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The A-Lister.
Miz: You all think I'm a frog-faced loser?
Green Bay crowd: YES!
Miz: Really?
Green Bay crowd: YES!
Miz: Really?
Green Bay crowd: YES!
Miz: REALLY?
Green Bay crowd: YES!
Miz: Well, Green Bay Packers aren't going to the Super Bowl!
Green Bay crowd: (boos)note 

Quiet on the set! Can we please have quiet on the set!?
(Images of Hollywood, then silence)
AAAAAAAWESOOOOOOME!

Michael Gregory "Mike" Mizanin (born October 8, 1980) is an American television personality and professional wrestler.

He trained in the Ultimate Pro Wrestling University under Shane and Shannon Ballard. He is better known by his ring name: The Miz. He's a two-time WWE Champion, eight-time Intercontinental Champion, two-time United States Champion, four-time WWE Tag Team Champion,note  two-time WWE World Tag Team Champion,note  and two-time Smackdown Tag-Team Championnote .

Outside of wrestling, he started as a reality TV star in The Real World. The wrestling skits he did during the show lended him a tryout at the WWE, and the rest is history. Afterwards, he had stints in movies (starring, among other films, in The Marine 6: Close Quarters) and protagonizes Miz and Mrs., the reality TV show following his personal life and that of his wife, Maryse as well as their children.


"The Most Must-See Tropes of All Time":

  • Aborted Arc: He was originally going to turn heel in November/December of 2013, but this was halted as he had a movie coming out and they needed him as a face for that, so he underwent a Heel–Face Revolving Door situation for a couple of weeks until he ultimately stayed face.
  • Action Dad:
    • As of March 27th, 2018, when he and Maryse welcomed their daughter Monroe Sky Mizanin into the world. She was introduced to the WWE Universe in Miz and Mrs..
    • Downplayed with Miz's father, George "Miz Dad" Mizanin, who became an example of this in WrestleMania 35 when he throw himself in front of Shane O'Mac to protect his son from harm.
  • Alter-Ego Acting: It should go without saying with professional wrestling, but Mizanin's "The Miz" alter ego was showing up way back during his time on The Real World and its various spinoffs. Once, during one of his appearances on the cross-over Challenges, the pressure of it really got to him and "The Miz" emerged while Mizanin was on a drunken rampage. When another contestant from another season (who didn't know him that well) asked what the whole "Miz" thing was about, his best friend Coral described him as everything Mike wasn't. Back then it seemed like a Mr. Hyde like personality he couldn't really control..
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: Alternate Brand Equivalent actually. Starting in January 2024, he becomes the Kevin Owens to R-Truth's Sami Zayn due to Truth wanting to become part of The Judgment Day yet oblivious to the fact that the stable doesn't like him and Miz calmly warning him that the Judgment Day hate his guts. This is probably alluded to Truth interacting with Owens during February 2024 Smackdown and mistaking him for Miz himself.
  • Anti-Hero: During his face run, he was pretty solidly a type-III. Even though he'd toned it down quite a bit from his heel persona, he still came off as extremely cocky and smug, and he seemed to be something of a loner in Kayfabe, not often seen coming to other faces' rescue.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • He would say it's John Cena. In Real Life, it's probably JBL - although it appears that the two have buried the hatchet. (JBL seems to go out of his way nowadays to put Miz over while on commentary.) Probably something to do with all the backstage hazing that Miz had to go through and Miz taking it like a champ to the point of becoming champ.
    • Also in Real Life, Chris Benoit. It was his bag that got chicken crumbs all over it from Miz eating his lunch near it, which got the young kid kicked out of the locker room until The Undertaker let him back in. As the event occurred a few months before Benoit's real life murder suicide Miz was forced to spend around 8 months changing at public toilets or in the garbage areas, because no one felt comfortable addressing the ban issued by Benoit until Taker noticed Miz's plight and asked him why.
    • Daniel Bryan was also one in 2010. Has come back with a vengeance in 2016, only now, Bryan is SmackDown's General Manager. Then it gets even more interesting when Bryan unretired and went back to competing on the main roster.
    • Jerry "the King" Lawler in early 2011.
    • John Morrison, ever since they split their tag team.
    • Since turning face; Antonio Cesaro and Wade Barrett
    • Dean Ambrose in early 2017 on WWE SmackDown Live continue on WWE Raw until July 2017. The feud reignited later of the year also including Dean's old stablemates, The Shield.
    • Kurt Angle in late 2017. Like with Daniel Bryan on SmackDown the previous year, Miz develops a feud with Kurt Angle after he was transferred to Raw. Initially, the feud involves Kurt's illegitimate son, Jason Jordan. However, it soon escalated when Miz begin to hate Kurt personally and accused him of being a glory hound. This then comes to a head at October when Kurt joined the Shield at the TLC PPV to beat up Miz's team.
    • Dolph Ziggler on and off, as the perennial midcarder Ensemble Dark Horse Face and Heel respectively, they tend to get pushed together when the writing team has nothing else for them.
    • The Shield in 2017 to 2018. At the height of his ego during his 2017 reign as Intercontinental Champion, Miz enters a feud with the Shield and proclaims that he and the Miztourage could defeat the stable prior to their break up.
      • After gaining help from Seamus and Cesaro, the three of them proceed to beat up Roman Reigns and in a mocking tone, use the Triple Powerbomb. This led to a reunion between the Hounds of Justice and a match with the Miz and the Bar at TLC 2017.
      • Wanting to make sure he wins, Miz makes the match into a 5-3 handicap match, receiving help from two monsters, Kane and Brown Strowman. Unfortunately, the Miz's team still lost the match. He continued to feud with them into 2018, dropping his title to Reigns and regaining it back from him, before losing it again to Rollins at WrestleMania.
      • This finally ended when Miz was moved to SmackDown in the 2018 Superstar Shake-Up and then failed to win it back from Rollins both at Greatest Royal Rumble and at Backlash.
    • Shane McMahon after he attacked him at Fastlane 2019 in front of his father in his hometown.
    • Bray Wyatt in late 2019 after Wyatt made things personal with the Miz's family.
    • Drew McIntyre after Miz won the Money in the Bank contract. The rivalry arguably culminated when Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at Elimination Chamber 2021 to win the WWE Heavyweight Championship.
    • Bobby Lashley since Miz's deal with the Hurt Business to help him win the title from Drew.
    • Bad Bunny since feuding with Miz & Morrison in 2021, which culminated in a tag team match at WrestleMania 37.
    • Logan Paul, ever since he turned on him at WrestleMania 38.
    • Dexter Lumis when he returned to the WWE and joined the Raw roster.note 
    • Following SummerSlam 2023, The Miz became jealous of SmackDown superstar LA Knight's star power.
    • Leading up to Survivor Series 2023, The Miz starts targeting the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion, Gunther and his group, Imperium.
  • Ascended Meme: During a backstage segment with Paige on the June 12, 2018 episode of SmackDown Live, Miz acknowledged the "Mizjutsu" meme surrounding his new entrance attire.
