The Miz on not being on the WWE TLC card, how the WWE locker room perception of him has changed over the years

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

The Miz spoke with Brian Fritz of SportingNews.com and was asked about not being on the WWE TLC Card. “You always want to be a part of every show when you’re a WWE superstar,” Miz said. “You want to be the main event. You want to be the talk of the entire the entire show. But, sometimes, you’re left off because that’s just the nature of the beast. Sometimes you’re needed, other times you’re not. I looked at it as I need to work harder. I need to try harder but to be completely honest, I don’t know how to work harder because I don’t think anyone works as hard as me.”

Miz also spoke about whether the locker room perception of him has changed over the years after a rocky start. “I think that everyone gets that I work very hard,” he said. “I think I’m starting to get the respect that I fought for since day one and it took a long, long time. But not only do I feel like the locker room is seeing it but also I’m seeing it from the WWE Universe.

“I can’t actually believe it because I never thought they would actually respect me. One thing that I always thought was that I’d always be looked at as a reality star and, in my opinion, reality stars were viewed as the scum of the earth. They were they were the worst type of entertainer. All they did was live their life on TV. Me, myself, I loved it. I loved reality TV. I loved The Real World. I loved MTV. I loved everything it did for me but the thing about it is the perception of what people will look at it. But now, everything’s reality TV.” Read the full interview at SportingNews.com.

Powell’s POV: The fan perception of the Miz has certainly changed over the years. While every wrestler will always have some detractors, Miz seems to have won over the masses with his promo ability and his work ethic in terms of being a guy who is always willing to make WWE media appearances in addition to his regular duties. Miz also spoke about his program with Daniel Bryan, tonight’s WWE Tribute to the Troops special, the Miz & Mrs. marathon that follows, and his beloved Cleveland Browns showing real signs of improvement.

Check below for the new Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast with Jason Powell and guest Konnan, who discusses his return to the ring for MLW and shares the crazy story of how he started in pro wrestling.