Original subtitles

- That's what I'm talking about.

Boom, these are amazingly cooked to perfection.

Sometimes people call me a five star Michelin chef.

- Ow

I told you it was hot.

My life, how do you sum up your life

in a couple of words?

Hated, despised,

drive, work harder than everybody,

Sacrifice.

It's kind of a crazy life I've lived.

I mean, I always try to take a step back and look at it

and go, wow, but you don't always do that.

But yeah, I guess I just look at me as dad.

Hey, that's my bite.

That's my hot dog.

Yeah, I think that's it.

You may look at me as The Miz.

- The Miz, let me tell you what it is.

I'm the Miz-

- Miz's don't grow on trees

- and I'm awesome.

- He's a surefire first ballot Hall of Famer.

- He did it.

Miz is champion.

- I'm so happy for you.

Thank you so much.

- You made us all proud.

- It's a great story to tell my kids.

- It's a Hollywood love story.

- Beautiful, huh?

Babe, I'm sorry. She looks just like me.

- But you think about, like, when he first came on the

roster and the horror stories.

- He looked like a smart ass little prick.

He was somebody you wanted to just smack the taste out

of his mouth.

- I don't make a very good first impression.

I don't know if anyone knows this, but the biggest

celebrity is standing right in front of you right now.

- He sometimes has a big mouth.

[yelling]

- People just saw me a certain way.

A loud, arrogant reality star.

- I hate him.

I personally hate him.

- Who is this guy coming in from this MTV show?

[bleep] this guy.

- Sometimes being a [bleep] doesn't make yours bigger.

- Maintaining relevance is a challenge.

- School in session tonight.

- I have seen many a superstar get washed away

by the changing tides.

- I'm going to get fired.

Get that camera right here.

I will be

Respected.

This is my show.

It's like what do you do?

Do you quit?

Eight, nine-

- I've never seen nobody fall so low and still come

back up, and be where he is today.

- The Miz on top of the world.

Who's laughing now? Who's going to the bank?

[laughing]

- Love you man.

- It's an absolute honor.

- Love you too, bro, thank you.

- I'm not done yet, whether fans believe it, whether the

locker room believes it, I believe it.

And I will make everyone believe it.

I was born Michael Gregory Mizanin in Parma, Ohio in 1980.

I was an only child growing up.

Fifth grade, my parents got a divorce, and I was one of

those kids that looked at it like two Christmases, two

birthdays. That's the way my parents sold it to me, and it

sold me like, a million bucks.

- Michael.

- Hey, have I been good or not?

I was the type of kid that just ignored all that stuff.

Like I ignored all drama.

- Okay, that's enough. Mike.

- You know, like, when your

parents get a divorce, usually it's traumatic for

some kids. For me, it really wasn't.

I fight for a lot of attention and I need a lot of attention,

but at the time, I just kind of went about my way.

- Hey, Michael. How you doing, buddy?

- Fine.

- Good, good, good.

- I didn't really do well in school.

I guess you can say.

I didn't care.

- He came home with this report card and it was a D's and C's

for effort F conduct F.

I says "Mike, you're not a smart kid.

Every three months you're going to come home with this

report card, and I'm going to yell at you and holler at you

It makes no sense.

You're just not too smart."

- My dad, he picked up a mop, a broom, and was like,

"Here." And I go, "What is this?"

And he goes, "Well, this is what you're going to do for

the rest of your life."

- About three weeks later, the teacher called me and said,

"What did you do to this kid?"

I said,"Why?" He says, "He's turned into my star pupil."

- That kind of hit me a little bit.

And so then I started doing my homework.

- That's what you need, right?

To motivate.

- Whenever I'm the person that people are rooting for.

- Good job Mike.

- I don't do well, but whenever people are

second guessing me and telling me that I'm not very

good at something that sets me up for success.

Like, I was really good at baseball, right?

And when I was told, oh, you'll be going to varsity my

freshman year, I didn't do very well.

I didn't do very well until someone moved past me and I

was like, "Wait, what?"

And then I started locking in.

- That's just my Michael.

He's determined.

And if someone says, "Well, you got to try harder."

He's going to do it.

He's just going to strive and keep going.

He always had dreams of, you know, becoming

famous and he was never shy.

- You'd hear him coming before you saw him coming.

He has just endless charisma and you know, he found ways

to let that out.

- I was always a ham for the camera being like, let's go.

I was that guy.

You don't believe I was that guy?

Just look at the documentary on Netflix about Woodstock,

because I'm the first person you see going.

"Woodstock 99, baby."

Woodstock 99 baby, yeah.

So any time there's a camera around, I was always in front

of it, and maybe it's because I've always had a

camera with me, like my dad's VHS.

It puts an energy in me that I can't describe.

Even when I went to college, I'm sitting in my fraternity.

I just didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew

business classes was not it.

I was loving college, hated the classes.

I remember watching The Real World New Orleans Season 9

On the screen it says, "Hey, do you want to be on the

Real World? Here's how you try out."

- The Real World was a reality television revolution where

they just moved strangers into a house, and seeing

young people just interacting organically was

not something that had really been on television before.

- And I started making a video of what I thought would be

cool to send as my audition video.

I was trying out for the biggest show out there,

60,000 people try out everyone telling me, "you're

not going to make it. You're not going to do it.

No way, no how."

- People from Parma didn't get on TV even as friends,

although we supported him, we also thought he was crazy.

Yes, I was one of the

ones that thought he was absolutely nuts.

- It was okay, Mizanin, you're going to be on the Real World.

- And then I get a call back and they're like, "Whoa."

They're doing an audition in Detroit.

I had to do an in-person interview.

I'll never forget this question that was asked to

me. You're an onion.

And I peel away your family.

Peel away your friends.

Peel away the frat guy.

What's at the core of Mike Mizanin?

And I thought about it, and I remember the feeling.

It was like a sinking feeling because I didn't know.

didn't have an answer to that question.

They started asking me questions, and they started

making me think about things

that I don't usually think about.

"Your parents divorce, how did that affect you?"

It didn't affect me much.

"Didn't?"

Why did your parents get a divorce?

Well, don't know.

"How did that make your dad feel?"

I uh, I don't know, probably pretty bad.

"How do you think your mom felt?"

Well, they weren't getting along.

