The Awesome One has definitely earned the respect of the fans and the locker room over the past few years, elevating the Intercontinental Championship to a level it hadn’t been in years. It wasn’t easy for The Miz, who notoriously began with the WWE almost immediately in the doghouse.
However, 14 years after his audition for Tough Enough, the Most Must-See WWE Superstar has become one of the top heels of this era, and The Miz took time to speak to Busted Open Radio about his long road.
The 8-time Intercontinental Champion discussed the beginning of his career, gaining confidence as his experience grew, and how he writes his promos.
Below are a few highlights of the interview:
Do you consider yourself a locker room leader now?
[Laughs] No. I don’t think I am. I don’t think I’ll ever be a locker room leader like the Undertaker or a John Cena. Like, that’s just not my role. I’m not a guy that sits in front of the monitor and tries to observe everyone and teach them.
I have to get in the ring with you and feel how you are in the ring. I guess I teach by example, you could say. Rather than saying ‘here’s what you’re doing wrong, here’s what you could do better,’ I need to be in the ring with you to see what you’re doing, and that’s how I can teach.
It’s tough for me to give a person advice when I wasn’t in the ring with them, because I don’t know what their mindset was. I don’t know why they did it. I have to hear an audience and feel an audience to know why I’m doing something.
Do you think you’ve stepped your game up since your child was born?
Everyone always said, ‘When you get a kid, it’s gonna change you.’ And I said, ‘Nah, never gonna happen. Nothing’s gonna change me.’ I never understood that comment until I had a kid. When I had a kid I 100% understood what they meant.
Everything revolves around her and my wife and making sure that they’re happy, and now there IS a focus. You want to be successful, not just for yourself, but for your family. I’ll never forget when Monroe was born, there was this moment of clarity. She opened up a new part of my heart that I didn’t know I had, and it’s incredible to feel.
People always say mothers have the hardest job, and truer words have never been said. I always thought that WWE was hard but there’s nothing harder than taking care of a child, so to mothers and single fathers out there, I salute you.
You can check out the rest of the interview in the video below.
