The Miz Must Be Serious Contender in WWE Royal Rumble Match After IC Title Loss

2016 proved to be a career-defining year for The Miz, and although 2017 started with him dropping the WWE Intercontinental Championship, this month could still get a whole lot better.

With The Miz dropping the belt and potentially heading down a new path for a new year, the Royal Rumble match comes at an ideal time for him and Maryse—so much so that he should be immediately installed as one of the favorites for the match.

The 2017 edition of the Rumble match features an exciting mix of names who could be regarded as the leading contenders to emerge victorious. Chris Jericho is enjoying a career renaissance, Braun Strowman is seemingly set for a major push on Raw and the same can be said for Baron Corbin on SmackDown.

But in The Miz, WWE has a star who is ready for a return to the main event scene after having spent a number of years effectively in the wilderness. 

WWE daring to put The Miz at the forefront of SmackDown's revolution following the brand split may have been widely perceived as outrageous, but it's a decision that has paid the company back and then some.

His run with the Intercontinental Championship before dropping it to Dolph Ziggler—and that feud as a whole—was proof WWE is capable of running solid midcard feuds. Winning it back was the right move by the company, too, although dropping it to Dean Ambrose on SmackDown this past Tuesday was perhaps a shade too early.

But with WrestleMania season just around the corner, that matters little—The Miz can now move on and do bigger and better things. The Rumble match should be the starting point.

If WWE decided to hand him the honor of winning the Rumble, moving on to WrestleMania and competing for the WWE Championship, it would represent a massive turnaround in fortunes for a man who, a couple of years ago, was nothing more than lower-midcard fodder.

And the fact that he could face AJ Styles, another heel, shouldn't matter. WWE could pitch a sensational rivalry for WrestleMania in which SmackDown's two biggest heels wage war to determine who is the better of the two at the biggest show of them all.

Even if The Miz doesn't win, being a serious contender is the least he deserves. That will mean stepping away from the Intercontinental Championship scene, but Ambrose has plenty of options for people to feud with as WrestleMania approaches. One obvious example is Ziggler, who turned heel on Tuesday night and looks set to give his career a fresh impetus.

2017 may not have started as fans of The Miz expected, but the remainder of the year has the potential to be just as good as 2016.

He has shown himself to be one of the company's most impressive all-around talents in the last 12 months, and if WWE rewards him wisely, he will be in the mix to win the Royal Rumble later this month.