"Why weren't they getting along?"

I-I don't know.

So then I started like understanding.

I was like, wow, this is.

This is like not tough, but it makes you think like you

would think after all those really hard hitting questions

that were really touching my heart and really making me

think I'd be like, I don't ever want to do this again.

But I said, I remember driving, going, "I have to

make this show. This show will make me a better person.

I have to get on it."

- Each season. When we cast the Real World, we're always

looking for that outsider, that fish out of water.

And Mike was one of those people.

- And I'll never forget when John Murray announced my name

there I was, one of the cast members of Season 10 of Real

World back to New York.

- We didn't understand what New York was at that point in our

life, because it's the big city, it's the Big Apple.

So for him to go off to New York was a huge step.

- We don't generally think that big and the Real World was as

big as it got, and Mike sought that.

Mike wanted it.

- This kid from Ohio was now being hit with every

imaginable pitfall that you get.

Hanging out with all kinds of different people in the

most diverse city in the world.

- I know that he felt like he didn't fit in.

He had conflict with other cast members in the House.

- I was just seeing how it looks?

Will you give it a chance?

I kind of don't have a filter and I don't have an off switch,

and I'm a lot for people when you first meet me.

Uh, I don't make good first impressions.

I'm too much for 'em.

Like I'm just too much.

I know I'm too much and I even try to, like, not be too

much, and I just start talking.

And sometimes I say things that-that offend people.

Oh, God, just give me another one of those things

where some petty crap that she-she just needs

to argue about.

- He sometimes has a big mouth,

and he doesn't hide his emotions.

- I was uncomfortable, the house was uncomfortable.

So I created a character on the Real World to feel

comfortable in my own skin, because I wasn't even

comfortable as being Mike anymore.

- Mike had this other persona, this thing that he had been

working on since he was a kid.

This this wrestling character called The Miz.

I'm The Miz.

- Growing up, WWE was my favorite.

- The greatest professional athlete in the world today.

- He slammed him.

- These characters were just

so much fun and so entertaining.

Loved everything about it?.

- If you smell

what The Rock is cooking?

- He created this alter ego, The Miz and the castmates

that he lived with liked The Miz.

More than they did the actual Mike from Parma, Ohio.

- And I think that's because The Miz was was channeling.

All that charisma through this absurd character.

- The Miz is just an amplification of Mike.

That was just a release.

That was him finally finding a medium to say, "I have all

these thoughts, all this passion in my head.

I can let it out via this."

- Let me tell you something Rock, well you ain't seen

big until you seen The Miz.

And for me, maybe it's attention.

Maybe it's a camera filming me and it's giving me the

attention, that I-that I want.

Everyone wanted to see The Miz.

And the one episode where The Miz came out.

I was never Mike again.

- You just don't get it, do you?

- I wouldn't be sitting here right now talking about my life.

if it wasn't for that show.

Once I got back from the Real World, the option was,

do you want to go back to college?

What do you want to do?

- He came back home and he was a caged animal.

He knew he wanted more.

And he's back home in Cleveland with with limited

opportunity to explore more.

- When I went out, everyone would be like,

"Can you do The Miz?

Can you do The Miz?

Can you do The Miz?"

And then I'd go to a club.

The owner of the club would be like, "Hey, can you get on

the microphone and do The Miz?"

And I swear to you, it felt like a phenomenon.

So, I can go back to college

and do what my dad wants me to do,

or I could do what I-

what everyone feels like, seee's like I'm feeling-

like The Miz.

I remember seeing The Rock's action figure on my shelf

that my castmates from the Real World gave to me.

And me looking in the mirror, going, "All right,

what do I want to do?

I want to become a WWE superstar."

Once the Real World was over, I looked up independent

wrestling schools and there was one in California.

- Let's get that UPW chant going.

UP-Dub, UP-Dub.

- I said, I'm going to move to California.

Away from everything I know.

I knew no one in California,.

Got a nutritionist, found a gym,

got improv classes, acting classes.

You see, the new breed of wrestling is coming in.

It comes as The Miz.

I was doing everything I possibly could to just knock on

the door of WWE, but they weren't calling.

So when you move to LA, the cool thing is, I'm an actor,

or I'm an actress, not I wanna be a WWE Superstar.

Like, I remember going to clubs and being like,

"I want to be a WWE Superstar."

They would laugh at me and look at me like I was a joke.

And at that time, like, The Real World was a popular show,

but you weren't looked at like a TV star.

You were looked at like a hack.

Ultimate pro wrestling was in the back alley of, like,

buildings in El Segundo, and as you're driving up, you're going,

this is-- this is kind of shady.

- Well, here's our first chance to see The Miz in the ring,

Mike Mizanin.

- There you go.

- Beautiful.

- Welcome to The Real World.

- I would get matches here and there.

Sometimes I would literally perform for 10 people.

Here I am on national television, you know, one of the

most popular shows out there,

and I'm performing for 10 people.

- He wasn't big enough.

He was a college kid.

He wasn't built like that.

And I'm saying, "What are you doing?"

- I remember being in my bed going like, "What am I doing?"

And then everyone's telling you like, "Why are you doing this?"

Like, "Why?

I don't-- I don't get it."

And then there'd be moments where you just, you'd look at

yourself and you're like, can I really do this?

Is this ever gonna happen?

I mean, this is three years in.

I've been wrestling for three years.

Nobody wanted me.

Like, is this ever gonna happen?

My body is killing me.

I'm doing everything I can.

I can't think of anything else.

Is this supposed to happen?

Is this not gonna happen?

Do I have what it takes?

My confidence was at an all-time low.

I was broke.

It's like, what do you do?

You know, do you quit?

And then someone from WWE calls and says, "Hey, we would like

you to audition for Tough Enough."

- What if we told you there was a million-dollar WWE

contract up for grabs?

- WWE Tough Enough was a competition reality show

- Six, seven,

Give up come on.

- Eight.

to win a WWE contract and a million dollars.

- But to be honest, I don't think I wanted to be on

Tough Enough because I wanted respect in the industry.

And I remember hearing anyone from Tough Enough,

"Oh, they're just given a contract."

I didn't wanna be given anything.

I never wanna be given anything.

But are they knocking on your door before?

This is your opportunity.

