Before the WWE, before the Real World, there was no 'The Miz'. All he was known for was being the young boy from Parma Ohio, living with his mother and step father going under the name Michael Gregory Mizanin (born: 8th October, 1980). He was an only child up until 5th grade, when his mother and father got divorced. Soon his mother remarried and he got two step siblings, Jimmy and Tonia. He was a lifelong wrestling fan, even getting a 'signed' program from his Dad (turned out his Dad did them himself because he couldn't be bothered to wait in line). But Mike's life turned around at the age of 20 when he auditioned for MTV's The Real World. After leaving Miami University, Mike was successful on getting on to the show 'The Real World: Back to New York' which is where 'The Miz' was born. He wanted to be different, he wanted to stand out. So on that very show, Mike decided to create an alter ego called The Miz, where he told the truth and nothing but the truth. It turned out that the contestants started to prefer The Miz to Mike, so he stuck with it. Mike was never going to pursue a wrestling career until he was successful on getting onto the Real World, which inspired him to go after his dream. Mike then went on to compete in 6 spin-off shows, where he did a series of challenges with his team to win money. During this and using the money he won, he went on to train with Ultimate Pro Wrestling and made his official debut in 2003. He competed in UPW's competition called Mat Wars where he came second place. He trained with UPW for the next year until he got a call from WWE Tough Enough, offering him an audition.
Out of thousands of applicants, Mike made it to the final 10 in the Tough Enough competition. He then went on to compete in all the challenges but came up short to Daniel Puder in the final and placed 2nd. But that wasn't the end of The Miz. Soon after, WWE offered him a contract and sent him down to their developmental territory, OVW. He went on to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship and trained with them for 2 years until he got called up in 2006. He was then the host of WWE Smackdown and then went on to being the host of the 2006 WWE Diva Search. Seeing this side of The Miz, many wrestling fans assumed he would be on the future endeavoured list because of his lackluster character. But on September 1st, 2006 The Miz made his official in-ring debut on Smackdown where he defeated Tatanka. Miz went on to having an undefeated streak (it didn't last very long). He went on to feud with The Undertaker, The Boogey Man and Scotty 2 Hotty. At this time, the opinion on him from the IWC hadn't changed - his character was just developing, with the in your face phrase 'Hoo-Rah' and his unique prance down to the ring, but many felt his wrestling skills were lacking and that he only got his job because of his reality background. All this negativity and hate was also felt in the backstage locker room. The main culprit was JBL who constantly belittled Mike because he needed to earn his respect. Even Michael Cole (yes, him) joined in. But Mike was determined to prove everyone wrong in the future.
Mike soon moved to ECW where he becomes the new interest of Extreme Expose. After countless flirting, they become his managers and he 'officially' owned their contracts. After falling out with Kelly, the stint soon came to an end after he met John Morrison - his new best friend and tag team partner who he went on to win the World and WWE Tag championships with. Although they were successful in the ring, they were also successful with their weekly show 'The Dirt Sheet'. It became a must see WWE Internet show and their popularity grew. They also won a Slammy Award together. Many saw John Morrison as the talent of the tag team and that Miz was holding him back. But WWE shocked the world when The Miz was the one who was drafted to RAW in the 2009 WWE Draft and attacked John Morrison, ending the friendship. John Morrison ended up being drafted to Smackdown.
This was where the 'I'm Awesome' gimmick was born. Who did Miz first go after when he came to RAW? None other than the baby face of the company. Miz came out week after week challenging Cena to a match but he never showed. Miz then counted a tally of how many times he 'defeated' Cena. He created merchandise against Cena and even dressed like him for one night. Soon Cena had enough and confronted Miz. Unsurprisingly, Cena squashed Miz in their matches, specifically the one at the PPV and the one on RAW which lead to Miz losing his job. Rumours were flying that Miz was leaving the company to go and work with MTV, which is why Cena has been dominating the feud, but the next week 'Calgary Kid' made his debut in a Contract on the Pole match. Kid won but unmasked himself to reveal that it was actually The Miz, and he was back on RAW. Instead of getting revenge on Cena, Mike had a new goal: The United States Championship. The champion at the time was Kofi Kingston. He went on to feud with him for the title for countless months. The amount of times he lost the matches for the title lead fans to believe he wasn't going to get it, but on his 'birthday week' back in October 2009, Miz captured the United States Championship for the first time, giving him his first ever single championship reign. He went on to defend that on several occasions against MVP.
In 2010, a new show started in the WWE called NXT, where several new stars called 'rookies' had WWE superstars as their 'pros'. Miz had the rookie of Daniel Bryan which caused alot of heat as Daniel Bryan is a very experienced wrestler, but the two of them blended well. Miz returned for the second season and had another rookie called Alex Riley (he placed 3rd). To this day (Feb 2011) Alex has been by Miz's side on RAW as his 'apprentice'. During NXT Season 1, Miz teamed up with The Big Show to form the tag team 'ShowMiz'. They soon defeated DX and won the Unified Tag Team Championships (having the United States Championship at the same time) They held those titles for several months (plus seeing Miz carry out 3 championship titles was awesome) until they were defeated by the Hart Dynasty. Shortly after, Hall of Famer Bret Hart defeated Miz for his United States Championship but gave up the title the week after. Miz came back with a bang and managed to win back the championship after just weeks of losing it. Then on July 18th 2010, The Miz's story really began. He made history and his push began to turn for the best. At the Money in the Bank PPV, Miz managed to capture RAW's Money in the Bank briefcase which contained a WWE championship match for when and wherever he wanted it. Miz continued to boast about his MITB win for several months, convincing the IWC that he would be the FIRST person to lose the match. He feuded with Bryan throughout this time, who he lost his United States Championship to. But on November 22nd, The Miz took the chance on an injured Randy Orton and captured the WWE Championship. But he didn't have long to celebrate (He had is annual 'Mizfest' and hired a huge party bus for all his closest friends. He made an appearance at his Uncle's restaurant in Ohio called Sip N' Post and did a signing for whoever was there) as the first RAW of being WWE Champion, he had to defend it against Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler. He defeated him in a TLC match which was considered one of Miz's best matches of his career. Miz went on to fued with Orton for the next few months until the Royal Rumble 2011, when Miz tossed John Cena over the top rope and cost him his chance of winning the RR and going onto Wrestlemania. It seems pretty set that Cena and Miz will be feuding, but all I can say is Miz's future reigns and storylines will be awesome. Either turning face or winning the WWE championship again, I know Miz will be in the WWE for years to come.
