The Miz: The Most Must See Fall From Grace In WWE History!

Brian Damage

A lot has happened since The Miz headlined Wrestlemania 27 (Image courtesy of http://ringsidenews.com/)

We can all say what we will about the former reality star turned pro wrestler…but Mike Mizanin AKA The Miz “made it.” A former 5 time tag team title co holder…a 2 time U.S. champion…a 2 time Intercontinental champion…and the crown jewel a former WWE heavyweight champion. In the process, joining an elite fraternity of WWE Triple Crown champions. That of course doesn’t even include winning a Money in the Bank briefcase, becoming the WWE’s Inaugural developmental Deep South champion, an OVW tag team title co-holder, multiple Slammy Awards and voted twice the Most Improved Wrestler by The Wrestling Observer.

While many fans do not consider him to be “Awesome,” there is no denying his hard work paid off. So what happened to him?!? How did Miz go from WWE champion and main eventing a Wrestlemania to “Hosting” Summer Slam? It is mind boggling considering just how hard the WWE was pushing him to all of a sudden render him irrelevant. Has this ever happened in the history of the WWE or in wrestling in general? I am not referring to people who were depushed due to behavioral issues or injury like Rob Van Dam was in his 1st WWE stint. I am talking about a wrestler who was a main eventer turned pre show curtain jerker without a blemish on his personal character? I can’t think of any as drastic as what has become of the Miz.

Sure there were guys like King Kong Bundy who main evented Wrestlemania 2 and then at Wrestlemania III wrestled a mix tag match with little people. Bundy was never a WWE champion though. Did Vince McMahon wake up one day and simply second guess himself on The Miz? That seems unlikely but not improbable in the least. Keep in mind, even though he isn’t pushed as a main event guy, he is still relatively a WWE poster boy. He attends events, films tv shows and movies, he is still “out there.” So it is not like Vince finds him boring or uninteresting. He seems like a glorified talk show host and color commentator. A far cry from being the most must see WWE Champion in history.

There were other guys in wrestling who briefly main evented and were World champions, but most like Tommy Rich and Ronnie Garvin were transitional champions. For all the criticism Miz receives by wrestling fans, he is a natural heel. His smug facial expressions, flippant attitude and natural gift of talking makes him the heel version of John Cena. A wrestler people hate because they feel he is pushed down our throats. Yet the WWE made him into a babyface. A turn which for the most part has been unsuccessful. The WWE must know that he isn’t garnering any solid reactions as a face. Viewers can see and hear it every week…when he actually wrestles that is.

Now it seems that the Miz will begin a program with Fandango (A heel who actually gets a very positive reaction) Something tells me there will be a double switch where Fandango becomes the face and Miz becomes the heel. It makes sense, but it still is a big difference from where the Miz use to be. There have been guys on a smaller scale who have been pushed than depushed like Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Antonio Cesaro, Jack Swagger and even Sheamus for a spell. Nothing compared to the Miz. Did fans turn away from their TV’s in droves when he was champion? No. Was he a problem backstage and we never heard about it? Doubt it. Can the Miz once again become a main event player? Yes, but it’ll take a lot of work to rebuild what you already tore down. No matter how you slice it, the Miz in my view has become the biggest and longest flash in the pan in WWE history….Really!