Mizanin first gained fame as a cast member on MTV's The Real World: Back to New York, which first aired in in 2001, and its spinoff series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He later entered the fourth season of Tough Enough, a televised competition which would award the winner a WWE contract, and became a finalist. Mizanin has also made appearances on television shows including Battle of the Network Reality Stars, Fear Factor, Identity, Ghost Hunters, Dinner Impossible and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.
Before being promoted to the main WWE roster, Mizanin trained and wrestled with Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW) and Deep South Wrestling (DSW), where he became the first Deep South Heavyweight Champion. Mizanin was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), working in tag team action and winning the tag titles, the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship, on one occasion.
After signing with WWE, Mizanin became host of the annual WWE Diva Search competition in 2006. Following his hosting duties, Mizanin made his wrestling debut in September 2006, as a villain who went "undefeated". In 2007, he was drafted from SmackDown to the ECW brand, where he formed a partnership with John Morrison, in which the two held both the WWE Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship. He was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 WWE Draft, where he won the WWE United States Championship on two occasions. In July 2010, he won a Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, earning a contract for a WWE Championship match.
SmackDown! (2006–2007)
n March 7, 2006, WWE's official website featured a video of "The Miz" stating that he was headed to Friday Night SmackDown! and throughout April, SmackDown! aired vignettes hyping his debut.[1][29] When Mizanin actually attempted to make his debut on the April 21, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, however, he was, in storyline barred from entering the arena by "network executive" Palmer Cannon who told him that he had been "canceled" before having security escort him from the premises.[30]
After the end of the Diva Search competition, The Miz returned exclusively to SmackDown! and adopted a villainous persona, starting his in-ring competition with a win over Tatanka in a September 2006 episode of SmackDown!.[36] After this win he, along with commentator Michael Cole, began to note whenever possible that he was "undefeated", though he only wrestled five matches over the next two months, defeating such superstars as Matt Hardy,[37] Funaki,[38] and Scotty 2 Hotty.[39] At the same time he began a feud with Diva Search winner Layla El, who spurned his advances on more than one occasion,[40][41] leading to Miz helping Kristal defeat her in various competitions.[42][43] Soon, however, Miz and Kristal found themselves being stalked by The Boogeyman. This began a feud in which the Boogeyman ended the Miz's winning streak at December's Armageddon event.[44]
Following a brief absence from television, The Miz returned to SmackDown! to host an interview segment called Miz TV.[45] After the unsuccessful segment, the Miz returned to in-ring competition with a more intense style and began to pick up wins once again.[46][47] On the June 11, 2007 episode of Raw, Mizanin faced off against Snitsky in a match to determine a draft pick for SmackDown!.[48] Snitsky easily defeated the Miz to give ECW the draft pick, but after constantly assaulting the Miz after the match, the referee reversed the decision and awarded the match to Miz, thus allowing SmackDown! a draft pick.[49] SmackDown!'s pick was then revealed to be Chris Masters.[49]
ECW and teaming with John Morrison (2007–2009)
Miz was drafted from SmackDown! to ECW on June 17, 2007 as part of the 2007 Supplemental Draft.[50] He was absent from the first few weeks of ECW, though he was the subject of backstage mentions between matches and had several short Miz TV Crashes ECW video segments.[51][52] He made his debut on the July 10 episode of ECW in a match against Nunzio, which he won.[53] Following this match, Extreme Exposé began expressing admiration in him and gave him a lap-dance, starting a new gimmick for him of a self-proclaimed "chick magnet".[54] Extreme Exposé then became managers for The Miz.[55] He then began a feud with Balls Mahoney, after Kelly Kelly began to fall in love with Mahoney on screen.[56][57][58] On the October 2 episode of ECW, it was revealed that Miz owned the contracts of Kelly Kelly, Layla, and Brooke Adams, and used this excuse to stop Kelly from going out with Mahoney.[59] He was voted at Cyber Sunday to face CM Punk, for the ECW Championship but lost the match.[60] On the November 16 episode of SmackDown, he became one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with John Morrison when they defeated Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in a title match, which gave the Miz his first title within the company.[61][62]
