WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz recently appeared on Booker T’s Heated Conversations radio show to talk about various topics. Miz is slated to defend his title against Finn Balor and Seth Rollins in a Triple Threat Match at WrestleMania 34 next month.
During the interview, he was asked about wanting to make the title special once again.
“When my wife [Maryse] first came to WWE, it was like the day after WrestleMania and she had came back and actually helped me to defeat Zack Ryder for the Intercontinental title. At that moment, I was like, never again will I ever be looked as anything other than a main eventer. Everything I do will be at an elite level; the boss level. I will tell you what, I looked at that Intercontinental title – when I was a kid, my heroes had that title; Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect. I was watching this title get dug and dug into the grave, because anytime you have the title it is more like, ‘oh, that guy is going to lose.’ Anytime there was a non-title match that person was going to lose who had the title. I didn’t want that anymore. I was sick of it, and I will never forget where I went off on Daniel Bryan. That day, I went through so much on my mind, I was so aggravated. Here I was trying to make the title as prestigious as I can in WWE but I wasn’t even on the show. They told me that I was involved in a dark match to open the show. It is not that I didn’t want to do it and perform for the audience, it was more like, this title deserves better than this.
We are bringing out new Tag Team titles, new Women’s title, so we don’t have time for your title. I told them to put me on Talking Smack. They were wondering why I wanted to be on Talking Smack, and I said, ‘What do you mean, why do I want to be on Talking Smack? It will be the ability to showcase what I can do so you can see exactly the abilities that I have and showcase my talent.’ I told them that it was going to break the internet if they put me on Talking Smack, and they agreed to put me on the show. Then, when I went on there, Daniel Bryan and I kind of went off. I literally thought he was going to punch me, but he just walked off. Honestly, it was the best thing that could have happened because it allowed me to be center stage and just let off all of my frustration and everything that I was feeling at that moment, and I remember feeling inside my head reminding myself to not lose it. I then said, you know what, lose it. People tell me it was the best promo I had ever done, but here I was flubbing words because I was so mad.”
Miz was also asked during this interview about his success in the sports entertainment company.
The Miz was drafted to the ECW brand in 2007 where he formed a partnership with John Morrison. Together, they won the WWE Tag Team Championship and World Tag Team Championship.
After being drafted to Raw in 2009, he won the United States Championship twice, tag team titles with John Cena, Damien Mizdow, and twice with Big Show, as well as the 2010 Raw Money in the Bank ladder match. He cashed in his briefcase to win the WWE Championship in November 2010 and went on to hold for six months. He is also the one of longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion in WWE history.
If you recall, the biggest match of The Miz’s career was when defeated Cena for the WWE Championship back at WrestleMania 27 in 2011 in the main event.
“I think it is the ability to evolve. I mean, when you look at your [Booker T] career. You went from the five-time, five-time, five-time World Champion to King Booker, which was arguably one of my favorite characters of all-time. It was so much fun to watch. I think the first time, William Regal had to say, “All Hail King Booker’ for like ten minutes, and you were eating it up. Watching it, I was like, oh my God, he is eating it up. I knew you were laughing the entire time. It was so much fun to watch.”
“My success, I think it is due to the Mizanan family. Everyone in my family is a hard worker. I was the guy that whenever someone would say, oh man, it’s media day, I don’t have time. I have X,Y, & Z, I would say, give it to me. I will do every media day because I looked at it as an opportunity. Not only was it an opportunity for me to go out there in front of the media all around the world, but also to practice promos. To captivate people and to have them understand exactly who I was. I think hard work, dedication and anytime someone didn’t want to do something, I would always raise my hand. I think that is where my success lies – for whatever I lack in talent, I make up for in hard work.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript.
