WWE: 10 Reasons the Miz Has Lost His Edge

The Miz lost on last night's Raw...again.

That's been the theme for the former WWE Champion lately, as he's gone from WrestleMania headliner to complete afterthought.

While it's not clear if The Miz has backstage heat or if creative simply doesn't want to push him because he's set to start filming The Marine 3 soon, the bottom line is that he's taken as big a plunge down the card as any current WWE star.

He was once "the most must-see champion in WWE history." Now, he's become just another guy.

Here are 10 reasons why The Miz has lost his edge.

10. Brodus Clay

In a way, Brodus Clay has single-handedly destroyed The Miz's credibility over the last several weeks.

The Miz has lost to Clay a number of times, and he's done so largely in jobbing fashion. Oh yeah, that whole dancing segment at Over the Limit didn't help, either.

I know that the WWE needed someone for Clay to beat to make "The Funkasaurus" look good, but all he really did was make The Miz look bad.

Jobbing The Miz out on Raw and on pay-per-view and then having him take the pin in that six-man tag team match a while back isn't going to do him any favors.

All it did was turn him into Clay's personal whipping boy.

9. Regressed Mic Skills

I don't think that The Miz has simply "lost it" when it comes to his mic skills.

But something just seems off when it comes to his promos lately.

He used to cut heat-generating promos that caused him to get booed out of the building on a consistent. Now, he rarely cuts promos, and when he does, they aren't must-see ones like he used to cut in the past.

Don't get me wrong—The Miz is still one of the better mic workers in the business. But ever since he dropped the WWE Championship, it almost seems like he's lost his desire and/or his opportunity to steal the show on the mic.

He was on fire as a talker in late 2010 and early 2011, but—whether it's because of the promos creative scripts for him or due to his position on the card—he's not dropping those pipe bombs that made him a main eventer. 

8. The End of Awesome Truth

When The Miz was paired up with R-Truth as Awesome Truth, he was as big a part of Raw as any other superstar.

He interrupted pay-per-view main events, he was at the center of one of the biggest angles of the year in 2011, and he even main-evented Survivor Series against The Rock, who hadn't wrestled in seven years.

Even if The Miz jobbed to The Rock and John Cena at the PPV, he was still headlining a "Big Four" PPV against one of the biggest names in wrestling history.

When The Miz was partnered up with Truth and the whole conspiracy angle was ongoing, he had some sort of direction, had a permanent spot on Raw and was still viewed as a main-event caliber superstar.

But, for whatever reason, the WWE decided to split Miz and Truth up, which I still think was one of the biggest mistakes of the year.

I'm not saying they should have stayed together forever, but they could have stuck around longer and probably would have been given some better booking than what they're currently getting.

7. WWE's New Focus on Names from the Past

This is completely out of The Miz's control, but it's something that's affected The Miz, nonetheless.

The WWE has brought back four big names from the past recently (The Rock, Tensai, Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho), and it's really hurt The Miz's chances of succeeding.

All four of those guys returned on the Raw brand, and three of them came back as main event level heels (though Tensai already appears to be done as a main-eventer).

Naturally, when you bring in three major heels to one show in a four-month span, that means that those heels are going to take up plenty of TV time and some spots at the top of the heel pecking order.

With Tensai, Lesnar and Jericho sliding in as top heels on Raw, the creative team easily forgot about The Miz.

After all, it's hard to make much noise after such a huge influx of talent on Raw.

6. No Memorable Matches Recently

Obviously, The Miz can't book himself in high-profile matches.

But the WWE has almost completely shied away from booking him in any sort of matches that matter or stand out in 2012.

Yeah, he got the win for Team Johnny at WrestleMania, but he was one of 12 competitors in the match and really didn't stuck out all that much.

The last memorable match that The Miz had came way back in December 2011 when he faced Alberto Del Rio and CM Punk in a really good Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship.

That was one of the better bouts of The Miz's career, but really, it was a match that no one ever really thought he had a chance to win and that was his final main event caliber match.

I don't blame The Miz for his lack of memorably matches recently. I blame creative.

Unfortunately for The Miz, though, he's the one who suffers because of it.

5. The Informal End of the Brand Split Has Killed Raw's Mid-Card

I've already said it thousands of times before: The WWE has virtually no mid-card, especially on Raw.

You're either teetering in the main event, actually in it or nothing but an enhancement worker—that's all.

It sucks because the mid-card has traditionally produced some great feuds and matches. But for the most part, it is nonexistent in today's WWE.

That, in turn, has had a domino effect that has really hurt a number of talented mid-carders—guys like Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger and...The Miz.

If the mid-card mattered more than it currently does, the mid-carders themselves would matter more, too.

But since the creative team apparently has no desire to build up a legitimate mid-card for the long haul, guys like The Miz are going to suffer.

4. The Storyline with John Laurinaitis That Went Nowhere

Remember this?

Following The Miz's win at WrestleMania 28, John Laurinaitis promised the former WWE Champ that he had "big plans" for him.

I waited and waited for something to come of this because it would have made sense for Laurinaitis to give The Miz preferential treatment since The Miz, as he said on last night's Raw, is the main reason why he's still employed by the WWE.

Yet, we got nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

The creative team literally just completely dropped this storyline, and The Miz's WrestleMania win has essentially wound up being completely pointless.

He should have gotten a World title match or something along those lines because he's a heel and so is Laurinaitis.

Yet, in true WWE creative team fashion, he got forgotten about.

3. He's a Glorified Jobber

I'm a fan of The Miz, so as much as I hate to say it, he's become a glorified jobber.

Heck, he may not even be glorified anymore.

I remember watching The Miz face John Cena in a WrestleMania 27 rematch on the buildup to WrestleMania 28, and a match that headlined the WWE's biggest pay-per-view of the year in 2011 was basically a short squash not even one year later.

But it didn't just stop there for The Miz.

He jobbed to Sheamus and CM Punk, too, and of course, he's become Brodus Clay's personal jobber as of late as well.

While The Miz was once a guy who beat jobbers, he himself has basically become one.

2. He's Stale

"Stale" is a word that often describes a number of WWE superstars.

And right now, that word fits The Miz perfectly.

His whole "I'm The Miz, and I'm...awesome!!!" routine worked well at first and still does to an extent, but his character as a whole is no longer fresh and instead has become stagnant.

This happens to almost every WWE star at some point or another because wrestling fans have short attention spans and it doesn't take us very long to get sick of seeing someone do the same thing.

I think The Miz pulls off his character well, but it has definitely gotten a bit monotonous over the last several months.

He needs to do something to change things up, to adapt, to evolve.

All the greats have done it, and if The Miz wants to be remembered as a great as well, he's going to have to do it, too.

1. Bad Booking

Let's just call it like we see it: Almost everything I've mentioned on this list can be attributed to bad booking.

The early breakup of Awesome Truth? Bad booking.

The storyline with John Laurinaitis that went nowhere? Bad booking.

The fact that The Miz is basically now a jobber? Bad booking.

A superstar can do anything and everything that's asked of him and do it well, but the bottom line is that the creative team largely controls the fate of every guy and gal on the roster.

If creative puts you in a great storyline, chances are you are going to succeed. If creative puts you in a bad one or turns you into a jobber, then chances are that's how you are going to be viewed going forward.

I think that The Miz, much more so than just about any superstar on the WWE roster, has been a big victim of bad booking.

There are so many times that he could have done something big, but wound up doing nothing.

And it wasn't his fault, either. It was almost always a classic case of "creative has nothing for you."

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.