  • At Least I Admit It: After making a Heel–Face Turn, he tells CM Punk that, yes, he cheated in every way he could to keep the WWE Title, but at least he admitted it.
  • Backhanded Apology: In response to being told to apologize to Paul Heyman, he says "Okay...I'm sorry that you're a really REALLY big walrus."
  • Badass Longcoat: He used to wear them only for PPV, but has started going to it more and more often lately.
  • Bad Boss: Miz's most successful heel runs prior to 2016 have involved him with an employee that he treats like crap.
  • Battle Couple: With Maryse on occasion, such as their 2022 feud with Edge and Beth Phoenix.
  • Berserk Button: If his interactions with John Cena and The Rock were any indication, The Miz hates being underestimated.
    • Ditto with Daniel Bryan calling him a coward at Talking Smack.
    • He seems to have gotten a new one in the form of mentioning his wife or his daughter, which is a surfire way to get a scathing promo, a beating, or both!
      • As Baron Corbin found out during their social media exchange in 2017, during the run-up to Survivor Series: "And if you talk about my pregnant wife again, I'll kick your fucking teeth down your throat!"
    • Shane McMahon insulting Miz's parents and inferring that Miz's birth was the biggest "Miz-take" of their lives was enough for Miz to tear through a whole security team, Primo, Shelton Benjamin, and the entire faction of SAnitY. Do NOT insult this man's family.
    • Few of the locker room, along with Logan Paul, poke fun on his tiny balls. He doesn't appreciate that, as he tries to correct them that he has MASSIVE balls.
    • Implying that he's little more than a "stepping stone" to rising stars like LA Knight is enough to make Miz have an absolute meltdown.
  • Birds of a Feather: With his equally narcissistic wife.
  • Boisterous Weakling: Started off at this, with more minimal skills and no smaller a mouth, most notably when he spent a long period of time goading Cena into a match, with the expected results. As time passed, Miz became significantly more a Not-So-Harmless Villain and could add up to his talk more often, though, being an egotistical Dirty Coward, his mocking still gets him more than he bargained for every once in a while.
  • Book Ends: Miz had a feud with Kofi Kingston at both ends of his late 2012-2013 Face run.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Champion or not, Miz's ego often gets the better of him, leading to his involvement in feuds with wrestlers far stronger than him.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • His talk show, MizTV, always seems to get interrupted by someone that Miz didn't invite, and always seems to end with Miz being beaten up and/or humiliated in some fashion.
    • Ever since Randy Orton viciously attacked him in front of his parents, he's been getting a ton of crap thrown his way.
    • Since coming back in 2014 as a Hollywood heel, he hired Damien Sandow as his stunt double, but 'Mizdow' ended up getting more popular than he did. The two eventually formed a tag team, where Miz is consistently upstaged by his lackey.
    • In addition to co-hosting Wrestlemania 39, he participated in matches on both nights, facing off against Pat McAfee on Saturday and co-host Snoop Dogg on Sunday, the latter assisted by Shane McMahon. Both matches ended with the Miz easily squashed in the two shortest matches of the whole event.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Did a lot of this in his 'I Quit' match with John Cena.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Before winning over Maryse, he was portrayed as not being great with women despite including "The Chick Magnet" as one of his monikers.
  • Cassandra Truth: On a January 2024 edition of RAW, Miz tries to warn R-Truth about the Judgment Day not really accepting him and that he should be worried. Truth doesn't believe him until a month later, when he realizes that the Judgment Day are going to "execute" him and he hastily tries to call Miz — who wasn't there that night because Maryse was recovering from getting 11 pre-cancer tumors out of her ovaries) — but Miz happened to send #DIY for assistanace.
  • Catchphrase:
    • "HOORAH" when he first made his debut.
    • Whilst still hosting the "The Dirt Sheet" with John Morrison, Miz would always introduce himself with "And I am your Chick Magnet, The Miz!" & the duo would end every episode by emphatically following up Morrison's Bad Ass Boast for their tag team with "Be jealous!"
    • "Because I'm The Miz...and I'm...AWESOME!" Ironically, while his character's ego has grown exponentially after returning as a Hollywood actor, this catchphrase has all but disappeared.
    • "Really? Really?" when he interrupts people after they say something especially disagreeable to him.
    • "When my hand goes up, your mouth goes shut!" in response to fans interrupting and/or booing him during his current heel run.
  • Character Development:
    • Despite being on the back-burner for most of the build up to WrestleMania, it resulted in Miz getting some much needed Character Development and Badass level grinding from a little putz of a Champion into a legitimately threatening, if extremely overconfident, Heel — and then to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold face.
    • After slowly losing his heat over the years, he reinvented himself in 2014 as a Hollywood hotshot heel, with a stunt double to boot. His interactions with Damien Sandow have gone a long way towards reviving his career.
    • He reignited his career again with a more passionate Miz thanks to his promo against Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack.
    • Then, nearing the one-year anniversary of his Talking Smack promo, he made lemonade out of lemons again and unleashed a blistering promo on John Cena and Roman Reigns.
  • Chick Magnet: So says he. And if you've seen some of the women he's dated in Real Life (like, say, Maryse) it's true.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Just about every major partnership or tag team he's been in has ended with him giving said partner a Skull Crushing Finale. It's a wonder anyone tries to team with him at all.
  • Commonality Connection: He and Morrison hated each other at first when they were forced team up back in late 2007. What allowed them to bond was the fact that they both hated CM Punk.
  • Companion Cube: Every single championship he's held, since he flaunts the belts to an absurd degree. Same goes for the MITB briefcase (although it was usually Alex Riley that carried it), since it was basically his key to the WWE Championship. Seriously, when's the last time a Champ hauled and paraded his gold around as much as he does? In a weird sort of troll logicy way, it kind of adds prestige back to the belts, since he makes it seem like such a big deal, as well as puts over what a smarmy, weaselly character he is.
  • Cool Mask: As Calgary Kid.note 
  • Combat Pragmatist:
    • Dips in and out of this. Even as a heel, he's won quite a few matches more or less clean. And as a face, he's used CP tactics on a couple of occasions.
    • A big example of this was in a match against Wade Barrett, who was dumb enough to interrupt a hacked-off Triple H promo and try to rush him away from the ring for the match. Triple H kicked him in the balls really hard, and Miz came out right afterward. Miz managed to hit Barrett in the nuts at least three times during the match - and yet none of the attacks were actions that would result in Miz being DQ'ed. Miz won, solidifying himself as the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Title heading into WrestleMania 29.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: R-Truth convinced him that Triple H, the participants in the World Title feud, and upper management are conspiring to keep them in the mid-card.
  • Cool Shades: Wears these as part of his Hollywood heel gimmick.
  • Creepy Monotone: Miz is arguably scariest when he's not being a Large Ham.
  • Crowd Chant: "Miz is awful!", "Damien's better!"
  • Demoted to Extra: Seems to have been lost in the shuffle, going from a WWE Champion to a guy that has trouble getting meaningful TV time. He seems to be floating in the awkward camp of being above the status of a mid-carder (and therefore not being seen as a good candidate for a run with the IC or US titles), but not quite a true main-eventer.
