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The following is an excerpt from an article online at the official Miami Herald website:
The Miz is an interesting success story, very different from other WWE superstars.
The Miz, 30, first received notoriety by being part of “The Real World” reality TV show on MTV.
“When I was on ‘The Real World’ 10 years ago, which a lot of people don’t realize it’s been a decade since I was on ‘The Real World,’ I brought out The Miz character,” he said. “I didn’t think anything of it. I always was a WWE fan, a huge fan watching it with my friends at my place, always watching pay-per-views. When I brought out the character The Miz on ‘The Real World,’ it kind of took a whole life of its own. People started calling me The Miz all the time. People asked me, ‘Do The Miz. Do The Miz.’
“When I got home from doing ‘The Real World,’ I asked myself, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ It’s one of those things you try to figure out, and I always wanted to be a WWE superstar. Maybe I can try to do this.”
Mike Miz Mizanin turned to the Internet.
“I went on Yahoo and looked up independent wrestling schools on a whim. I saw Ultimate Pro Wrestling [WWE superstar John Cena also trained there] was a place in Los Angeles, and it was a place I wanted to move to, and it was associated with WWE at the time. I was like, ‘OK, I’m moving to LA. I’m going to try and be a WWE superstar.’
I paid my $2,500 to get into the school, and I started to learn how to become a WWE superstar.
“While I was doing all the reality shows, I was still training to [be a wrestler]. WWE didn’t really call or even like me. I went backstage a couple of times. Never got a dark match. I never really caught their eye.
“Finally, the million dollar ‘Tough Enough’ had tryouts [in 2004], and I tried it and ended up making it on the show. I didn’t win because it was the fans’ vote, and the fans all voted for Daniel Puder, who is no longer here, but WWE execs actually gave me a developmental contract. So instead of doing more reality shows, I took a pay cut and went to Deep South Wrestling in Georgia. After six months there, I became the champion, which was a pretty huge feat.
“Then I went to Ohio Valley Wrestling [in Louisville] to learn more. You go to different schools to learn different things.
“Finally I got brought up to be the Ryan Seacrest of WWE. They wanted me to host Friday Night SmackDown and host of the Diva Search. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I knew if they gave me the microphone, I could get a character over and show people who I am. After six months of doing that, they said, ‘You’re going to start wrestling.’ I said, ‘Wow.’ I went undefeated for almost six months.
“After I started losing, I started losing a lot. Literally everyone thought I was going to be future endeavored [released]. Nobody liked me in the locker room. I got kicked out of the locker room. No one likes a person who comes from a reality background and comes to WWE and thinks they can do it.
“After all the hardship, after everything, I finally started gaining respect, winning titles, and finally I won the big one two months ago. It’s been a long, hard fought journey.
People go, ‘Oh, he was on ‘The Real World,’ and now he’s WWE champion.’ It was a long road before even trying to get there.”
Who or what inspired The Miz persona?
“I was always a huge Rock fan,” Miz said. “I loved The Rock. So I created this alter ego with my own little spin on it, and it was just me basically telling people like it is. “As Mike [Mizanin], I was the outcast. Nobody really liked me on [The Real World], and then I said, ‘Screw this. I’m not being myself. People are making fun of me. Now, I’m just going to be me.’
“I literally just started calling people out on everything, and people actually started liking The Miz more than they liked Mike.”
Check out the complete article online at MiamiHerald.com.
In part 1 of this weeks Chair Shot Reality…Chris Jericho was on the show and talke about The Rock’s return, feuds he never got to have and more!
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