Last week’s Superstar Spotlight profiled a team that was left off of the Wrestlemania card, and this week we will look at someone who looks to be lost after the big event. Miz looked like he was getting a renewed push going into Wrestlemania, and there were a bunch of ‘what if’ theories including turning him babyface. Miz got a brief backstage segment with John Laurinaitis this week, and that’s it. I might be looking at it the wrong way, but I think he could have had a bit more time or at least been involved in a throwaway match.
I know Miz is one of the less popular Superstars when it comes to the internet fans, but he does have many good qualities. Miz is a hard worker who tries to get better all the time and just want to entertain the fans. His ‘I’m Awesome’ catchphrase might not be the most original thing out there, but at least he has something. Daniel Bryan has ‘YES!’, Austin has ‘What?’, so what’s wrong with being awesome; simple things tend to get over with fans. (On a side note, I thought Kurt Angle’s ‘It’s True’ was dumb at first, but it ended up being better than ‘It’s Real.’)
Miz does a lot of work outside of the ring with promotions and appearances that most other stars don’t really do. John Cena is the only guy who can meet or exceed Miz’s efforts, but I haven’t head much about Cena going to a foreign country to do press for an upcoming tour. To be fair, Cena is the face of the company and should be on TV, but Miz is the one willing to go and do all of this. He gets alot of hate for being pushed harder, but he’s in a funk right now and most guys go up and down the card. Plus, how can you hate the guy who christened Conan O’Brien as the ‘Ginga Ninja?’ (Step into my dojo, mofo!)
I like Miz because he works hard and does alot for the WWE, but I became a fan of his before he even appeared on WWE TV. Mike Mizanin debuted ‘The Miz’ when he was on MTV’s ‘The Real World’ Back To New York season, and I admired him for having the gimmick. He ran around with a chmapionship belt and cut promos, and I thought it was cool that he was a wrestling fan like me. WWE is always trying to tie into other markets and cross promote, but Miz kind of did it without trying and when he wasn’t (yet) a star. After he appeared on all of the MTV Challenges and won money, he used some of it to go to wrestling school to try and make it.
I started following his website more because I wanted to see how he was doing. Miz got on Tough Enough and I rooted for him there, and Daniel Puder ended up winning, but he’s no longer with the company. Miz might not have been the favorite or the most talented, but he was the guy who wanted it the most. I think people need to cut Miz a break, because the same people who criticize him for being in the main event were probably fans of his during the John Morrison/’Dirt Sheet’ days. Miz is one of the few guys who has his whole career on film, and you can see just how far he has come since then. He may mention it in his promos to get heat, but it just makes me respect him that much more for succeeding.
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