And so I go,

"Okay, let's do this. Let's go."

So I get off the bus for the Tough Enough tryout, which is

literally 100 yards that way, and I just look at guys that are

like 6'5, pure solid muscle, and I'm like, "Oh, my God, there's

no way they're gonna pick me out of these 50 guys."

- Hi, number three.

- How's it going, guys?

- Great.

Tell us your name, please.

- I am Mike Mizanin.

- What are you gonna do to convince us that you're not here

just to be on TV or-or for the money since, uh, you seem to be

a reality show addict?

- This was a clear indicator that the reality star stigma was

going to be an issue.

- Yeah, I guess I-I-I am kind of a reality show addict.

But the thing is, I've been on TV before.

I- I'm-I'm known, you know, all over America.

- I didn't know you.

- Well, some people don't me.

- I still don't know you.

- That's fine.

Hopefully you will get to know me.

- Coming off of Mike's season of The Real World and a few years

after that is when you really started to see the boom

of reality stars.

Whether it was Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, reality stars

were definitely looked at as several rungs

below actual stars.

- But this is an opportunity to-to showcase what you got.

- Go.

- And I think the first thing that we did was go through

an obstacle course.

Half the guys couldn't even do it.

- Hurry up.

Under.

Under.

- I get up.

- All right, Mr. TV.

- It's like, well-well, how-how fast can you do it?

Uh, I'll do it in-in-in three minutes.

"Three minutes?

That's it."

"I'll do it in under three."

And I literally went to myself, I went, "Oh, no.

What did you just do, Mike?"

- Go.

Come on.

You said under three minutes.

- My lungs are just feel like they're on fire.

- Get mad like you did on the show.

- And I literally run through.

[yelling]

- Yes.

I think I impressed a lot of people that day.

- Yes, sir.

And I'll never forget my name being called be one of the cast

members of Tough Enough.

- Mike Mizanin.

- When I found out he was on Tough Enough,

I thought he was crazy.

There's no way WWE's ever going to hire you.

You're a reality TV star.

You're never going to be a WWE Superstar.

There's no way.

- 11, 12, 13-

- When he was at Tough Enough, I never in a

million years thought he'd get fired.

- It's time for the Tough Enough competition.

- Look at Mizanin taking it to Puder.

- We go through Tough Enough and I make it all the way

to the final two.

- And the audience has decided-

- And I'll never forget Al Snow

saying the winner of Tough Enough.

- -Daniel Puder, you are Tough Enough.

- Oh, man.

- Congratulations to Daniel Puder.

- Ho-ho.

- The look of disappointment on the face of Mike Mizanin.

- Wow.

- Maybe this isn't for you.

Maybe you shouldn't be here.

I mean, obviously the fans didn't vote for you.

Fans don't want you.

All day I was feeling, you know, this could be my day.

Yeah, that got taken away.

[chuckles]

I was doing everything I possibly could and then I

still-- Even when you get an opportunity, you can't win.

You're not getting it.

So, I don't know what to do.

- You'll be there sooner than you think.

- I hope so.

I hope so.

I didn't care about the million dollars.

I wanted the contract.

I wanted the contract.

And then, I thought, I'm done.

I'm telling you, I was done.

But I get a call.

They said, "We'd like to-to sign you to developmental deal."

"What?"

"You have to move to our new developmental facility.

And you need to be there as fast as you can."

[crowd cheers]

- -227 pounds, The Miz

- I really wasn't involved much in the Tough Enough process.

But I do remember at that time, I was more looking in terms of

the character and the voice.

And is this person someone you can write for

and put in a storyline?

Miz certainly had a face that you kind of wanted to smack.

So, you could see he's a natural heel and you could see that

there was something there.

- Honestly, it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't win

Tough Enough.

Because I went to train and develop.

And Daniel Puder was kind of thrown to the wolves when

he wasn't ready.

- I'll tell you what, there's a target on Puder's chest and

everyone loves to chop it.

- Meanwhile, in Deep South, I mean, it was tough.

The reason it was so tough is because you weed the people out

that aren't going to make it, aren't going to cut it when you

get up to Monday Night Raw or Friday Night SmackDown.

- Miz, so energetic and pumped up here.

- I remember waking up every morning going,

"One more day, you can do it.

One more day, you can do it.

Eye on the prize."

And after six months-

- Mizanin, could this be it?

The Mizard of Oz.

- -we had to turn people away.

- Mike "The Miz" Mizanin, he is at the top of the Deep South

Wrestling mountain.

- So, then I get told, "Vince wants to see you."

And I'm like, "Oh, my God.

Vince McMahon."

So, I knock on the door, "Come in."

Uh, "Yes, sir."

I go in.

I sit down.

He goes, "I see you as the Ryan Seacrest of WWE."

When you want to be a WWE Superstar, that is not what

you want to hear.

You want to hear like, "I see you as the next Rock,

as my next main eventer.

Not, "We see you as the host."

Yo, what's up?

I'm The Miz and I am your host for Friday Night SmackDown.

Hoorah.

- Miz had been in Tough Enough.

But there was a feeling that Miz wasn't big enough to get in the

ring and bump around a little bit and do some physicality.

- And for Miz, it was even more difficult because of the stigma

of being a reality TV star.

I think it caused people to root for his failure instead of

getting on his side and-and rooting for his success.

- A couple months go by.

They say, "We want you to be the host of the Diva Search, which

is finding the new woman WWE Superstar.

- WWE Diva Search.

[cheering]

- And I was like, "Oh, my gosh.

How am I gonna be able to do this?"

But the Diva Search was bittersweet because

I met my wife.

The love of my life.

- Hi, guys.

How are you doing?

- Hi, can you tell me your name, please?

- Maryse, Maryse.

- I'll never forget the first time she walked in the room.

Just stunning.

Drop-dead gorgeous, but couldn't speak any English whatsoever.

- Can I explain why I'm here? Just-

- Yeah.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- Um.

So, I'm just standing there and they obviously all saw that I

wasn't able to say anything.

So, Miz goes, "Why don't you cut a promo in French?"

[French language]

- That's awesome.

I have never been so scared and turned on in my entire life.

I don't know what she said, but after she walked out-

- Thank you very much.

- -we all looked at each other and go, "She's in."

Thank you.

Great-great job.

