The Miz
Miz: You all think I'm a frog-faced loser? |
Michael "Mike" Mizanin (born October 8, 1980) is an American reality television personality and professional wrestler, currently[when?] working for the WWE on its Raw brand, and is better known by his ring name: The Miz.
That Other Wiki has a rundown on his life and career.
Not to be confused with Les Miz.
- Arch Enemy: He would say it's John Cena. In Real Life, it's probably JBL.
- Daniel Bryan was also one in 2010.
- Jerry "the King" Lawler in early 2011.
- John Morrison, ever since they split their tag team.
- That very angry little girl.
- And that one camera.
- Alex Riley seems to be the most recent example. Commentators have even noted how equally vicious they have been to each other.
- Arrogant Wrestler Guy
- Alliterative Name: Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, anyone?
- Ascended Fanboy: Back when he was a part of The Real World, he often displayed his love of the WWE and hoped to become a wrestler.
- Badass Longcoat: He only wears it for a PPV.
- Berserk Button: If his interactions with John Cena and The Rock were any indication, The Miz hates being underestimated.
- Black Best Friend: A villainous example with R-Truth.
- 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 Not So Harmless 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.
- Breakup Breakout: After Miz and Morrison broke up, Miz was the one, to everyones surprise, that had more success, with winning the WWE Championship, and after losing it are still part of a major storyline. And while Morrison hasn't really faded in to obscurity, hasn't had that much success as Miz has had.
- Calling Your Attacks: Did a lot of this in his recent[when?] 'I Quit' match with John Cena.
- Casanova Wannabe: Almost painfully so.
- Catch Phrase: "Because I'm The Miz... and I'm... AWESOME!"
- "And I'm the Chick Magnet, The Miz" on the Dirt Sheet
- Also added "Really? Really?" when he interrupts people after they say something especially disagreeable to him.
- "HOORAH" when he made his debut.
- 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.
- 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: Has shown a tendency toward turning on partners as of late. If he feels you're not pulling your weight or simply served your purpose... it's only a matter of time before he gives you the Skull Crushing Finale. Jerry Lawler hung a lampshade on it in a recent[when?] episode of RAW, by way of a warning to Michael Cole (who claims to be a friend of Miz as well).
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Only for them to come back and beat the shit out of him.
- Companion Cube: The WWE Championship. Seriously, when was the last time a Champ flaunted it around as much as he did? In a weird sort of Insane Troll Logic way, it kind of adds prestige back to the belt, since he makes it seem like such a big deal. He did the same with the United States Championship before that -- hauling it around everywhere he went.
- Before that, that MITB briefcase (although it was usually Alex Riley that carried it.)
- Cool Mask: As Calgary Kid.
- 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.
- Creepy Monotone: Miz is arguably scariest when he's not being a Large Ham.
- Demoted to Extra: Seems to have been lost in the shuffle more recently, 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, Doing It for the Art: He really, really, really loves wrestling, and he's put up with some terrible and humiliating angles (and harsh backstage treatment) for the privilege of doing it, as well as working hard to improve his work to prove he belongs as much as anyone in the company.
- 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.
- During the 2011 RAW Money in the Bank match, his knee got dislocated (which they kept showing over and over again) and was carted out. Not even ten minutes later he was back out in the ring.
- Despite still in bad condition from this, he won his next two matches under completely legitimate tactics on RAW the following day.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Miz's recent[when?] 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: Has become one more and more since becoming WWE Champion.
- It is however, 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.
- 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.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: He has improved big time compared to when he first arrived to WWE, and he demands to be recognized for it.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Arguably the character of The Miz, when he first appeared in The Real World.
- 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.
- Establishing Character Moment: "I'd rather you hate me for who I am than love me for someone I'm not!"
- 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.
- Even Evil Has Standards: On the 2/14/11 edition of Raw, after beating Daniel Bryan, The Miz 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)
- Evil Mentor: To Alex Riley.
- Evil Is Petty
- Evilly Affable
- Fatal Flaw: His inability to shut up.
- Finishing Move: Three: The Reality Check (A kneelift to a neckbreaker), the Mizard of Oz (A front facelock neckbreaker), and the Skull Crushing Finale(A full nelson facebuster).
- Flat What: While ranting on Air Boom (The tag team name for Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston) R-truth has this to say.
R-truth: "Air Boom is as bad a sneaky fart." |
- Fleeting Demographic Rule: The Miz decided to make own logo by flipping the WWE logo upside down to make an M. Too bad somebody beat him to it.
- Also, he and R-Truth decided to follow with someone who decided to have a theme with the only lyrics being the words "You Suck."
- 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 endeavors, essentially turning the match into a Handicap Match.
- Gone Horribly Right: After John Cena got Alex Riley fired, it's just him versus The Miz, one on one, exactly what Cena wants. 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.
- 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.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: 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 Christan, allowing The 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.
- Ignored Enemy: To The Rock and John Cena leading to Wrestlemania 27. Of course, with Cena being his opponent for that years 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.
- Incoming Ham: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEESOME.
- Improvised Weapon: Miz wasn't the first Money n 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 wrecka train wreckan episode of MythBusters.- He even kept using it for a time after cashing it in.
