WWE: Can The Miz Hang Onto the Title Until Wrestlemania?

Ever since The Miz won the Money in the Bank briefcase, fans have speculated the idea of The Miz as a world champion. Many wondered if The Miz would be the first to lose when cashing in the briefcase. However, we all saw him shock the Miami crowd and win the WWE Championship.

Since that day, The Miz has been measured against history in an attempt to see where his reign will land. Critics have complained that his booking prior to and during his title reign makes him too weak to be champion. It has led to many of the skeptics counting the days to the next title defense, only to see The Miz hold onto the belt every time.

The black eye that The Miz's reign as WWE Champion has had is the resurgence of Jerry "The King" Lawler as a regular wrestler. For the last two and a half months, WWE has made "The King" pull double duty as both a color commentator and a wrestler during nearly every Monday night. They have also made it a point to mention that Lawler was never in a WWE Championship match. Just seven days into his reign, it was The Miz and The King in the first TLC match to not feature Edge.

In order to prove that the match wasn't built to be a total squash, they teased the idea of Lawler actually winning the match, but took it so far that he would have won if not for Michael Cole's interference. This then led to a Tables match at the TLC pay-per-view against former champion Randy Orton. In the match, The Miz pretended that Orton had gone through a table before the match restarted. During the restart, The Miz pushed Alex Riley into Orton, which led to Orton falling through a table.

It has prompted fans to urge for a clean title defense by The Miz, which is a ridiculous claim. For one, The Miz is a heel and dirty victories are extremely common. Second of all, The Miz's first two title defenses have taken place with no disqualifications, which mean that any victory is as good as a clean victory. It's really impossible to win dirty when everything goes. When there have been champions who have gotten counted out or disqualified on purpose, it is actually a nice change to see someone find the sneaky way to actually win the match.

Forgotten in the mix is The Miz defending his title on the first RAW of 2011, defeating John Morrison is one of the best matches of his career. It was a match where anything goes, so those anti-Miz fans had nothing to complain about. The Miz was three-for-three in No-DQ title matches.

At Royal Rumble, Orton lost his title match to The Miz due to involvement by the New Nexus. Now, it is time for Lawler once again at Elimination Chamber. I personally hate the idea that Lawler is so high on the card. Can anyone truly buy the idea of a 61-year-old Jerry Lawler becoming champion on a RAW brand that has John Cena, Randy Orton, CM Punk, Sheamus, and a returning Triple H. Lawler does not even have a single championship with WWE despite being with the company since 1992 almost without any interruption.

The Miz will defend the WWE Title at Elimination Chamber and go to headline WrestleMania. I don't really care how he does it but I can only hope that it includes the least amount of controversy. Any questions on The Miz's ability to defend at Elimination Chamber gives Lawler the ability to still throw his hat into world title matches, which isn't right when there is great mid-card talent on RAW that could use the opening to get a potential push or at least gain some credibility.

Wrestling may be rather predictable lately, but it may be easier than ever to see that The Miz will continue to be WWE Champion at their greatest stage in Atlanta. The reign by The Miz presently stands at 78 days, enough to rank him 28th all-time in total days with the strap. By the time that Elimination Chamber comes around, the reign will be up to 90 days. If The Miz still hold onto the belt for WrestleMania XXVII, his reign will reach 132. At that point, it will be the longest WWE Championship reign since Triple H's 210 day reign in 2008.