- You know what's funny?

You're such, like, a good villain and somehow, I feel like

I'm, uh, making you--

- You're supposed to make me endearing,

like, "What a great husband."

- I feel like I do that.

- You make me more of an [bleep]

- No, I feel like people feel sorry for me at first,

and then it switched--

- Feel sorry for you?

- Yeah, and then it switched.

- For being with me?

I'm a catch.

- Yes, you are.

- I'm a catch.

- Yes, you are.

I'm not saying you're not, but-

- Feel sorry for you, they're envious of you.

- You're a lot. You're a lot.

You have a big mouth.

- Envious.

- Your mouth is big.

Talks a lot.

- And by the way, I'm doing this,

so I can have more time to rest.

[laughter]

- After the Diva Search, Maryse and I started dating.

So, I went and got a book that could teach you how

to speak French.

Didn't learn at all.

But it was the thought that counts, right?

- I could speak English, but he was still having this kind of a

little attitude about him.

I'm trying to be cool.

I'm trying to be Miz.

It was just a lot and really entertaining.

So, it was just funny to see how Miz would become Mike and Mike

would become Miz and how they were just almost like

two different people.

- There's motivation for you.

[laughs]

Exactly.

- That'll motivate me. Perfect.

- I really liked him.

He was really cute and then

the rest was kind of history.

[crowd cheers]

- So, we did the Diva Search casting special, and then we

brought them into the ring.

So, if you're ready to see these finalists, let me hear you say,

hoorah.

[crowd yells "Hoorah"]

- Monday Night Raw is the flagship show of the WWE.

There is no bigger week-to-week stage than Monday Night Raw.

- Now, we all know that the sexiest women in the world are-

or the sexiest women on television are in the WWE.

[laughs]

I literally just watched that recently.

It is truly one of the most horrifying moments in the

history of live television.

- I had like six pages of dialogue.

There's no cue cards.

There's no teleprompter.

It's just in your memory and you need to go, go, go.

And we are live, by the way.

We don't get a second take.

Now, to vote for these beautiful young ladies, you have to vote.

Go to-to--

[laughs]

go to, uh- go to, uh-- WWE-

- You have this guy who had

scratched and clawed and done everything humanly possible to

make it through the doors of WWE.

And here he is botching that opportunity on live television.

- Then a cold sweat came over me and my entire mind went blank.

And then I started hearing the audience-- you can feel an

audience drain out and know that you are messing up.

The most important thing I had to remember was

the phone number and I forgot it.

So I looked on my wrist, I was sweating so much that it

erased off my wrist.

Dial 86946 and vote for your favorite Diva Search contestant

and text message your favorite Diva Search girl and te--

do her name.

- Uh, that was-- that was rough.

It was like watching someone get attacked by a shark.

- And I remember going backstage and just sweating and-and lump

in my throat, butterflies in my stomach thinking

I'm going to get fired.

Dial 86946 and vote for your favorite Diva Search contestant

and text message your favorite Diva Search girl.

Vince is the last person you see when you go out to the audience

and the first person you see when you come back.

That's intimidating as it is, right?

If he would've fired me right there, I would've understood,

but he didn't.

He gave me another chance.

- I think Vince could clearly see Miz's charisma, but he could

also see the drive in him.

- That was one epically botched promo.

But Vince has pretty long leash when it comes

to people he trusts.

- And it created a moment.

The crowd started really booing me and hating me.

It's time for the featured attraction of the evening,

hoorah.

[crowd boos]

- Same reason why he gets booed by WWE fans was the same reason

why Mike Mizanin at first was not liked by his cast members on

The Real World.

He had the same ego.

- We know this guy.

We don't like this guy.

We want someone to shut him up.

- So the powers that be see the reaction.

And they're like, if they hate him this much, let's let them

hate him in the ring and throw him in there as a superstar.

- I remember when I got the call, "Hey, you got gear?"

"Yes, sir. I do have gear."

"Good. You're wrestling next week."

- Welcome to, uh, World Wrestling Entertainment.

- A reality show.

How about we book Paris Hilton, okay?

Since we booked The freaking Miz.

- A lot of people had come from the entertainment business

that aren't wrestlers.

I know back in the day they had a hard time not having paid dues

or not having enough respect.

- Miz is hurting.

- He's hurting?

What about me?

I'm watching him.

- He was kind of like an outcast, you know, coming from

that MTV world.

A lot of the guys thought Miz was gonna be here today

and gone tomorrow.

- Who is this guy coming in from this MTV show thinking he can do

what we do?

It's like, [bleep] this guy.

- And not only that, like, I am sometimes loud, no filter, kind

of say what's on my mind.

JBL.

I was rubbing people the wrong way.

- He looked like a smart-ass, little prick.

- Mike was somebody that you wanted to just smack the taste

out of his mouth.

[yelling]

- He's coming in as this reality star, so the mentality of the

locker room was we can tell you're using this as a stepping

stone for Hollywood and we're gonna do everything in our power

to make you crack.

- One day we were at a live event, I was eating a piece of

chicken in the locker room.

I start eating, someone walks in, says,

"Dude, you're eating over my bag.

You're getting it all over the place."

And then another person walks in and the other person's like,

"What?

You were eating over everyone's bags?

Why were you doing that?

Unbel-- are you kidding?

Are you that disrespectful?"

It was almost like I took my chicken, and I was just like,

ha, ha, ha, nom, nom, nom

[yelling]

Oh, here's your bag.

Boom, boom.

Ha, ha, ha.

That's the way it felt.

- The stigma was that Miz had not yet earned the right to be

there in some people's eyes.

- The person that yelled at me brought me over and was like,

"Look, I don't want you in the locker room.

You don't deserve to be in the locker room.

You don't deserve to change with us.

You're not one of the boys.

Find another place to-to-to change."

- Now he had to go dress in broom closets and kind of find

little hallways where nobody was.

- When I had to use the restroom, I had to go out into

where the audience would use the restroom and where fans would

literally, I'd hear the rumblings like, "Hey The Miz is

in the bathroom."

And I'd be like, "Oh, my God, this is so humiliating."

Six months goes by where I'm not in the locker room,

not one of the boys.

But I had a match with The Undertaker.

He's the top guy, the top veteran.

He's the locker room leader.

