WWE RAW: 7 Ways The Miz Is Being Overlooked

Let's flash back to this time last year. John Cena was involved in promos with The Rock and preparing for his WrestleMania showdown in the main event.

There's nothing much different from this year and last year in that regard. This year, Cena faces The Rock in an epic encounter, while last year was a WWE Championship match against the champion, The Miz.

When you think about the fact that The Miz was WWE Champion one year ago, it seems kind of shocking. How could someone go from world champion to a small blip on the radar in under one year? Not only was The Miz in the main event of WrestleMania, but he won the match and retained his WWE Championship.

Now, he is brushed into episodes of Monday Night RAW for a five-minute appearance.

So how can you take a former WWE Champion and completely have him off the WrestleMania card, like the potential fate of The Miz? Simply put, he seems to be overlooked. Many superstars don't get much attention come WrestleMania season. It's all about the main events and everyone else is the forgotten superstars.

In the current Land of Misfit Toys known as the mid card in WWE, The Miz stands at the top.

Here are a few ways and reasons that The Miz is not getting the phone call for something worthwhile lately.

He Doesn't Have a WrestleMania Match

It's a little sad that this was the best picture I could find on the Internet, short of fan-created dream matchups, which featured both The Miz and the current WrestleMania logo. There are tons of pictures of him holding the WWE Championship, as well as some with the WrestleMania 27 logo somewhere to be seen. This year's logo is a lot harder to come by.

Since losing the WWE title at Extreme Rules almost a year ago, The Miz has had a few storylines falter. He finished his story with John Cena and walked away without his title.

It led to a rift between him and ally Alex Riley. The two of them would feud into the summer, where The Miz would lose at Capitol Punishment to Riley. The Miz was finally featured on a SummerSlam card, wrestling in a random six-man tag team match.

From the ashes of that all came Awesome Truth, a tag team with R-Truth. Unsuccessful tries at the tag team titles led to poor conduct and a firing from WWE COO Triple H. Awesome Truth invaded Hell in a Cell, were taken down in attacks made by Triple H and CM Punk.

They were then in the main event of Survivor Series, where they lost to The Rock and John Cena.

The Miz would then dispose of R-Truth and branch back out on his own, getting to a WWE Championship match at TLC and losing. He then couldn't last from number one in the Royal Rumble and failed to win inside the Elimination Chamber.

The Miz has lost his last 11 pay-per-view matches. His last victory came at WrestleMania 27.

His Matches Are Quick Squashes

It wasn't so terrible for The Miz to fail to win all year on pay-per-view. At least he was winning matches on television, with some of them leading to title shots that The Miz would not come through on. Even with a bad year, at least he was getting close to the top again, only to see it falter once more.

Now, we are lucky to see more than a five-minute match from The Miz, let alone a victory.

On the last two weeks of RAW alone, The Miz has been subjected to squash matches from very strong babyfaces. It was last week that John Cena would deliver the domination to The Awesome One. Last night, it was Big Show, who would have beaten The Miz earlier if not for being distracted by Cody Rhodes on the top of the stage.

The Miz does not mind getting another man over, but at what point is it going to be his turn to at least get a decent amount of offense in and flirt with a potential victory again?

His Matches Are Buried Toward the End of the Show

Here's a nice booking tip. If you want to throw someone into a card and don't want to mess up the flow of the night, the best place is to put that match right before the main event of the night. Even if the last segment of the night is not an actual match, put that match in before it.

It actually makes it better in that scenario, because the match can technically be called the main event match of the night. What it actually does is give the crowd a mental warmup for the finishing part of the night.

If the final segment is reading your kid a bedtime story and the dark match is the kid's dreams, this match becomes the brushing of the teeth. It sucks, but it's how you get to the end of the night.

Why else do you think that Divas matches go on during pay-per-view before world title matches? It becomes that buffer before the end of the night. In a way, it makes the payoff at the end better because the match before it was such a letdown.

His Appearances Are Overshadowed by Existing Storylines

The Miz doesn't have any storylines currently going on. When he does show up on screen, chances are it happens to be when another storyline is getting time on the program.

Last night, The Miz was there in the middle of an altercation between Big Show and Cody Rhodes, likely an Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania.

The week before was The Miz in the way of John Cena, who was motivated to send a point home to The Rock. This picture is a perfect example. Look as The Miz is literally in the background while the feud between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus spices up.

That's another weird thing, too. The Miz was on his way to being a WWE Champion when he had his problems with Daniel Bryan. As The Miz main-evented last year's WrestleMania, Daniel Bryan was pushed to the dark match before the supercard. Ironically, that match was against Sheamus.

Now, the two are a world title match one year later, while The Miz might be in that dark match this year.

His Promos Aren't Directed to Anyone

The Miz is one of the best talkers with the microphone in the company today. His promos against John Cena helped get him notoriety to begin with.

While he may be annoying to some, that is the whole point of it for The Miz. He is supposed to be hated. He is supposed to bring heat upon himself for going after a beloved babyface.

The problem for The Miz now is that he doesn't have that luxury right now. Whenever his promos come up, The Miz has nobody to talk about. Because of that, his most effective way into a feud, through his mic skills, is all but dismantled.

One of the strongest parts of The Miz's character is neutralized by the lack of direction he has lately.

The Blame Keeps Being Put on Him

The Miz is a company guy and knows how to fall in line when he needs to. He has his own things to promote, such as his show on Sirius radio, his upcoming appearance on Psych, as well as his constant interviews and appearances in places.

The Miz is a busy guy and has a lot that can make him notable. That notoriety usually yields victories, but not in the case of The Miz.

As I said, he is a company guy. The Miz knows that it isn't always about himself, but rather about the company as a whole. If it means losing to a young guy, The Miz will do it.

So when there are issues with the way that Survivor Series sold in pay-per-view buys, there is one guy who takes the blame: The Miz. The blame doesn't get put on Cena or The Rock, the two draws to the match and the men responsible for the buy rate for WrestleMania, but rather the guy who was storyline fired weeks earlier.

Even R-Truth is getting better treatment since November. The night after Survivor Series, R-Truth was suspended for violating the wellness policy, yet still came back to form a tag team with Kofi Kingston. By any idea of the entire card, R-Truth may end up with the match on the card, while The Miz sits around at the massive event.

His Momentum Is Gone

It's pretty simple. It's just gone. Going after babyfaces doesn't help. Betraying former friends doesn't do enough. Not even do the insults about the town itself make enough of a splash for The Miz.

So what is wrong? Is The Miz broken?

There are tons of things to guess about, but the fact is easily said that The Miz just has no momentum. If he was going to have a WrestleMania match in less than four weeks, shouldn't the preparation have happened already? Cody Rhodes keeps picking on Big Show and, while it isn't official, it still is an important part of both RAW and Smackdown.

The GM battle between Theodore Long and John Laurinaitis still can go multiple ways, but there is enough there to build off of. For The Miz, there's just nothing there. His opponents are already taken most of the time and it makes The Miz feel like the odd man out.

Follow @RobertAitkenBR