- Miz won the MITB match in July 2010. He cashed it in to win the WWE Championship in November 2010. As of April 2011, Alex Riley is still carrying a briefcase.
- Who later smack him in the head with it.
- It's All About Me
- Jerkass
- Jerkass Has a Point: In a recent[when?] RAW episode taped on Long Island, NY, The Miz 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.
- 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 Michael Cole, who always finds a reason to excuse The Miz's actions, was thoroughly disturbed by it.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Though The Miz is pretty Heelish, if you see an appearance of The Miz outside the WWE, you can tell he's actually a really nice and friendly guy.
- The Napoleon
- Never My Fault: Always finds an excuse for his failures. Alex Riley became his go to scape goat whenever he lost. Unfortunately this came back to bite him.
- Nice Hat: Used to have a fedora as part of his entrance attire.
- 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. 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.
- No Shirt, Long Jacket: While not being a Badass Longcoat, his leather jacket is pretty cool.
- Not So Harmless: A defining character trait of The Miz. 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...
- Odd Couple/Different As Night and Day: 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 a recent[when?] episode of RAW. He was in the middle of cutting a promo complaining, as usual, about the lack of respect he gets, when suddenly... "THE TRUTH... HAS SET ME FREE!!"
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Unlike the Rock, The Miz is just his nickname; people have even called him Mike to piss him off.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Miz's first Wrestlemania as WWE champion has him cutting a program 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 this could be a real make it or break it period for him.
- He got back in to the feud by cutting an amazing promo where he destroyed Cena using The People's Elbow., entering the ring dressed as The Rock beating the hell out of Cena again the following week, kicking his ass all the way back up the entrance ramp and then bouncing Cena's head off everything that had a metal surface, which included hitting a Rock Bottom and later finishing it with a Skull Crushing Finale on the WWE logo stand.
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Sees nothing wrong with terrorizing children and non wrestlers just because they piss him off.
- 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.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Miz and Morrison wouldn't have become tag team champions when they did if it wasn't for then-current champion Matt Hardy's bursting appendix. The rest is history, ladies and gentlemen.
- Before Truth got busted and sent on a "Wellness vacation", Awesome Truth was set to win the tag titles from Air Boom following "Survivor Series."
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He was the Red Oni to Morrison.
- And the Blue Oni to R-Truth.
- The Rival: He had this with John Morrison, and Daniel Bryan.
- Romance on the Set: Is currently[when?] dating former WWE diva Maryse.
- 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. 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 SurvivorSeries PPV.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Subverted; when he dropped the scarf, he started kicking way more ass.
- 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.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: This makes him more menacing.
- Waistcoat of Style: And damn fashionable to boot.
- Slasher Smile + Tons of Teeth: His symbol, a haphazard smiling face with THEMIZ 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.
- Smug Snake: Even if he's a face, he's smug.
- His Smug Snake status has grown big time since become WWE Champion. While he HAS taking multiple levels in badass, it's now gotten to his head big time proclaiming him to be best of all time, the most must see WWE champion, etc. despite fact he's needed help repeatedly for matches.
- This trait has been reversed somewhat as of recently, with him managing to compete with wrestlers under legitimate tactics only to lose after Stopping To Cheat. His recent pay per view matches with Cena and Riley are good examples.
- His Smug Snake status has grown big time since become WWE Champion. While he HAS taking multiple levels in badass, it's now gotten to his head big time proclaiming him to be best of all time, the most must see WWE champion, etc. despite fact he's needed help repeatedly for matches.
- Sobriquet: Has three - "The Chick Magnet", "The Awesome One", and "The Cleveland Screamer".
- 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: Somehow manages to be this to R-Truth at points. This really says a whole lot about Truth's character.
- 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 unprecedented (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: And how. Who would have pegged that kid from The Real World with the annoying gimmick would turn into the WWE Champion?
- Especially after he started out fumbling lines as a mere Diva Search host and wrestling just passable matches with a so-called "finishing move" that made its victims look like they should retire???
- In line with the above, the Falls Count Anywhere match with John Morrison on the 1/3/11 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 recent 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 on RAW? Miz, for all intents and purposes, dominated the match, though his cheating ended up costing him the victory.
- Especially after he started out fumbling lines as a mere Diva Search host and wrestling just passable matches with a so-called "finishing move" that made its victims look like they should retire???
- Troll: Oh dear God yes.
- Underwear of Power: After returning.
- Unknown Rival: To John Cena at first. Miz is now[when?] a full-blown Arch Enemy for Cena.
- Unnecessary Roughness: Wow. 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
- We Used to Be Friends: With John Morrison, Alex Riley and R-Truth.
- And it's actually Morrison's fault they split up, because he tried interfering with a match of his during the Tri-Brand Trade, which made Miz lose and got him traded to Raw.
- 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 Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Yeah... for better or worse, this is pretty much the backbone of Miz's gimmick.
- Worthy Opponent: In the 2/14/11 RAW Miz gave his condolences to Lawler's mother (who died the Saturday before) and states 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 upon a certain troll who WOULD NOT SHUT UP ABOUT THE WHOLE THING)
- Wrestling Psychology: He's damn good at selling; his pirouette after getting Knockout Punched by The Big Show was spectacular.
- ↑ Oh yes they are