In February 2008, Miz and Morrison were given a streaming segment on the WWE website named The Dirt Sheet in which they mocked other wrestlers and facets of pop culture, showing off their promo skills.[63] Morrison and The Miz co-wrote each episode of The Dirt Sheet each week.[64] Since holding the titles, WWE downplayed the angle of Miz and Morrison disliking each other, and since has portrayed them as friends. The team had many successful title defenses over the next few months, before dropping the championship to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder at the Great American Bash in a Fatal Four-Way match which also featured Jesse and Festus and Finlay and Hornswoggle.[65] Neither Miz nor Morrison were pinned, as Hawkins pinned Jesse to win the titles.[65] Miz and Morrison soon followed a feud with Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard and JTG) as a battle of their webshows, "Word Up" and "The Dirt Sheet". The two would be victorious against Cryme Tyme in a match at Cyber Sunday where they were voted in.[66] On December 13, 2008, Miz and Morrison defeated Kofi Kingston and CM Punk to win the World Tag Team Championship during a WWE house show in Hamilton Ontario, Canada.[67] The team then engaged themselves in a feud with The Colóns (Carlito and Primo). In a dark match at WrestleMania XXV, they lost the World Tag Team Championship to The Colóns in a Lumberjack match to unify the World Tag Team and the WWE Tag Team titles.[68]
Championship reigns (2009–present)
The following week on Raw, The Miz announced his intention to challenge for the WWE United States Championship, and also debuted new ring attire and a new finishing move, the Skull Crushing Finale, to defeat Evan Bourne.[4][72] He challenged for the United States Championship at the Night of Champions, Breaking Point and Hell in a Cell pay-per-views, but was unsuccessful.[73][74][75] On the October 5 episode of Raw, the night after Hell in a Cell, The Miz received a rematch for the championship, and defeated Kofi Kingston to win the United States Championship and his first singles championship in WWE.[76][77] The following pay-per-view event, Bragging Rights, was themed with interpromotional matches and now that The Miz was the second-tier champion on Raw he was booked against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, his erstwhile tag team partner John Morrison.[78] In the build up to their first match since splitting, the two hosted a one-off edition of The Dirt Sheet on the October 16 episode of SmackDown where the two compared themselves to '80s tag team The Rockers, debating over which is more comparable to the successful Shawn Michaels and which was the less successful Marty Jannetty.[79] At Bragging Rights, Miz pinned Morrison to become the only member of the Raw roster to win an interpromotional match.[80] The following month at Survivor Series, Miz captained a team of five wrestlers against Team Morrison in a five-on-five Survivor Series elimination match and once again bested his former partner.[81]In 2010, The Miz began a rivalry with MVP that began with a critically well-received verbal exchange between the two.[82] The two met in an unadvertised match for the United States Championship at the Royal Rumble event with Miz retaining his title, but in the Royal Rumble match itself MVP eliminated both himself and The Miz.[83] During the rivalry with MVP, Miz began showing signs of an allegiance with The Big Show and on the February 8 episode of Raw, the two defeated champions D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) and The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk and Luke Gallows) to become the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions, making Miz a triple champion.[84][85][86]
On February 16, it was announced that he would be on the WWE NXT show as the storyline mentor of Daniel Bryan.[87] During the 2010 WWE Draft on the April 26 episode of Raw, ShoMiz lost the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship to The Hart Dynasty when Tyson Kidd made The Miz submit to the Sharpshooter. After the match, The Big Show knocked out The Miz, and was later drafted to the SmackDown brand, leaving The Miz on Raw.[88] On May 10, Kidd defeated The Miz in a match, which earned any member of The Hart Dynasty a match for the United States Championship, and The Miz, who was allowed to chose his opponent, elected to face Bret Hart.[89] On the following episode of Raw on May 17, Hart defeated The Miz to win the United States Championship, despite Chris Jericho, William Regal, and Vladimir Kozlov attempting to interfere on The Miz's behalf.[90] The Miz had a tumultous relationship with Bryan, who was eliminated from NXT on May 11, although he returned the following week to attack The Miz.[91][92] On June 1, The Miz announced that he would be returning as a Pro for the second season of NXT, to mentor Alex Riley, the only Pro to do so.[93][94] On the June 14 episode of Raw, The Miz defeated R-Truth, John Morrison, and Zack Ryder in a fatal four-way match to win the United States Championship for the second time, and successfully retained the championship against R-Truth at the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view.[95][96][97]
On July 18, at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, The Miz won a Money in the Bank ladder match to win a contract for a WWE Championship match that he could utilize at any time over the next year.[98] Over the next few weeks, The Miz attempted to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on the WWE Champion Sheamus, but was continually interrupted by other wrestlers before the matches could occur, which meant that he retained the contract for future use.[99][100] Daniel Bryan returned to WWE at SummerSlam, usurping The Miz's place on Team WWE, causing The Miz to attack him.[101]
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