The Miz Stands Alone as One-of-a-Kind Character in Today's WWE

It has been fairly easy for The Miz to fade into the background of the WWE landscape in recent years.

With his intermittent spells away from the ring to develop his acting career, he had struggled to get any momentum behind him to make him a worthwhile and relevant Superstar.

But his character always had one thing on his side—and in recent weeks, it is becoming more and more apparent The Miz is a one-of-a-kind character in WWE.

There is no heel quite like The Miz in modern-day WWE. All of the company's other big heels—AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens—garner plenty of support from the company and have lots of popularity behind them despite their characters working as heels.

The lines are becoming continually blurred in WWE in regard to what is a babyface and what is a heel. As babyfaces such as Roman Reigns become more hated, heels such as Styles and Owens earn more praise.

But The Miz is, or at least was up until his implosion on Talking Smack last month, a genuine, old-school heel who was unanimously hated across the board. There's no heel like him, and he plays the role to perfection.

He is arrogant, he's egotistical and he makes it very easy for people to dislike him. He's a throwback to what heels were like in years gone by, when there was a clear distinction between good and bad.

"

@andrewmswift "few things better in wrestling than a clever, heel IC Champ." So right. From Macho, Honky, thru Edge & now Miz. Great stuff.

— Eric Vejnovich (@evejnovich) September 7, 2016"

But although The Miz has flourished in recent weeks since being drafted to SmackDown, it is the return of Maryse that has really given him an edge. All good heels generally have someone behind them backing them every step of the way. Seth Rollins had The Authority. There were the stars of factions in the Attitude Era who had friends, allies and managers by their sides.

And what's more, with her back by his side, he's grown more underhanded than ever before—which only further makes him stand out as the company's best and most genuine heel. There was a fantastic moment on SmackDown this past Tuesday when Dolph Ziggler challenged The Miz to come back in the ring and get the title he'd left behind. But instead of doing it himself, he sent Maryse to do the deed.

That's heel work at its finest, and although some may argue it makes him appear weak, it instead makes him look like a champion who will do anything possible to avoid being hit. It didn't go unnoticed by WWE fans, either: 

All of this is why WWE should continue to reward him with the Intercontinental Championship. He consistently talks up his ever-increasing reign with the title, and although breaking The Honky Tonk Man's record (454 days) would be perhaps a step too far (Miz is only at 158 days), his gimmick should begin to refer to the fact that he's targeting the record of becoming the longest-reigning IC champion in WWE history.

It will only add to his ego and intensify his position as the standout heel in WWE. Dolph Ziggler will pose a challenge to The Miz at Backlash and potentially beyond—and rightly so—but The Miz has to keep hold of the Intercontinental Championship.

Give him the freedom on the microphone and let him produce more memorable moments like the one on Talking Smack last month when he unleashed an epic promo on Daniel Bryan.

Keep his in-ring action to a minimum, too, so people's anger toward The Miz will boil over, and it'll only further increase his standing and solidify him as the best heel in WWE.