– WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz spoke with Metro.co.uk while doing promotional work in London last week. Here are some highlights:
If wrestling hadn’t worked out, what were you going to fall back on?
I’d probably be in Cleveland, Ohio, running a business like my dad does. He runs a chain of sandwich shops. I’ll probably run a couple of those too.
What’s the worst injury you’ve sustained?
The worst injuries are to your head. I got a concussion on WrestleMania 27. I took a tackle off a table and landed on my head on the concrete. It gave me a scare. WWE has an impact assessment and you aren’t allowed to work until you pass it. I had a week off, which is scary because you never know what’s going to happen.
Your gimmick was to be the most annoying person possible – how did you set about doing that?
Most people backstage will say I’m the most annoying person around – I don’t know why. I don’t consider myself egotistical or cocky but everyone else does. I’m a good guy. They might cheer for John Cena or CM Punk but they should be cheering for me. I don’t know why they don’t cheer for me but if they don’t like me, then tough.
What’s the worst advice you’ve been given?
I get bad advice all the time but I ignore it. I probably didn’t help myself when I first started because I didn’t want to wear trunks. I told myself I’d never be the guy wearing trunks in the ring. I didn’t want to wear Speedos and be like everyone else but then I realised that, if I wanted to establish myself, I needed to be taken seriously by the audience. So I ditched the gimmicks and went to trunks.
What are people’s misconceptions of you?
That I’m awful, I suck, I should quit or get fired, that I don’t belong in WWE – I get all these on Twitter all the time, along with: ‘Please die, Miz.’ The way I look at it is: don’t be a bully, be a star. I meet people all the time who rant at me but they’ve made me who I am today. People always told me I wasn’t good enough or athletic enough and proving them wrong is what’s fuelled me to achieve what I have.