  • Determinator:
    • The Determinator aspect also shows up in the ring. Whatever lack of in ring ability he has is made up by the fact that he's capable of taking a truly brutal asskicking, at least ever since he became champion.
    • During his WrestleMania 27 match, he suffered a concussion by smacking his head off concrete; he proceeded to wrestle the rest of the match and retained the title.
    • He's also become one of WWE's go-to guys for media appearances (which, combined with his regular show, makes for a very punishing schedule). This is saying a lot, as traditionally heels that have spent the majority of their time in the upper midcard aren't called on to do those sorts of things. That being said, he maintains his entertaining heel persona outside of the ring as well, even while playing his co-workers in the locker room's annual Madden tournament.
  • Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Some of Miz's defeats have been coming about due to him having a pretty firm grip on the Villain Ball. Even though he'll pretty much have his opponent beaten cleanly, or damn near close to it, he just has to do that one thing that'll get him disqualified or take his time beating down an opponent just long enough for them to get that Heroic Second Wind. Hell, he lost his last two matches with Cena for the title because of this.
  • Dirty Coward: This is oddly juxtaposed with his enormous arrogance and temperament. He'll dig himself into a bad situation with another wrestler time and time again, and usually only realise too late what he's gotten himself into and try to back out of it somehow to no avail.
  • The Dog Bites Back:
    • After losing to Cena for the third consecutive time at Over The Limit, he once more berates Alex Riley, who responds by kicking the ever loving crap out of Miz. Even Michael Cole states that Miz had it coming.
    • Practically everyone who ever partnered with him eventually turn against him after being mistreated by him for months.
  • "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: He, along with John Morrison, rap their new theme song "Hey Hey".
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: He has improved big time compared to when he first arrived in WWE, and he demands to be recognized for it.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Not so much for Miz the character, but winning the WWE Title was this for the real person. Don't believe me? See the Determinator entry.
  • Enemies Equals Greatness: See Wham Line.
  • Establishing Character Moment: "I'd rather you hate me for who I am than love me for someone I'm not!"
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • On the February 14, 2011 edition of Raw, after beating Daniel Bryan, he announced that Jerry Lawler (his opponent at Elimination Chamber) wasn't there that night because of the passing of his mother... and offered his deepest condolences. Unlike a certain troll.
    • Also, on the October 28 and November 5, 2012 editions of Raw, during a brawl right after CM Punk and Mick Foley had picked their teams for Survivor Series, Team Punk more or less got their asses handed to them - except for Punk himself, who retreated up the ramp and left his team to get hammered on by Team Foley . The following week, The Miz quit Team Punk because he didn't like Punk's leadership style - or more specifically, didn't like Punk running away from the battle while his teammates got their asses kicked. This would become a moot point later, as Punk was put in a title match against John Cena and Ryback and the team was taken over by Dolph Ziggler.
    • The Miz almost always makes a mention of his Talk Show with Fists MizTV being "the best show in WWE history," but on the August 3, 2015 edition of Raw, three days after the passing of Roddy Piper, he called it only the second best... behind the Piper's Pit, adding that Piper will be missed.
    • While never being "arch-enemies", he and CM Punk have had a history dating back several years, all the way to WWE's revived ECW. There's no love lost between them, but even he was disgusted when Paul Heyman betrayed Punk after swearing on his children that he'd never do such a thing — a sentiment he made blatantly clear the SmackDown following said betrayal.
    • He certainly had a look of regret/horror on his face during the TLC 2017 main event, after leading The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) and Kane in disposing of teammate Braun Strowman in a garbage truck when Strowman went after Kane, who had previously assaulted Braun with a hail of steel chairs after the two apparently couldn't get along. It veers into a two-pronged sense of Pragmatic Villainy; dispose of the troublesome teammate whom refuses to get along, and maintain the advantage they still have with it being 4-on-3 with no more team troubles on the horizon.
  • The Everyman: Manages to play this character as a face despite also being a cocky movie and TV star. It works somehow, probably because he's arguably the Everyman that everyone aspires to. After getting his foot in the door on the lowest level, he's risen to the level of a near-irreplacable employee at a job that he loves. He has a laundry list of achievements at work from just plugging away and doing his best for over a decade. He's made a crapton of money, has a nice house, a smoking hot wife and two kids by her. He's the Everyman that made it and makes no apologies for the fact that he made it.
  • Evil Mentor: To Alex Riley.
  • Evil Is Petty: Until now, even after he's been off of SmackDown for months, he still keeps using Daniel Bryan's moves.
  • Expressive Hair: An odd real life example. When wrestling, his hair can start to flop down and frame his face, accentuating his Obviously Evil facial expressions in the ring.
  • Expy:
    • A good looking Jerk Jock who's smaller than most wrestlers, who became a world champion and began wearing nice suits and speaking with a Creepy Monotone voice using a full-nelson facebuster as a finisher? These were all accurate descriptions of Chris Jericho. When Jericho started seeing everyone in the world as wishing to be an Expy of him in 2012, he gleefully lampshaded this.
    • Since coming back with his conceited Hollywood jackass gimmick fans have taken to comparing him to Johnny Cage.
    • A cocky weaselly heel with a "movie star" motif, an elaborate entrance consisting of an intro that fades to black along with coat and sunglasses, and a real life significant other at his side whose relationship he flaunts in the face of his enemies? Hollywood Miz has a lot in common with early Rated-R Superstar Edge.
  • Fatal Flaw:
    • Character-wise, he keeps dragging himself into bad situations due to his own pure inability to shut up.
    • Performance-wise, although The Miz has improved his mic skill, character work, and in-ring psychology by leaps and bounds, he continues to fall short physically as a wrestler compared to some of his most highly-praised peers due to not being a particularly great athlete in any aspect.
  • Faux Affably Evil: As a heel, his dapper suit and genteel mannerisms might fool you into thinking he's an affable lad if only his every word or action wasn't dripping in sarcasm.
  • Finishing Move: Three over the years; the Reality Check (a kneelift to a neckbreaker), the Mizard of Oz (a front facelock neckbreaker), and most famously (and successfully) the Skull Crushing Finale (a full nelson facebuster). Recently, he's added the Figure Four Leglock (yes, that one) to his moveset.
  • Flat "What": While ranting on Air Boom (the tag team of Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston) R-Truth has this to say.
    R-Truth: "Air Boom is as bad a sneaky fart."
    The Miz: (stops the crowd from saying the usual What) "I got this. What?"
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule:
  • Genre Savvy:
    • Before his "I Quit" Match with John Cena at Over The Limit, Miz cuts a promo to the effect of saying that because there are no rules other than to make your opponent say "I Quit", Alex Riley would be able to help him in his endeavours, essentially turning the match into a Handicap Match.
    • He was also savvy to John Cena trying to turn him and R-Truth against each other using their egos. It was only due to Truth being paranoid as usual that resulted in it actually working.
      • Well, that and the fact that Miz gave Truth the Skull Crushing Finale on the steel ramp.
