It’s been a little over a year since the Miz let loose on Smackdown Live’s general manager. After being told by Daniel Bryan that he wrestles like a coward, the then Intercontinental Champion would explode on Talking Smack, hitting Bryan on an emotional level that he, apparently, didn’t see coming.
Fans and the wrestling world, over the past few years, have started to appreciate the Miz’s style. His character gets under your skin, and brings out genuine feelings of anger and disgust. None of this is more evident than when the Miz berates Bryan over his career ending diagnosis from WWE doctors.
“Let’s talk about cowards for one second. You sit there and call me a coward? Let me tell you about a coward. Let me tell you about a guy who tells his WWE fans, the people that he loves, that he will be back. He promises them. ‘I promise you, I will be back in one year’s time to reclaim this title.”
As the segment went on, it was clear that Bryan was genuinely upset, claiming that if the WWE would simply let him wrestle, then he would. The Miz continued to poke and prod until, fed up, Bryan walked off the set of Talking Smack.
It was one of the most genuine feeling moments in the WWE in the past few years. The Miz’s emotional and empowered speech earned him a lot of respect from the WWE Universe, even if it was at the expense of the beloved Daniel Bryan.
Recently, WWE released a Photo Shoot interview with the former Intercontinental Champion, who talked about a handful of issues, mainly the promo that took him to the next level. Miz states that his anger wasn’t meant entirely for Daniel Bryan, but to the writing staff, who told him that they didn’t have enough time on the show for the Intercontinental Championship.
“This wasn’t just to Daniel: this was like, to everyone. I unleashed a lot because Creative had nothing for me that day, and I went, ‘What?’ They were like ‘Yeah, you’re not on the show tonight.”
“What do you mean I’m not on the show? I’m the Intercontinental Champion.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, but we’re introducing the new titles (The Tag Team and Women’s titles respectively) we don’t have room for the IC Championship.”
The Miz wasn’t exactly looking to blast Daniel Bryan, but the best way to get his point across, he felt, was to take to Talking Smack and hand out a truly devastating truth.
“I was so aggravated, I was so sick of it. And I was like, ‘Put me on Talking Smack tonight. I’m going to unleash havoc on everything and everyone.”
It’s interesting to see that the Miz honestly didn’t have any idea what was going to happen when he went off on Bryan. He went on to say that he was expecting Bryan to hit him, so when the GM walked off, he had to change direction live on Talking Smack.
If you’d like to see the rest of the interview, we’ve posted it below. The Miz discusses his time teaming with R-Truth, his debut with the company, all the way to skits with Maryse dissing John Cena and Nikki Bella last year during Wrestlemania season.
