Miz told Von Vliet that it was not The Undertaker who kicked him out of the locker room, but it was the Hall of Fame’s call to let him return.
“I asked Taker. I was like, ‘Man, I’ve been out of the locker room for a long time.’ He goes, ‘Oh, you have?’ Yeah, I’ve been out like six months. ‘What’d you do?’ I ate a piece of chicken in the locker room, and it got all over,” he said. “I still believe it did not, but other people will tell you differently, and they can have their opinions. That is fine.”
As for why he didn’t fight back against the locker room ban, The Miz explained that “if I would have done something like that, I probably would have been fired, or I looked at it as if I stand up to this person who is a locker room leader and very respected, and the reality guy steps up and talks and mouths off at that person, they’re never going to teach me. I need them to teach me.”
Now, The Miz has seen things come full circle, and he said he’s “grateful for to be able to be to call myself a WWE superstar and have the career that I had and be able to share the wealth of knowledge that I have with the younger generation.”