    • During his match with Curtis Axel at Money in the Bank 2013, he pull off an Eddie Guerrero to make the ref to expel Paul Heyman out of ringside.
    • During his match versus Dean Ambrose at Extreme Rules 2017 (where Miz would win the title if Ambrose got DQ'ed), Miz tried virtually every dirty tactic in the book, from antagonizing Dean into ignoring the ref's 5 count to goading him to hit Miz with a steel chair. When it seemed like things were going south near the end of the match, Miz's face lights up with an idea, telling Maryse to "slap me!" It didn't take, as the ref himself was Genre Savvy enough to see through the charade, but still, a pretty smart notion by the Miz given the stipulation of the match.
    • During his match with Jeff Hardy, he was able to scout many of Jeff's signature moves before countering the Twist of Fate into a Skull-Crushing Finale.
    • During the main event match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman, Miz kept Roman's buddies The Shield from interfering by locking them out of the arena with The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus)
    • Miz opting out of the Raw Elimination Chamber match is pretty savvy of him. He even made a deal with the Hurt Business to pull a Tonya Harding on Drew McIntyre for good measure. His actions kept him fresh and made sure McIntyre was ripe for the picking when all is said and done.
  • Gone Horribly Right:
    • After John Cena got Alex Riley fired, it's just Cena versus Miz, one on one, exactly what Cena wanted. But now Cena has to deal with an angry Miz that feels slighted by The Rock and Cena while trying to make his WWE title reign as memorable as possible and doesn't have his moron of a lackey to fall back on. The result? A month of Cena getting owned repeatedly by Miz.
    • Miz got what he wanted in making a deal with the Hurt Business to help him win the WWE World Heavyweight Title off of Drew McIntyre. It went all according to plan. However, things went south for the Miz soon after, with him becoming The Almighty's target and losing back-to-back matches to him for the title in two weeks' time.
  • Groin Attack: In a match with Antonio Cesaro for the US Championship, this is done unintentionally and then played straight all within two minutes. When Miz attempted the Figure-Four Leglock, Cesaro tripped him up, causing Miz to stumble and land knee-first on Cesaro's bijoux de la famille. This causes Miz to lose via DQ, allowing Cesaro to retain the title. An unhappy Miz responded with an intentional kick in the nuts a couple of minutes after that. Ouch.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Gave one to Cena on the RAW before Over The Limit 2011. However, Cena wasn't going to have any of it gave a very Hot-Blooded rebuttal.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After joining Mick Foley on his Survivor Series team, he started one before finishing it by calling out CM Punk on his lies.
    • Heel–Face Revolving Door: Abandoned Kofi Kingston during a tag match in November 2013, only to explain himself as trying to "motivate" Kofi. Went back and forth through the door over the following weeks as he had a Christmas movie to promote. He stayed face before going back on hiatus, and then came back as a heel in 2014.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • His backstabbing habit has a tendency to come back and bite him in the ass later. Every heel partner he's turned on has turned face and feuded with him.
    • In the WWE 2011 Draft, when John Cena was drafted to SmackDown, Miz was glad because if he wins against Cena and John Morrison at Extreme Rules 2011, then "he won't see [Cena]". The main event match for the final draft pick was between SmackDown's John Cena, Mark Henry and Christian and Raw's The Miz, CM Punk, and Alberto Del Rio. Mark Henry pulled a Face–Heel Turn and betrayed Cena and Christian, allowing Miz to pin Cena. Raw got the final draft pick who is none other than... John Cena for the second time! Congratulations Miz, you just brought the one guy who is determined to take the WWE title off of you back to the same brand you're on! "Sweet irony", as John Cena said in a WWE.com exclusive interview when he was drafted back to Raw.
    • In 2016, he developed a feud with Daniel Bryan thanks to Bryan calling him a coward for the way he wrestles. The catch was, at this point Bryan was retired from wrestling and was serving as the General Manager of SmackDown, so it couldn't be settled in the ring. Instead, the Miz used his position (he was the Intercontinental Champion at the time) to push management around, because they couldn't afford the title being taken to Raw (due to the brand split).
    • So then, when the Miz lost the title at No Mercy to Dolph Ziggler, he no longer had that protection, and when he refused Ziggler's offer to a rematch on the spot because he wanted it on his terms, Bryan took notice and capitalized on it. He used it as a reason to keep the Miz off of Team SmackDown at Survivor Series, and chastised the Miz for blowing his opportunity for another shot at the title, saying there was a whole locker room full of people who would love that opportunity. He then let Ziggler declare an open challenge to the locker room, and then to the Raw roster for a match at Survivor Series. Miz's ego and opportunistic tendencies screwed him out of everything he loves, and he has only himself to blame for it.
  • Humiliation Conga: October and November were two very long months for the Miz in 2017. The only match he won in those 2 months was a title defense against Matt Hardy. Besides that, he indirectly caused The Shield to reform just to beat him and the Miztourage up, betrayed Braun Strowman at TLC, resulting in him coming back 2 weeks later to give them another beatdown, and then lost to Baron Corbin at Survivor Series after a brief but fiery Twitter war. After Roman Reigns lampshades the fact that he lost his match while they won theirs, he then loses his Intercontinental title to him in the main event of the night, before getting yet another savage beating afterwards.
  • Hypocrite: Has the balls to call Seth Rollins a lying backstabber when he himself had betrayed even more allies than Seth did.
  • Ignored Enemy: To The Rock and John Cena leading to Wrestling/WrestleMania 27. Of course, with Cena being his opponent for that year's WrestleMania and The Rock the host of the event, he didn't take that very well.
  • I Have Many Names: He lists about five or six trying to pick up a girl in a WWE.com video.
  • Improbable Hairstyle
  • Improvised Weapon: Miz wasn't the first Money in the Bank Winner to hit people with the briefcase, but he did it so much that by the time he cashed it in it was so dented up that it looked like it had been in a car wreck a train wreck an episode of MythBusters. And he even kept using it for a time after cashing it in. He won the MITB match in July 2010 and would cash it in to win the WWE Championship in November 2010. Alex Riley would end up carrying around a briefcase, and when Riley had turned face, he smacked Miz in the head with it.
  • Incoming Ham: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEESOME.
  • It's All About Me: Miz has a really big ego and thinks very highly of himself, which only got worse when he filmed The Marine 4: Moving Target and started boasting that he was an A-List movie star.
  • Jerkass: As a heel.
  • Jerkass Has a Point:
    • In a RAW episode taped on Long Island, NY, he countered the You Suck chant by shouting "I don't suck! All the New York sports teams suck!" There were general boos, but then a few nods of agreement in the stands.
      • Although this might be a case of Insult Backfire as well. Anyone with a bit of knowledge about sports fandoms knows that it's almost impossible to out-complain New Yorkers about their own teams. Other than perhaps Philadelphia, New York is one of the hardest fandoms to satisfy in any sport.
    • In his 2016 Worked Shoot promo after Daniel Bryan confronted him on his wrestling style, noting he went from an amateur to one of the longest tenured people in the WWE, setting records and at the time holding the same championship Daniel had to relinquish due to his own wrestling style. Bryan admitted to walking off set because he was too angered by how right everything the Miz said to respond.