And when I was in that ring with him, I think I impressed him.

- Last Ride, a Last Ride through the announce table.

- Undertaker wasn't the guy that kicked me out of the locker

room, but he is the guy you go to to ask to be let back in.

So I asked Taker, I go,

"I've been outta the locker room for six months."

"That's a long time."

I go, "Yeah, I feel like I've learned a lot these

past six months.

And I feel if you would let me in, I would show respect to all

of the WWE Superstars and everyone in the back.

I just want to be a sponge and I wanna learn from everyone."

He said, "You can come to the locker room again."

And I've never felt so better.

I was like,

"Wow. Whew."

He gave me kind of the seal of approval to others,

and once that happened, the ride started going up.

- There you go.

Keep going. Come on.

- I've got more.

- Let's go. Come on.

Big breath, big push. Come on, come on.

- Yes, sir.

Nice.

- I could've got more, but, you know, I'll settle at that.

- They kicked him out of the dressing room.

That's alarming.

He went through a lot of [bleep].

It was unnecessary,

and shouldn't be tolerated.

- Sometimes being a [bleep] doesn't make yours bigger.

You know?

- Try to get five more.

One.

Two.

- Just the crap that he had to deal with.

We all had to deal with it at some level, but not like Mike.

No one would've thought any less if he walked away.

The fact that he didn't just speaks to what kind of

determination that-that he has.

- You got to take it to 40.

You've got 10 more seconds.

Let's go.

- He didn't let it affect him.

He didn't come kicking rocks into the--

into the arena every day.

- A lesser person would've quit, but I never saw him throw a fit.

- Come on, keep going.

We got five.

- He did not crack when all the elements were in place

to make him crack.

- We're done, right?

Great.

Thanks for the workout, Matt. Appreciate it.

- We are back on Friday Night SmackDown.

Here he comes.

Reality check time.

Here's the cover, hook of the leg.

[bell rings]

- Another huge win for Miz.

- I think in '07, people started to accept he is a WWE Superstar,

like the reality guy is actually a professional.

- Hey, Miz, tell you what, looking pretty sharp here.

- And then John Morrison and myself, we started forming

a tag team.

- You never know what's gonna happen in the team

of Miz and Morrison.

- He was like, "I'm going to be a champion one day,

you just watch."

And we were like, "Miz, do you believe your own [bleep]?"

"Yes.

Yes, I do."

- You're looking at a new SmackDown Tag Team

Championships, Morrison and The Miz.

- That was first time that I realized that this was

going some place.

- But tag teams can be split.

And John got drafted to SmackDown.

I got drafted to Monday Night Raw, and the first night I was

on Raw, I went after the biggest poster child, the biggest star

in all of WWE, John Cena.

I'm here to challenge John Cena.

[crowd cheers]

- And I said, I'll see out there.

- You are looking live at the jam-packed ARCO Arena in

Sacramento as we welcome you to the Bash.

- Things just got revved up with the arrival of John Cena.

- I was full of confidence and at the time it was the biggest

moment of my life.

- For Miz, his first big match had a major pay-per-view.

- But John Cena just mopped the floor with me.

- Attitude Adjustment to the man who many believed needed

his attitude adjusted.

- When you get in there with John Cena, you end up sort of

realizing, I'm kinda small time next to this guy.

- Miz has no choice but to tap out.

[bell rings]

- Tapping fast and furiously.

- Literally he walked all over me.

Like it was like one, two, three.

And as he's walking out, wipe the floor with his feet.

Like kinda like.

- School in session tonight in Sacramento.

- And I was like, "Wow.

All that work I thought was going somewhere."

- The question I have is, did Miz learn anything

from this lesson?

- The upside of just getting crushed by a prime John Cena is

that it taught The Miz a valuable lesson.

You see exactly what it can be and the heights

that you can be at.

- Well, ladies and gentlemen, The Miz just learned what

John Cena is all about.

- And by the way, just because John mopped the floor with me

doesn't mean that it was like, oh, John was mean to me or-or

disrespectful towards me.

If anything, he was helping me and he was teaching me.

In order to get to a John Cena level, you need to go through

the wars and the battles, and that's what I set out to do.

- Working with John at that time was probably one of the best

things for Miz to do because in many ways they're parallels

with each other.

John had a rocky beginning, and then all of a sudden like

won people over and won their respect.

So John always kept a very level head and always saw the big

picture, and I think a lot of that rubbed off on Miz.

- John Cena taught me what it takes to be the caliber of

superstar I needed to be to be WWE Champion.

- Don't worry about it.

- Is that all right?

- Yeah.

I don't think it was me consciously trying to bestow

any personal experience.

It was just me wanting to do good work and Mike was a sponge.

That's how relationships and bonds are built.

- I like to wear make-up.

But hey, all the pros do it, all right?

When you're up in the Hollywood, that's what they make you do.

And from there, man, I went through a year doing everything

I possibly could.

Boom, awesome.

- The Miz.

- Hi.

- How are you?

- Telling talent relations, "Hey, if there's any interviews,

any TV spots, anything that nobody wants to do,

I will do them."

China has offered us to come out here and we said, absolutely,

we'll come to China because it's WWE.

- A lot of people take those asks as a burden and he always

looked at them as an opportunity.

- Are you the guy from The Real World?

- I am the guy from The Real World.

- You were always getting into fights and getting drunk.

- I don't think that.

I don't think so.

I think I was the nice guy on The Real World.

- He doesn't complain, he doesn't make excuses,

he puts his head down and he works.

- Who's here for the, uh, very first time, anybody?

- During this time, Vince McMahon, the boss was teaching

promo class to up-and-coming superstars.

- We all have our own unique skills to do our promos in our

own unique style.

- Someone goes up and another person goes up,

another person goes up.

- Miz, come on up.

- And one day he picked me last.

- A round of applause.

You are looking at me like the star I am.

I walk, talk, look, and act like a star.

What about you people?

Yeah, you all are jealous of me because I'm going to be

a future WWE Champion.

Isn't that incredible?

By the end of it, Vince came up to me.

He goes, "You know why I waited for you to go last?

[applause]

Because I knew you could finish it.

Great job today."

I was like, "Wow."

- And that's when I went, "Okay.

All right, he's got something."

