From Laughingstock to Champion: The Rise of The Miz

I am just old enough to have appreciated MTV’s series The Real World , and I am also just young enough to admit I thought it was cool to watch the show.

The series has had its fair share of drama and memorable characters; but there was one star who separated himself from the rest; Mike Mizanin.

Mizanin was a typical college age guy on the show; loved to talk tough and act reckless. What made Mizanin memorable was that he created a wrestling alter-ego named “The Miz.”

The Miz then was just as he is now; arrogant and brash.

The idea of seeing Mizanin as a professional wrestler was an afterthought at best; he just seemed like a guy who wanted to hang on to his fifteen minutes of fame for as long as he could.

Mizanin would begin making appearances on the Real World/Road Rules Challenge which would showcase his physical prowess. Even though he tended to do very well on these shows, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who saw Mizanin as a future wrestler.

Mizanin would not give up on his dream, and by fall 2004, he was a finalist on the fourth season of the WWE’s show Tough Enough .

Though he came up short of winning the season; Mizanin was rewarded with a developmental contract; and thus began the long arduous road of becoming a WWE Superstar.

After toiling in OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling) for a period of time, Mizanin would eventually be called up to the main roster under his character of choice, The Miz.

The first few months were pretty difficult for Mizanin. He was stuck doing backstage segments and hosting the Diva Search competition, and he looked very nervous and on edge during his first few appearances.

Gradually, the nerves would subside, and after the conclusion of the Diva Search competition, Mizanin finally found himself in the ring.

Although he got off to a fairly decent debut, many wrestlers were critical of Mizanin’s performace. John Bradshaw Layfield, who played the role of a heel commentator, would often make jokes at Mizanin’s expense on air.

In fact, Mizanin recently revealed in one of his promos that he was kicked out of the locker room for six months for dropping a piece of chicken onto an official’s bag.

Times were certainly tough for the Miz early on and losing a feud to the Boogeyman (yes, that Boogeyman) there were some who wondered if Mizanin would be able to make it.

Things would slowly start to turn around for the Miz when he would be drafted to the ECW brand in the summer of 2007.

He would begin to pick up victories on a seemingly weekly basis; plus even had a few valets. His “chick magnet” persona would really start to develop his character.

After coming up short in his pursuit of the ECW championship, Miz would eventually be placed in a tag team with John Morrison.

At first this just seemed like another one of the WWE’s thrown together tag teams. But the two meshed very well together and were eventually able to capture the WWE tag titles, giving Miz his first taste of gold.

The two would go on to form one of the best and most successful tag teams of the decade, as they would hold the WWE tag titles for eight months and also captured the World Tag titles and held those belts for four months.

Perhaps the most crucial development that occurred for the pair was their WWE Weekly Series called The Dirt Sheet.

This short weekly program allowed the two to get maximum exposure of the WWE’s website while at the same time allowing them to hone their promo skills.

Although the team was very successful, there were some out there who thought that the Miz was holding Morrison back, and that the pair should be broken up so that Morrison could go after a world title.

One of the most entertaining tag teams came to an end in April of 2009 when Miz was drafted to Raw. Many thought this would become the beginning of the end for the Miz, as the Marty Jannety comparisons would soon begin.

Miz would make an emphatic statement as soon as he was drafted by attacking Morrison and claiming Morrison would end up like Jannety and not him.

The Miz would begin to make an impact on Raw by going after the show’s biggest star; John Cena. He would mock Cena the way many in the IWC make fun of him. He would frequently challenge Cena when he knew Cena wasn’t around.

This would give Miz an unbelievable amount of heat and begin his climb up the food chain in the WWE. He would start to give some of the best heel promos in the WWE and his passion was unmatched.

Eventually Cena and Miz would face off at the Bash and predictably things did not end well for Miz as he was squashed in his first big pay-per-view match.

That moment seemed to put a huge hamper on Miz. He had all this momentum and it was taken from him in a few moments.

However, unlike other wrestlers (cough, cough Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger) Miz would not settle for being buried. He worked hard to stay relevant and continued cutting impressive promos.

Around this time, it was becoming much more apparent how Miz’s in ring skills had improved. He was by no means a great technical wrestler; but he had improved ten fold since his debut.

Miz would eventually lose a match to Cena that would ban him from Raw. This seemed like another huge step back for the man who had worked so hard to get where he was.

Fortunately, this was just a way to sort of repackage Miz a bit.

After winning a Contract on a Pole Match, Miz would begin to wear more traditional wrestling trunks as well as develop better finisher and awesome (no pun intended) new entrance music.

Miz would then set his sights on the United States Title, and after months of pursuit would eventually pin Kofi Kingston to capture his first singles title.

Miz would then get the best of John Morrison in their brief feud before focusing on title defenses.

With his recent feud with MVP, Miz has really begun to distinguish himself on the mic. He has cut some of the best promos in the past few years on Raw, and has looked very good in the ring.

Miz would then be paired up with Big Show in what seemed like yet another random tag pairing. Amazingly the two work pretty well as a unit, and were able to defeat DX to capture the Unified Tag Belts.

Now raise your hand if you thought you would ever see the Miz as a double champion.

The WWE must see a lot in the Miz, because now he is free to go on any brand to compete; allowing more exposure to the WWE Universe.

It was also just announced last week that Miz will be a mentor on the WWE’s new show NXT. He won’t be mentoring just anybody; he will be mentoring Bryan Danielson (Bryan Daniel) who is viewed as one of the best wrestlers in the world.

Giving Miz such a well established (in the IWC anyway) wrestler says a lot about the WWE’s confidence in him.

It is just yet another feather in the cap for the man who has constantly had to prove himself since lacing up for the WWE.

It is hard to believe that the same goofy kid from the Real World can be viewed as a threat to win a world title; but that is exactly what Mike Mizanin has done.

Through all the trials and tribulations; Mike “The Miz” Mizanin has proven all the doubters wrong and shown he truly belongs.

And that, my friends, is AWESOME!!