    • During his 2017 run, he proved to be the best of the company at this particular trope, demolishing Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin, Enzo Amore, and even the current and presumptive faces of the company John Cena and Roman Reigns (once each, and once at the same time) on the microphone. While doing this, he was still remaining more-or-less in heel territory, and showing the younger talent how to learn on the job and recover from their intense backstage heat, using his own experience. The week after the Miz/Cena/Reigns promo, while cutting a mostly unscripted promo on Reigns, Cena specifically singled out Miz for compliment on the lines of "I hate him... but I respect him."
    • Miz had this mixed with a touch of Even Evil Has Standards during a recent CBS 2-Chicago interview, where he said that while he applauds Bryan for his efforts as a fellow father and won't ever rag on him for anything concerning how Bryan raises his own daughter, Miz has no problem calling out Bryan on not stepping up to him since going to all the trouble of personally suggesting to RAW GM Kurt Angle about having Miz sent over to Smackdown in the Superstar Shakeup three months ago, aside from their short, one-sided encounter in a recent Gauntlet Match (which Miz won).
  • Kick the Dog:
    • By the time Miz was paired with Daniel Bryan on NXT, he had accumulated a large amount of heat. His bullying of Bryan as a sadistic Drill Sergeant Nasty gained him even more, and had fans everywhere looking forward to the day when Bryan would finally pay him back. Which finally happened.
    • His final 2010 match against Jerry Lawler was basically this to borderline Moral Event Horizon levels, where what started as a match between the WWE Champion and a Hall of Famer quickly devolved into Miz beating the crap out of a old man who could barely fight back. It reached the point where even Michae lCole, who always finds a reason to excuse Miz's actions, was thoroughly disturbed by it.
  • Ladykiller in Love: More like Casanova Wannabe in love. He claims that he could have any girl that he wants, but he only has eyes for Maryse. During Maryse's feud with Mickie James, Miz confronts Mickie just to tell her that Maryse is the most beautiful woman in the company.
  • Large Ham: Because he's The Miz, and he's AWESOME!
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • At Tables, Ladder and Chairs 2011, he managed to handcuff CM Punk to the turnbuckle. Punk tried in vain to punch him out, but Miz stayed just out of range of his punches, laughing his ass off. So Punk kicked him in the face instead, flooring him.
    • After all the times Miz turned tail on his partners and left them in the lurch, he had it pulled on him twice, once by Damien "Mizdow" during the 2015 Andre Memorial Battle Royal, then again in April 2018 when The Miztourage left him high and dry during a 10-man tag team match because he had been drafted to Smackdown and thus was no longer their leader or their "meal ticket" to fame and relevancy.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: When Alex Riley got fired, he subsequently grew a spine.
  • Manly Tears:
    • After winning the WWE title, as seen in the pic above.
    • He also cried upon winning the 2010 Raw Money in the Bank Ladder Match.
  • Master of None: Because Miz is not specifically a power, high flying, technical, or brawling wrestler — instead having a mix of all these styles — he doesn't really stand out in the ring as much as other wrestlers. If he continues to improve at the rate he is, however, he'll probably become Jack of All Stats in short time.
  • Martial Arts Headband: Has started rocking a custom-made hachimaki as part of his new entrance-attire ensemble ever since WrestleMania 34.
  • Motor Mouth: This is how he introduces MizTV.
    Welcome to the most must-see WWE talk show in history. Welcome to...MizTV!
  • Mr. Fanservice: He is called "Chick Magnet," after all. When he was first getting his feet wet in ECW in the summer of 2007, Extreme Expose (Kelly Kelly, Layla El, and Brooke Adams) used to hang out with him all the time.
  • The Napoleon: The Miz is two flavors of Napoleon. Although taller than most in the current roster, he's smaller than the biggest guys on the WWE like Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, or Brock Lesnar, so he has a bit of a Hot-Blooded Napoleon Complex going on with him. On the other hand, like the historical Napoleon who also wasn't as short as history claimed him to be, he's remarkably opportunistic and manipulative as the famous French Emperor and master tactician.
  • Never My Fault: Always found an excuse for his failures as a heel. Alex Riley became his go to scapegoat whenever he lost. Unfortunately this came back to bite him.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • The 4/11/11 RAW. A 5-man gauntlet match was held between Dolph Ziggler, John Morrison, Randy Orton, John Cena, and R-Truth to determine the #1 contender for Miz's WWE Championship. The last match ended up being between Cena, WWE's resident Superman, and R-Truth, a well-liked crowd favorite that seems not to be liked by the 'E itself. Categorically, he would be a 'jobber to the stars' - in that he appears in his share of high-profile matches that aren't one-on-one, but is never allowed to be victorious.
    • So anybody who follows wrestling should have been predicting a Curb-Stomp Battle, especially because Truth had wrestled two matches before. Cena apparently thought so, too, because he pulled out a bunch of rarer moves in his moveset (including the Guillotine Legdrop) in an effort to put Truth down quickly. He didn't count on Truth refusing to stay down for a full 3-count. Miz, who was a guest commentator for the match and probably didn't want to face Cena again (whom he beat at WrestleMania because of The Rock's interference), comes up with the bright idea of he and Alex Riley to attack Cena and Truth simultaneously, resulting in a double DQ.
    • In Miz's mind, this means that he doesn't have to defend his title against either of them. What actually resulted (per the Anonymous Raw GM's announcement) is that Miz is now in a Triple Threat championship match with Cena, who wants the title in order to make his WrestleMania XXVIII match with the Rock a Championship match, and R-Truth, who has never won the Championship before. And he can lose the title without being the one pinned or forced to submit.
    • However, R Truth would lose the right to challenge Miz a week later. And who did he lose it to? John Morrison. Now Miz has to take on WWE Superman John Cena as well as Morrison, the one guy who got closest to beating Miz for the WWE Championship in a previous match over anyone else, including Randy Orton, Jerry Lawler, and Cena himself.
  • Noble Demon: Showed quite a few shades of this in his IC Title defense at WrestleMania 34 versus Seth Rollins and Finn Balor, firstly by ordering the Miztourage to the backnote , then more or less threw himself into the thick of the match rather than simply let Rollins and Balor tear each other up like he'd been trying to instigate as much in the weeks prior, even dominating at points by keeping both men off their feet with simple counters and impactful moves.
  • No Shirt, Long Jacket: While not being a Badass Longcoat, his leather jacket is pretty cool.
  • Not in the Face!: This is an aspect of his "Hollywood Megastar" persona, beginning in summer 2014. In backstage interviews he refers to his face as "the moneymaker" and stresses that he can't allow any harm to come to it. He'll even retreat from the ring if he fears his opponent might target his face. Becomes a bit of Fridge Logic as to why he would return to wrestling in the first place considering how he could injure his face in a number of ways.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain:
    • A defining character trait of The Miz during his heel run. He started as an awkward, untalented, uncharismatic dork, but after years of work he's turned into a man who's crippled the overconfident R-Truth after a Boastful Rap distracted him and got pops for beating up World Champion Sheamus after he called him a loser, of course, that's all topped by his greatest achievement yet, taking the WWE Championship from Randy Orton.