- Now I stand before you a new man, new attitude, same mouth.

- You could see it, see the light bulbs going off and with

that comes the confidence.

- Uh-oh.

- Oh, The Miz.

Oh, face first.

- He realized like Rocky Balboa that life's not about how

hard you can hit.

Life's about how hard you can get hit and keep getting it up.

- I'd rather you all hate me for everything I am than love me for

something I'm not.

- He'd ask questions, student of the game.

So all of those things started to click, and this was his time

to either take the ball and run with it or settle into

mediocrity, and he took the ball.

- Then to get a title opportunity against someone like

Randy Orton was a testament to the growth that he'd shown in

the first few years of his career.

- This is a title that was held by Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan,

Randy "Macho Man" Savage, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock,

and possibly me, The Miz.

- Miz, Skull Crushing Finale.

The Miz.

Here's the cover.

Hook of the leg.

He did it.

Miz is champion, Miz is champion.

The Miz on top of the world.

- You think of the times where you were kicked out of

the locker room.

People telling you, you don't deserve to be here.

All that coming to that moment and it's all going through your

head because you just won the most coveted prize

in all of WWE.

- I did it.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for working with me.

- Exactly.

The Miz is going to WrestleMania 27 as the WWE Champion.

You'd think the drama would end there, you know, when you become

champion, but it doesn't.

It gets even bigger and more loud.

Nobody believes that I should be there.

I'm a second rate champion, yada, yada, yada.

In the main event of WrestleMania, I'm going up

against John Cena.

But during this time, The Rock and Cena are feuding and more

people are gravitating towards that than they are against

me against Cena.

- Mike wasn't at that level yet, and quite honestly, I had to

make myself relevant because Rock is in his own universe.

- The Rock is not the WWE Champion.

John Cena is not the WWE Champion.

- It's a tough position to be in when you're that third wheel,

and it's very easy to get lost in the shuffle like, "Hey, I

finally reached the pinnacle of success and all the focus is on

Cena and The Rock?"

It's a tight rope.

It's a tricky mind field.

- I wanted to make sure that everybody knew who I was and I

was the WWE Champion and I will be respected.

- And The Miz is here.

Right here, The Miz.

Do you have anything to say to us?

- This is the most must see WWE Superstar and former student

Normandy High School.

To everyone out there, do your homework, get straight As and

have as much fun as possible because it's high school, it's

Normandy High School, and you guys are awesome.

- Yeah, The Miz.

- I'm blessed to be one of the few who have been along

for the full ride.

His whole chase for respect is so unnecessary because he did

everything in his power to earn that respect.

We saw him do it since high school.

- Oh, there I am.

Look at that, a huge, huge picture of me.

Gigantic.

- If something didn't go his way, he found another path.

- And then also I'm gonna test you guys on WWE and your

knowledge, and so who is the current Intercontinental

Champion?

- Yeah, I stopped watching that.

No, John Cena is not the current Intercontinental Champion.

He's not a champion at all.

- And so for Mike to be in that whole road to WrestleMania with

Cena and Rock, he could've taken the backseat, but Mike being

Mike, he said, "No, no, no.

I'm not to be forgotten.

I'm not the afterthought.

I have the title."

He made sure that he put his stamp on it as well.

He wasn't along for the ride.

- The road to WrestleMania is heating up.

Welcome, everyone, to Raw.

We are sold out.

- I remember walking into Monday Night Raw and Vince says, uh,

"Today you're gonna dress like The Rock and everybody's gonna

believe you're The Rock."

And I go, "I'm not a 6'5, 265-pound Samoan.

There's no way anyone is going to believe this guy is

The Rock."

He goes, "They'll believe."

I go, "Vince, this isn't gonna work.

I'm gonna be a laughing stock.

Nobody is going to believe I'm The Rock."

"They'll believe, [bleep]."

"Okay. Yes, sir."

"You're gonna put a bald cap on, you're gonna put sunglasses on,

you're gonna cut your sleeves, and you're gonna walk out there

like The Rock.

We're gonna blast his music and everybody's going

to believe it."

So I said, "Oh, my God, this is going to be terrible.

This is gonna be horrible."

- Not everyone has a potential to do this.

I think Vince saw something in Mike and wanted to give him a

chance to use that talent.

- And so I'm standing there and feeling stupid,

and The Rock's music hits.

[The Rock's music plays]

- And this place erupts like I've never heard

it erupt before.

I'm about to walk out.

Vince stands up and goes, "Wait."

And I'm like, and he hears the crowd go up, up, up, and he

hears them go to a pinnacle.

And as soon as they're about to drop down, he goes, "Now."

- I told you The Rock's here.

- I walk out like The Rock can only walk out,

then I start hearing the crowd realize it's me.

[laughs]

Hell, yeah.

- And I'm like, this is working?

- Oh, look at this, look at this, Rock Bottom.

[laughs]

This is one of the greatest things that I've ever seen.

- It was the first time that the audience said, "Wow, I wanna see

The Miz versus John Cena."

- Give him an inch, give him a shimmer of daylight and he will

create an atrium.

He will just knock the door open.

- And that day, The Rock called me and he's like, "That's it.

You did it, dude.

That is it.

You sold this match."

And I was like, "Wow, man."

By the way, this is my hero growing up.

Like The Rock is the reason I wanted to become a WWE

Superstar, and he's calling me?

Like he doesn't have to do that, but he did.

- This is the pinnacle of entertainment.

This is WrestleMania.

- You got to think about where Miz came from, right?

Little kid from Cleveland who had a dream to be a WWE

Superstar and then he's in the main event at WrestleMania.

- Cool. I'll see you around.

- Awesome. All right, take care.

- I see you around, all right?

Call me.

- I will.

- Thank you.

What a great guy, great guy.

- Does it get any bigger than that?

- Miz is a very intelligent WWE Champion.

Cena has never lost a one-on-one match at any WrestleMania.

- I still can't believe even to this day that I main evented

WrestleMania, but it's just like the story of my life like,

right?

Like every time there's something great that happens,

there's some sort of explosion.

- Whoa.

- Oh.

- The one thing that you strive for is to be the main event of

WrestleMania, and I can't remember it because

I got a concussion.

I got thrown on to the cement floor and my back of my

head hit it.

