By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest The Miz
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
Whethere there have been moments when he’s been a babyface: “My character doesn’t really work as a babyface, if I’m being honest. It’s a person that can lose, and then the next day, you’ll forget about that loss, because I’ll just cut a promo and just make you believe. But with the babyface, babyfaces can’t really lose a lot. If a babyface loses too much, you lose [appeal]. Everyone always says winning doesn’t matter, winning doesn’t matter. It matters. It really does matter. Especially if you’re a babyface, because in my opinion, if you’re a babyface and I’m a kid out there, my kids always ask me, ‘Did you win? Did you win? Did you win?’ I always have to go, ‘Ah, daddy didn’t win this week. But you know, I’ll get him next week.’ You can only say that so many times to a kid where they’re just like, ‘I want a winner. I want a winner.’ I want to cheer a winner. People like winners, people like first place; they don’t like second place, they don’t like third place. They want the guy, their guy, and they want their guy to win, so if he doesn’t win… So that’s why I feel like my character, I’m so good at losing and then making you forget about that loss, and then making you believe the next day that I can beat the biggest superstar in the world. I could lose to whoever. Guy comes up from NXT, Je’Von Evans, and beats me. The next day, I can be in the main event. I can go up against John Cena, not anymore, but I go up against your biggest superstar, and I can make you believe I can beat that person, and you will believe that I will beat that person. But as a babyface, it’s a little tougher. It’s been weird these past couple of years, though. I would say this past year has been weird.”
In what way? “So the things I do that I know in my rolodex of being a heel and being a bad guy, I’ll do, and it doesn’t get the boos anymore.”
Because people want to cheer you: “If you’re gonna cheer me, cheer me. If you’re just gonna go ‘Ah! He’s so good.’ I don’t want that. I don’t want that. That’s the death, because that’s just, I don’t know what to really do.”
But do you feel the respect? “Yes, I feel the respect. I feel it in the locker room. I feel it in the crowd, but I’ll hear you say it. ‘Oh, Miz has gotten his flowers.’ You know what kind of flowers I get? I get the ones that are half dead, that you give to me, and they’re gonna die the next day. You don’t give me a full bouquet of flowers that are like, here are your flowers. John Cena gets the flowers. I don’t get the flowers. I get the half-dead flowers that are like, Here you go, here’s your flowers. We’re giving you your flowers. It’s the half-assed flowers.”
Why do you think that is?“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I don’t want them.”
Whether he remembers winning the WWE Championship and what else he remembers from WrestleMania 27 after being concussed: “So I remember my entrance. I remember not seeing that vignette. That Hate Me Now vignette is so good. I still think it’s the best. People say Rock and Austin, My Way, they say that one’s the best. I beg to differ, and the reason is what that vignette did in that moment. I wonder if that vignette was put on Smackdown, there would have been a different feeling energy going in. Because going in, I remember I was swallowed up. You’re the WWE Champion, I’m going up against titans, The Rock and John Cena, titans.
“Then there’s me with the WWE Championship. Back then, it still is very, very competitive. But man, everyone was fighting for it. Everyone’s fighting for that spot, that main event spot. I’m like, Man, I want this main event. I have to get this main event. This main event is everything; we have to get it. I mean, I have The Rock, I have Cena, this has got to be it. But there were so many great matches and great superstars on that card. It could have went either way. So I remember that leading up to it, the promos, everything, oh my God. I remember the promo I cut, where I walked out as The Rock. I didn’t think it was gonna work at all. I went out, did the whole Rock thing, and then I cut a promo, and I remember The Rock calling me, leaving a message, being like, ‘Dude, that was it. That was amazing. That’s how you step up to the plate. Blah, blah, blah.’ I’m like, Oh man, I’m ready.
“So then for the match portion of this, I remember seeing Hate Me Now vignette for the first time, right before I’m about to go out. I remember hearing the audience go, oh! As I walked out, I had bubbles. In my head I was like bubbles?! Awesome bubbles?! I’m the main event. I’m WWE Champion. People get pyro, huge displays of pyro. I got bubbles?! I actually ended up loving the bubbles busting out. No one’s ever done that. And then when I remember them saying, ‘You have Pyro for 30 seconds, so make sure you keep it there.’ I’m like, oh, man, this is gonna be great. They’re sparklers. I’m going, I thought these were gonna be big, huge. This is freaking sparklers. It’s like, all right. There we go.
“Then I remember looking over to my friends and telling them, literally, ‘We did it.’ I remember being in Parma, Ohio, in Sandpiper at my condominium, and we would watch every pay-per-view, ECW, WCW, WWE, all the time. I just remember all of us watching, and they were all there in front row watching me with the WWE Championship that we watched Rock and Austin fight for all the time. So I was like, We did it. I remember Cena’s choir. I was like, Oh, this guy gets a choir. Then he comes out, does his thing. I remember that the heat spot, if you will, because it wasn’t a heat spot. It was just me beating him up in the corner. I remember that. I remember the pop of the crowd when I kicked out of the AA. I remember Cena saying, ‘Just grab onto the ropes kid, grab onto the ropes. We got you. We got you.’ Boom. Rock. Boom. I remember [Mike] Chioda going, ‘Cover him, kid, cover him.’ I’m just like, Huh, what’s going on? 1, 2, 3, winning. And I remember Chioda telling me, ‘Throw your title at The Rock. Throw your title at The Rock.’ I’m like, Yeah, okay, threw the title at The Rock. Remember The Rock coming in. ‘I got you kid. Don’t you worry. Don’t you worry. We got this.’
“I have no idea. Boom, boom. And then it was over. I see stuff on the internet. I was like, I don’t remember that. I don’t remember that. I don’t remember that. I don’t remember being backstage, and me just being like, ‘Was it good?’ I don’t like seeing myself like that. But some people are like, ‘Oh, what would you have done if they stopped the match?’ That would have been the worst possible scenario, the worst possible scenario, if someone would have stopped that match. I was in good hands, and I trusted the two people in there, and I will always trust them and always be thankful for them, all three of them. It’s not just The Rock and Cena, Chioda as well. They all protected me. They all looked at me, and they all allowed me to do what I needed to do to make that whole situation a success.”
You’ve been there so long that you’ve seen so many of your friends, so many of your colleagues get released. Did you ever think that maybe that call was coming for you? “Yeah, honestly, every time there’s a release, I’m like, Oh no, is it me?”
Especially when it’s people like Dolph Ziggler who get released: “That was a tough one for me to see him go, because it was kind of like the last of my really core group of friends. I have friends, obviously, in the locker room, but that was my core group of friends. I was like, man, I’ve had such great matches with Dolph, too. Him putting his career up and me the IC Title. That whole IC title reign, he was a big part of elevating that title as well. During that time for me, and so to see him go is tough, but that’s the name of this business, it happens, those types of things happen. For me, this is going to sound very cocky and arrogant. I know how valuable I am. I know how good I am, and whether the audience sees it or not, I know people know. If you’ve wrestled me, you know. So yes, there’s always in the back of your mind, ‘Oh, is it me? Is it me? Is it me?’ But then there’s also that other part that goes, ‘I’ve done a lot in this business, and I still got more.'”
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