    • Not to mention his last few encounters with John Cena, all of which have ended with Cena's face in the ground, and one of which ended with The People's Elbow.
    • He also managed to trick "Stone Cold" Steve Austin into a fake showdown in the ring, where he promptly sicced Alex Riley on him and proceeded to leave afterwards. Unfortunately, Riley didn't last too long afterwards...
    • His finisher itself is an example, with many a fan complaining that the people he beat with the Skull Crushing Finale have kicked out of stronger finishers — not realizing that the SCF has a high-percentage of getting pins when 1) used after a distraction backstabber-style or 2) used as an unexpected counter. If used when the opponent expects it, most of the time they'll kick out.
  • Odd Couple: Miz and Morrison — an Mr. Fanservice Cloudcuckoolander Warrior Poet who's Pretty in Mink and skillful in Le Parkour, and a Hot-Blooded Large Ham with Underwear of Power and Casanova Wannabe tendencies.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • When John Morrison faced The Miz for the WWE title on Raw, The Miz had Alex Riley help him beat down Morrison, then Morrison recovered, beat the crap out of Riley, set him up on a barricade and kneed his face in, camera cuts to The Miz with a look like he just crapped his pants.
    • Got another one of these looks on an episode of RAW. He was in the middle of cutting a promo complaining, as usual, about the lack of respect he was getting, when suddenly... "THE TRUTH... HAS SET ME FREE!!"
    • When Ryback showed up to Trash the Set of the very first episode of his new talk show on the 9/17/12 RAW. As Ryback rampaged around the ring throwing stuff, Miz wisely retreated up toward the entrance stage. Ryback then lifted an entire couch and chucked it about ten feet up the ramp. Miz, in reaction to this, appeared to be having a Bring My Brown Pants moment as he stared back at the ring.
    • On the 6/5/17 edition of Raw, Miz was being absolutely paranoid that Dean Ambrose is possibly lurking him. After attacking a bear mascot and a large gift box (mistakenly thinking both is Ambrose), Miz proceeds to call Ambrose out, when suddenly he realized something is not right with the cameramen.
    Miz: You scared? You see, people, that's the type of person Dean Ambrose is. He's scared of The Mi-
    (Looks at the Titantron, in Stunned Silence, to see that the cameramen that is behind him is none other than Ambrose himself)
    Miz: Because I'M THE MIZ! AND I'M... AAAAAAAAAWESOOOOOO-
    (Turns around and sees the Shield standing behind him)
    Miz: -Ooooooooh, shoot...
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Unlike the Rock, The Miz is just his nickname; people have even called him Mike to piss him off.
  • Only Sane Man: Starting with R-Truth's Judgment Day storyline in 2024, Miz is essentially the voice of reason between the two, further amplified months later when the two, along with #DIY, form "Regeneration X" and he points out that it'd be better to plot revenge on The Judgement Day by stealing their tag titles instead of pouring slime of them or stuffing them with bread.
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot: While gloating on February 22, 2021 about how he'd become WWE Champion and putting himself over as the quintessential representative of WWE, Miz started naming off WWE greats and claiming they don't measure up to his longevity, star power, and tenacious attitude. Among them were Batista, John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Triple H, Big Show, and even Edge. All well and good, they've all either left the company during his time in it or transitioned to part-time status in the ring, and Edge had cast aspersions on his claim to be a master strategist prior to his Money in the Bank cash-in. And then Lashley's theme hit...and Miz instantly remembered he only had the opening to cash in as he did because the full-time returned Lashley laid a post-Chamber match whooping on Drew McIntyre after he talked business with MVP. Within minutes he was threatened with being sent to the emergency room, and spent the entire remainder of his title reign cowering from Lashley. All seven days left of it.
  • Out-Gambitted: By Montel Vontavious Porter and Bobby Lashley. After months of threatening to use the Money in the Bank briefcase to cash in on Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship only to be brushed off as a joke, including one failed mid-match attempt that was later negated on a technicality, Miz found his chance when he made a deal with MVP to have Bobby Lashley soften Drew up before Miz cashed in following his Elimination Chamber 2021 title defense. Unfortunately, the terms of this arrangement involved Lashley getting the first crack at the championship, a fact MVP reminded Miz of as soon as he started to get out of hand with his Evil Gloating the next night on Raw. Miz attempted various antics to stall for time, which only bought him until the main event of the following week, by which point Lashley was primed to tear him apart. Even Shane McMahon was sick of his B.S. and forced him to either face Lashley in a lumberjack match or forfeit the championship. Inevitably, Lashley tore the championship away from Miz in an absolute Squash Match, with Miz's best efforts resulting in one of the most ineffectual and the most cowardly world championship reign in WWE history—eight days long with an 0-3 record and not a single bit of successful offense hit as champion. While Miz did marginally better in his rematch a week after that, his time as champ was done, he had no Money in the Bank, and his credibility as even a challenger going forward was completely shot, while The Hurt Business had taken control of the title scene on Monday Night Raw.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome:
    • Miz's WrestleMania as WWE champion in 2010 has him cutting a promo against John Cena - one of the best mic workers in the company at the moment - and The Rock - one of the best mic workers in the history of the industry. Needless to say, he's kinda left in the dust. More than a few of his fans are rather pissed off about this, since that was a real make it or break it period for him.
    • Flash-forward to 2021. The Miz is again world champion after a decade by again using the Money in the Bank contract to beat up a vulnerable champion (this time it's Drew McIntyre) at Elimination Chamber 2021, thanks to the aforementioned deal with The Hurt Business. Despite becoming WWE Champion, many fans are currently clamoring for a potential WrestleMania main event involving either Lashley versus McIntyre or even the dream match of Lashley versus Brock Lesnar. Once again, the Miz as WWE champ was overlooked...and not for no reason, as Lashley took it from him in only eight days.
    • This is arguably true of his in-ring career as of late. Miz isn't a "bad" wrestler. He's particularly adept at the little character beats and nuances that tend to make a good match better. His skillset as it is now would've been right at home in the late 2000s WWE. But in 2019 when you can't swing your elbows around in the midcard without hitting either a popular NXT grad or a superstar with a decorated service record in the typically workrate-heavy indie circuit (these being the same people oftentimes), Miz as a more limited athlete just has trouble stacking up.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Claims this accurately with his rival Daniel Bryan, with an interview with the Gorilla Position he pointed out how Daniel Bryan acts and says he doesn't want the spot light and the attention( Daniel Bryan took an aptitude test that WWE made their employees do and it said he wasn't that ambitious at all towards money and fame) because he would not stay in WWE if that was the case. They both had their set backs in the business.
    • The Miz, despite never being as bad in the ring as Enzo Amore was not accepted because he came from reality television( Miz began training in the 2000s and did the independents for 3 years) while Daniel Bryan's set back was his size.