- You've worked your entire life and you fought through all this

adversity to get to this pinnacle of the business,

to get on top of the mountain, but you have no recollection.

It's like some weird like Shakespearean tragedy.

[bell rings]

- The way he was walking around with his eyes rolling around and

walking around, I thought it was all an act.

I thought, boy, is this kid good.

Man, he's got me fooled, you know.

- I didn't know how badly Mike was concussed until afterwards.

- I remember having six inches high heels and running down the

stadium like a hundred miles an hour.

- But at least he was still moving because the way he hit

his head, I thought that's it.

- Now I'm getting like goosebumps because it's just--

uh, it's like I can feel it even now.

It's scary.

And I thank God that he wasn't hurt traumatically.

- It's crazy when you think about it because he gets the

concussion in the match against Cena at WrestleMania and his

career afterwards sort of goes into this fog,

into this darkness.

Shortly after that, he drops the title, and then went through

a phase where he was not able to rise to the level that

he had just been at.

- I start spiraling down.

So I go from the main event of WrestleMania to not really

winning a match that entire year.

Sometimes I had even thought I would be fired.

That's how fast these things can happen.

How slippery of a slope it is.

- It is sad when you see superstars who go from being

great to being gone.

I have seen many of talented WWE Superstar get washed away

by the changing tides.

- I was trying so hard, but I just couldn't find it.

It was a good three years where I was just kinda just treading

water and I was trying so hard to do everything I possibly

could to just figure it out.

Like, how do I get back to being what feels like relevant because

it just wasn't feeling that way.

- I think any human being would question like,

am I getting older?

Am I good enough?

Do people care?

And I said, "[bleep] people and their expectations, you know.

Just do whatever makes you happy."

- Whenever, uh, Maryse is around it makes me the best me

I can possibly be.

She just motivates me, she drives me, she just elevates

everything that I do.

- I, Michael, take you, Maryse-

- I, Michael, take you, Maryse-

- -to be my lawfully wedded wife.

- It's just the way we always support each other and always,

you know, put each other over like we say in wrestling.

And we always put each other over.

- Till death till we depart.

- Yes.

- I'm use-- uh, uh, by the way, I'm used to just cutting promos

off the whim, so.

- By the time you get to 2014, uh, The Miz is essentially an

afterthought in WWE.

- In three, two, one, just like reintroduce yourself for us.

- Maintaining relevance is a challenge and in Miz's case,

there's a little bit of the challenge of trying to find,

you know, new ways to- to stand out.

- I don't even have a seat anymore.

They-they don't care about me.

That's how important I am.

At the time, I was getting movies.

That's a risk- I got to ride through hell.

And I was only gone for like four weeks,

but it was enough time

to change up my character and the character I wanted

to do was The A-lister.

Like a movie star that thinks he's the biggest movie star

in the world.

I'm back.

How can you generate more heat than that?

A guy who thinks he's Tom Cruise, but in actuality, he has

straight to DVD movies.

Unlike Hollywood who actually appreciates me, the WWE Universe

doesn't realize, doesn't see the A-list talent that I am.

They look at me-

- The Miz found a way, and this is such a

brilliant idea because there was truly a stigma about a reality

star sort of being the opposite of A-list.

- And he was making movies, but I don't know how many people

would call The Marine 3 a movie.

- So the idea of him becoming The A-lister is such

a brilliant troll.

- They say it's every man for themselves, but they never had

a stunt double who would do anything you say.

- Life can begin to imitate art, and if you say something long

enough, business can start picking up.

- Zack Ryder for this first Intercontinental Championship

defense here tonight against The Miz.

- I'm not so sure Miz actually deserves this title opportunity.

- At that time, I was thinking, "How do I get back to the main

event of WrestleMania?

How do I get back to being a champion?"

- That's Zack Ryder's dad that just shoved Miz.

- I said, "Oh, okay.

Here we go."

- That is Maryse.

- Maryse comes into the fold, and all of a sudden, you have

this incredibly compelling act.

- Oh, man.

And now security gonna haul Maryse out of here.

- What in the world.

- Miz, Skull-Crushing Finale.

Zack was distracted.

Miz hooks the leg.

Miz is the Intercontinental Champion.

- In wrestling, when there's truth in storylines,

it just hits fans differently.

- It's a Hollywood love story.

- There's a real special kind of bond that exists there because

Maryse was able to observe everything that her

husband went through.

- Oh, isn't that nice?

- Oh, it's like Camelot.

- Isn't that wonderful?

- Miz is so happy.

- Not only winning a title, but having your wife out there,

being able to share that experience, there's no words

that describe it.

- And like a phoenix, man, the dude just rose back from

obscurity to being right back in the mainstream of pro wrestling,

and not many people have been able to do that.

Not many.

- By coming back like that, he proved us all wrong again.

- The Miz is a classic example of a superstar with a chip

on their shoulder.

Even when he got to the point of knowing that he was absolutely

like a mainstay and a staple, I think he always wanted to

prove to the ghosts of 2006 that he belonged.

All those criticisms that The Miz had been dealing with for

years, all came to a head, and it led to one of the most

passionate interviews that the WWE Universe has ever seen.

- Stick that camera right here.

This is my show, my show.

Are you guys ready to watch me throw smoke?

It's been a while since I played catch, by the way.

It's been a while.

- Talk a little bit about your longevity in WWE.

You've had your ups and downs.

Do you feel like you're being taken more seriously than ever

in the ring these days?

- I hope so.

I put my best work out there.

Every time I go out, I always give 100% because I know that

the fans, that's what they want.

Come on, Baltimore.

I think people thought I would be gone in three months, but

here I am 10 years later, the current Intercontinental

Champion, so it's kind of nice.

- Thank you again.

- Absolutely.

Nice meeting you.

- You too, I'll see you tomorrow.

- Yeah, I'll be down there.

[Daniel Bryan's music plays]

- Yes, this is SmackDown Live.

And yes, this is the WWE Draft.

- And what an exciting moment in the history-changing moment here

in WWE.

- In 2016, a draft is set up, where superstars are either

drafted to RAW or SmackDown.

With Daniel Bryan as SmackDown's on-screen General Manager,

he's tasked with making sure the brand doesn't lose

any champions.

- I kinda hate to be doing this, uh, but we need the

Intercontinental Championship.

