During a lengthy interview on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast, WWE Superstar The Miz pulled back the curtain on his turbulent early years with the company. He detailed his struggle to gain acceptance from a hostile locker room, being exiled for six months over a misunderstanding, and revealed that Vince McMahon’s original plan for him did not involve wrestling at all.
The Locker Room Outcast
The Miz explained that his background as a star on MTV’s The Real World immediately made him a target when he arrived in WWE. “Being on the real world… in WWE, that was more like, ‘No, you don’t belong here. You shouldn’t be here. We don’t want you here,'” he said. “When you’re on a reality show back then, you were a no-talent hack.”
This tension boiled over in an incident that led to him being kicked out of the locker room entirely. “I was eating chicken in a locker room, and a guy came in and was like, ‘You got chicken all over the place,'” The Miz recounted. “I still to this day, do not believe that I got chicken all over the place, because I was so on eggshells… but then got kicked out of the locker room. Took like six months to get back into the locker room.”
Vince McMahon’s Original Plan
In addition to facing animosity from his peers, The Miz had to overcome the initial plans of WWE management. He revealed that after competing on the Tough Enough reality show, Vince McMahon had a very different role in mind for him.
“I remember sitting down with Vince… he’s like, ‘We want you to be the Ryan Seacrest of the WWE,'” The Miz said. “When you want to be the big star in WWE, being the Ryan Seacrest of WWE is not what you want to hear.” Determined to be an in-ring performer, he knew he had to prove his worth. “I knew that if they gave me a microphone, I could get the crowd to want to see me get beat up in the ring.”
The Mindset of a Survivor
The Miz explained that surviving those early years required a specific mentality, especially when plans would change at the last minute. He even recalled a time when he was scheduled to win the WWE Championship, only for the decision to be reversed just an hour before the show.
His approach was always to prove people wrong. “If someone told me you’re the guy, and then they told me you’re not the guy, I’m more of a person that was like, ‘Alright, I’ll make them believe I’m the guy,'” he stated. “No matter what is dealt to me, I will make sure it’s remembered.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Bussin’ With The Boys with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