  • The Peter Principle: A famous perpetual victim. Nobody not carrying a grudge will say the Miz is bad at what he does. He's a good promo, he can convey many kinds of emotion whether he's playing face or heel, and he almost never gets injured or injures his opponents; when Bryan Danielson speaks glowingly of what he learned about being a wrestler apprenticing under you, you've got to be doing something right. But, at the same time, his ring talents are ultimately unspectacular and somewhat limited, making it difficult to present him as a credible champion and pegging him to the midcard. Inevitably, he'll win over a core of fans with his entertaining promos and clever plots to get one over on his enemies, or by having a big feud with a celebrity guest star, get pushed beyond his abilities up into the main event scene, get exposed, and then get busted down into the midcard again.
  • Phrase Catcher: In 2022, after Maryse acknowledged Miz for having "average balls", fans would not buy this fact and opt to chant "tiny balls" on him.
  • Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Sees nothing wrong with terrorizing children and non wrestlers just because they piss him off.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • In the 2009 draft, in which he got drafted to Raw, he attacked John Morrison, thus ending his partnership, and delivered a loud "Fuck you!" to Morrison. How the hell did Miz got away with that? Especially in the PG Era of WWE?
    • The aforementioned Berserk Button regarding his wife or his daughter.
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Has dipped into this on occasion, especially since his partnership with R-Truth, where he essentially acts as a hype man for Truth's rapping entrance.
  • Red Baron: Has four - "The Chick Magnet", "The Awesome One", and "The Cleveland Screamer, currently, "The A-Lister".
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:
    • He was the Red Oni to Morrison.
    • And the Blue Oni to R-Truth.
  • Redemption Promotion: Seems oddly susceptible to these.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Miz's pride in himself and his family has been a great motivator at times in 2019, but also a weakness, as seeing his dad get beaten up by Shane at WM 35 during their Falls Count Anywhere match incited Miz enough to beat the holy hell out of Shane all over the arena and superplex him off a scaffold...only to end up caught under Shane's prone body for the three count.
    • It would happen again at MITB 2019 in their Steel Cage match, where Miz for the most part dominated the match much like WM 35...and it ended just about the same way; Miz had had multiple opportunities to put Shane away, but prolonged the match to put a bigger beatdown on Shane and avenge his dad...and it both figuratively and literally slipped through Miz's fingers when Shane slipped out of his jersey and to the floor as Miz tried to wrangle him back inside the cage.
  • The Rival: He had this with John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, and Daniel Bryan.
  • The Runner-Up Takes It All: Despite falling short from winning the fourth season of Tough Enough, The Miz is the only contestant from the show to become the WWE Champion. After his push ended, Miz became a midcarder and was considered reliable for WWE's public relations and media appearances. By the time everything came full circle and Miz was chosen to replace Hulk Hogan on the sixth season of Tough Enough, he had already been on the main roster for close to ten years and was a respected veteran of the locker room. The winner, Daniel Puder, spent less than a year in developmental and was later released due to Executive Meddling.
  • The Scapegoat: Somehow he got blamed for the low buyrates for the Survivor Series PPV.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: Subverted; when he dropped the scarf, he started kicking way more ass.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he comes out the SmackDown after WrestleMania 33 dressed like John Cena, he's greeted by Shinsuke Nakamura making his main roster debut. Miz, likely aware of his feats, wisely makes his way out of the ring once Nakamura enters it.
  • Second Place Is for Winners: He was the runner up on season 4 of Tough Enough, and went on to have a respectably long and fruitful career. The actual winner, Daniel Puder, was publicly beaten up for real during a Royal Rumble, spent a year in OVW and quit wrestling for good.
  • Serious Business: He almost always acts completely straight, instead of mugging or playing to the audience, giving the bits more humor and dramatic gravitas.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: The Miz loves him some suits.
  • Slasher Smile + Tons Of Teeth:
    • His symbol, a haphazard smiling face with THE MIZ as the teeth.
    • His trunks have a similar motif, but with I'M AWESOME as the teeth instead.
    • Gave a pretty creepy one to Cena after beating the crap out of him on this week's RAW. Can anyone find a picture of that, he actually looked pretty badass.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: In kayfabe. Exaggerated with his Face–Heel Turn in the summer of 2014 after returning from shooting The Marine 4, when he genuinely started believing that he was a world-famous A-List movie star.
  • Smug Snake:
    • Even if he's a face, he's smug.
    • His Smug Snake status has grown big time since becoming WWE Champion. While he HAS taken multiple levels in badass, it's now gotten to his head big time, with him proclaiming himself to be best of all time, the most must see WWE champion, etc. despite fact he's needed help repeatedly for his matches.
      • This trait has been reversed somewhat, with him managing to compete with wrestlers under legitimate tactics only to lose after Stopping To Cheat. His pay per view matches with Cena and Riley are good examples.
  • So Last Season: During the Champion vs. Champion match between Miz & Morrison at Bragging Rights 2009 - Since dissolving their tag team earlier in the year, Miz & Morrison had since debuted new finishing moves, the Skull Crushing Finale & Starship Pain respectively. Early in the match, both men tried to hit the finishing moves they used whilst they were still a team, only for the move to be countered.
  • Straw Fan: Vince McMahon tried to use him to "show" anti-Cena fans why they're wrong. It didn't quite work.
  • Stone Wall: Not the stationary type, but he fits the qualifications of low ATK high DEF in the idea that his offense isn't the most hard hitting, but he can take the most hellacious beatings in WWE and still kick out. Hell, he's kicked out of peoples finishers in matches that didn't really mean anything.
  • Straight Man: To John Morrison on The Dirt Sheet, and to R-Truth as The Awesome Truth. This really says a whole lot about their characters.
  • Stunt Double: With his new Hollywood persona, and his desire to protect "the Moneymaker" (his face), The Miz has Damien Sandow acting as his stunt double, "Damien Mizdow."
    • Obvious Stunt Double: This is despite the fact that Damien is taller, paler, with longer, darker hair and a full beard. Yes, it's played for laughs.
  • Take That!:
    • The first five minutes of the Miz's match against Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship at Backlash 2016 appeared as a subtle shot at the ill-fated CM Punk versus Mickey Gall "fight" at UFC 203 (right down to the rear naked choke finish).
    • CM Punk also addressed Miznote  in... not so glowing terms on January 2020.
    • Punk, now working in AEW on November 2021, again references Miz during his promo against MJF, calling MJF the "less famous Miz".
  • Talent vs. Training: During his first promo after he was betrayed by Shane McMahon, The Miz stated that he believed that "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard enough".
  • Talk Show with Fists: MizTV will almost always end with a brawl between interviewees.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Evidently it never occurred to Miz that antagonizing all three former members of one of the most dominant stables in all of wrestling history would convince them to reunite and take him out.
  • Too Many Belts: At the start of 2010, Miz held the United States championship and the Unified Tag Team championships simultaneously - Meaning he had an unprecendented (In the WWE, anyway) three championship belts in his possession at one time.
    • For a ten-minute period on 2-21-2011, he held the WWE Championship and the Unified Tag Team titles.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Who would have pegged that kid from The Real World with the annoying gimmick who started out fumbling lines as a mere Diva Search host and wrestling just passable matches would turn into the WWE Champion?
    • The Falls Count Anywhere match with John Morrison on the Januray 3, 2011 Raw proved that Miz has become a badass.
    • The moment that John Cena got Alex Riley fired, it in turn resulted in the closing scenes of the most Raws to be Miz leaning over Cena's broken body after beating the crap out of him, all while wearing a pretty creepy Slasher Smile.
    • Let's give a bit of a comparison here, folks. When Cena and Miz first had a match together, Cena more or less turned Miz into roadkill. Their most recent match? Miz, for all intents and purposes, dominated the match, though his cheating ended up costing him the victory.
    • His team with Sandow. Because Sandow would rather spend his time imitating him instead of actually helping, Miz was (for all intents and purposes) regularly fighting and winning two-on-one handicap matches.
    • His career renaissance after his infamous Talking Smack promo with Daniel Bryan led him to become a workhorse intercontinental champion that improved his wrestling arsenal to a great degree, producing classic matches against all three members of The Shield, the Hardy Boyz, Jason Jordan, and (of course) Daniel Bryan.
    • He then further expanded on his heel wrestling arsenal by including more offensive moves, counters, and even springboard or aerial moves during his second Heel–Face Turn that came to a head when he had his best match against Daniel Bryan to date on the main event of the 12/27/19 edition of SmackDown.
  • Troll: Especially in 2016. He's been blatantly stealing Bryan's "YES!" taunt just to piss off fans, and, around the time he started feuding with Dolph Ziggler again, began aping moves from Bryan's moveset (like the repeating roundhouse kicks and even his running knee finisher) just to draw more heat. Speaking of Ziggler, he literally resurrected the Spirit Squad out of Discontinuity Hell to serve as his enforcers and as a way of messing with Ziggler's head.
  • Underwear of Power: After returning. According to him, it was because Vince McMahon told him he had nice legs, and he had the good sense not to argue. It didn't hurt that his original pants had become the subject of more than a few punchlines.
  • Undying Loyalty: The Miz is an increasingly rare example of a mid-to-upper level guy who has spent his entire career in WWE or it’s developmental system, and throughout that time has been one of the company’s most loyal foot soldiers. This has been incorporated into his character in recent years, as he has emphasised his “company guy” status to act as a Foil to former indie darlings like Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins and Finn Bálor.
  • Unknown Rival:
    • To John Cena at first. Miz later became a full-blown Arch-Enemy for Cena.
    • During Brock Lesnar's run as Universal Champion, Miz often thinks himself a better champion than the Beast, even belittling him in his face prior to Summerslam 2017.
    • Prior to Miz's (second) cash-in of his 2020 Money in the Bank contract, Drew McIntyre viewed Miz and Morrison collectively as mere annoyances. Drew later seemed to rectify this, since he called Miz the "resident cockroach" in his first Raw back after Elimination Chamber 2021.
  • Unnecessary Roughness: Behind his overconfident smirk and Large Ham tendencies, Miz packs a pretty brutal mean streak.
    • The beatdown he gave to John Cena leading up to their WrestleMania match has probably only been matched in recent memory by the one Cena received during the NXT Riot.
    • And then his beatdown on Alex Riley on the Fourth of July edition of Raw (though it was admitedly no more brutal than the one Riley gave him a few weeks prior).
    • His run-in along with R-Truth during the Punk/HHH match at Night of Champions 2011. They beat the hell out of both competitors, and then beat the hell out of the referees. Then came Hell in a Cell 2011 when they beat the crap out of everyone including the cameramen.
  • Villain Song:
    • While he doesn't sing it himself, "I Came To Play" certainly works as one for him. It certainly sounds villainous enough and fits his personality and motives to the letter.
    • "Hate Me Now" from WrestleMania XXVII certainly qualifies.
    • He actually sings part of "You Suck" along with R-Truth.
  • Villain Team-Up: With R-Truth
  • Villainous Breakdown:
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: On the Christmas Day 2018 edition of Smackdown, he revealed that this is the reason why he wants to be tag team partners with Shane McMahon.
  • We Used to Be Friends: He has a tendency to stab those he teamed with in the back; as seen with John Morrison, Alex Riley and R-Truth.
  • Wham Line: While it didn't change the entire business, or even spark a major angle, Miz's character is defined by one line.
    "I'd rather you all hate me for everything I am than love me for something I'm not."
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Disappeared off television after getting RKO'd by Randy Orton. He was actually filming The Marine 3, but no real storyline injury was given for him, unlike Cena and Ted Dibiase. He returned a month and half later, stating he'd been away shooting a movie.
    • Irony/Reality Subtext: Randy Orton was originally slated to be the one that starred in that same movie (Marine 3), but outcry from actual Marines that didn't like Randy's less-than-stellar past military record prompted WWE to strip Orton of the titular role and give it to The Miz.
    • Then disappeared off TV again after his loss to Wade Barrett on Raw after WrestleMania, and same reason as before, to shoot a movie, but with no explanation given.
  • Worthy Opponent:
    • On the 2/14/11 episode of RAW, Miz gave his condolences to Lawler over his mother, who had died the Saturday before, and stated that he didn't want that tragedy to hinder Lawler when the two fought at Elimination Chamber that Sunday. It was considerably one of the only times that he's done this. Which is more surprising in light of a certain troll who WOULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THE WHOLE THING.
    • John Cena, the guy that the Miz has antagonized for years, can't help but admitin his second Roman Reigns diss promo that he RESPECTS the Miz for "scratching, clawing, and earning" his way back into the mix every single time. Even though John can't stand him, he respects him.
    • After originally dismissing him as a buffoonish entertainer, Gunther publically respected the Miz as a worthy adversary after their battle at Survivor Series in 2023, even though the Miz ultimately failed to overpower him and claim the Intercontinental Title.
  • Would Hit a Girl: A minor variation happened during Mixed Match Challenge when he pulled Asuka in front of himself to avoid being hit by an opponent on multiple occasions. He eventually got a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from Asuka for his behaviour.
  • Wrestling Psychology: He's damn good at selling; his pirouette after getting Knockout Punched by The Big Show was spectacular, and he sold a Brogue Kick by Sheamus very similarly.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain:
    • Won the Intercontinental Championship from Wade Barrett at WrestleMania 29. Lost it the following Raw. For anyone that's counting, that's literally a period of 24 hours. This is rather Ironic in light of the fact that he's on the verge of becoming the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time in combined reigns.
    • He successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Drew McIntyre at Elimination Chamber 2021 to win the WWE Championship. One week later, he lost the WWE title to Bobby Lashley.
  • Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: He once called Daniel Bryan's entrance theme "your little Superman music" (keep in mind that Bryan's music is a rock remix of "Ride of the Valkyries").

...and he's AWESOME!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

When my hand goes up, YOUR MOUTHS GO SHUT!

 
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Tell Beth...

The Miz is extremely confident that Maryse could defeat the newly returned Beth Phoenix, known for being one of the strongest women on the roster prior to her retirement.

Maryse... isn't.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (4 votes)

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Main / ScrewThisImOuttaHere

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