SmackDown Live's next pick is The Miz and Maryse.

- You know, you could have a little bit more excitement.

- Daniel Bryan is kind of put into this position where even

though he doesn't want to, he's forced to draft his old rival

The Miz to join him on SmackDown.

- How are you going to become a star in the WWE, huh?

- Well, do you- do you know what I was thinking I was gonna do is

I was gonna go on a reality TV show, get a Faux-Hawk,

and then come out here and act like an idiot.

That's how I always-

- The Miz and Daniel Bryan are polar opposites.

You have The Miz who came up in reality television.

You have Daniel Bryan, who wrestled in gyms, and bingo

halls, and VFWs.

You have these two people with completely opposing

philosophies.

There was a real resentment that Daniel Bryan had for The Miz,

and quite frankly, at that point, I don't think Daniel

Bryan had a ton of respect for The Miz either.

- We just think differently.

We really do.

- So, I don't like Mike, right?

I don't like Miz.

We're just like, "Hey, we know how to push

each other's buttons."

- I just got drafted to SmackDown and I was going

through a phase where I don't know if I've gained the respect

that I truly wanted, and one night I wasn't on the show.

Here I am, so angry that I am not on SmackDown.

I went up to one of the creative people at WWE and I said put me

on Talking Smack tonight.

[laughs]

- Talking Smack would go live on the WWE Network immediately

after SmackDown.

- Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Talking Smack,

I'm Renee Young.

Joining me as always, the general manager of SmackDown

Live Daniel Bryan.

We have got-

- Oh, yeah.

First of all, let's just talk about how I did not know that

this was going to happen.

- Of course, it was agreed upon that Daniel Bryan and The Miz

would both be there.

It was agreed upon that the two could have words,

but very quickly, it turned into something else

that was very, very real.

- I was a technique guy.

- When you were doing that weird technique-

- You know what I think-

- Oh.

- You know what I think, I think the fact that the

Intercontinental Championship wasn't highlighted in SmackDown

Live is a crock.

That's what I think.

- I just remember seeing Miz like losing it.

- This is the last title that you held, Daniel, last one,

the last title.

And you said you wanted to make it relevant.

You wanted to make it prestigious and honorable.

- Right, right. And I-

- That is what you said.

- No, yeah.

- Those are words coming out of your mouth.

- Well, here is the deal. I have respect--

- You didn't do that and I can

- I have respect for the title.

I just don't have respect for the person holding it.

- And then you know, it's been the story following him for-for

many years again.

Uh, you come from the real world, you're-you're only here

because you got lucky on the reality show.

It's like, when do you stop proving yourself?

- I guess the kind of thing is that you to me, uh, there's no

gentle way to say it to me you wrestle like a coward.

You wrestle like somebody who's af- who's afraid to get hit.

Like--

- I-I-I wre- I wrestle- I wrestle like a coward.

I--

- Like, you wrestle like a coward.

- Daniel Bryan said I wrestle like a coward.

I went black.

I don't remember what I said.

I really don't.

I am here each and every week, but you sit there

and call me a coward?

Let me tell you about a coward.

- They're touching on like some very personal chords right now.

I thought-- I just-- I thought they were going to beat the crap

out of each other.

- You're the one that doesn't get in the WWE ring again.

No, don't you walk away from me, Daniel.

And then he walked away, and it-it infuriated me even more.

Don't you walk away.

I'm the one that loves the fans.

I just spoke from the heart exactly how I felt.

Stick that camera right here.

This is my show, my show.

And I'm sick of all of you, my GM sitting there criticizing me,

calling me the coward.

You're the cowards.

I'm the one here day in and day out in that wrestling ring

beating people up.

Thank you very much.

I'm sick of this.

- Okay, the, uh-- this has been Talking Smack.

We will be back the same time next week immediately after

SmackDown.

Thank you, guys, for joining us tonight.

- If you know Miz, you know he has that in him.

Believe me, that might have been the first time he verbalized

that all out loud, but those thoughts had been festering in

his head for quite some time.

So, it must have been cathartic and therapeutic

to be able to do that.

And that was a seminal moment in his career where people were

like, "Whoa, this a side of Miz I've never seen before."

- It's very rare in WWE that there's a single moment that

will shift your perspective on someone forever.

There's something about always being The Miz that requires you

to have a wall up constantly.

But what we saw on Talking Smack was Mike Mizanin finally voicing

all the hardship that he went through and finally talking

about the fact that he deserved to be in the spot

that he was in.

That is a guy that's been carrying this weight

on him for years.

We all had this realization that this is what's been inside of

him the whole time.

From that point on the sky was the limit for The Miz.

- Am I sitting on this?

- Yeah.

- This is not what I signed up for.

This is the worst seat in the history of seats.

My back hurts.

- Oh, poor you.

Poor Mike.

Miz and Mrs started-- I was actually about six months

pregnant with Monroe.

- Does she look like me?

- I don't know.

- That's my nose.

That's my nose.

- Actually, the butt's right here.

- That's definitely my butt.

- How do you deal with him?

- She gets that a lot, by the way.

[laughing]

- Mike didn't wanna do a show because it's reality and he

comes from reality, and he had all this trying

to get out of it.

- She wants to do a nude photoshoot.

[laughing]

I wasn't sure,

but I thought the reality TV stuff,

I don't look at it as a stigma.

Like I was always proud to be on the Real World.

Happy Valentine's Day, babe.

It was everyone else.

Everyone else made me feel like a no talent hack.

- You're so freaking cute.

- You have no talent, but just living your life on TV.

All right.

Thank you, guys, very much.

Bye, guys.

- Everyone has an opinion, but time has changed, TV's changed,

tables are switched.

- Wow, that is very pretty.

Do you guys want me to autograph that?

- I'll get some pictures.

- Great.

- Everyone in WWE hated him for the fact that

he was a reality star.

Now everyone is asking him, so how do you do this?

How do you become you?

I wanna be just like you.

- Now in this era, people wanna be The Miz.

- Very happy to be joined in studio by a rather awesome

guest, The Miz.

Did you ever think when you started that you would be able

to accomplish what you accomplished in the WWE?

- No.

Dad, did you think I would?

- No.

- He was able to crossover because he did the work, so

people began to respect him because he did that work.

- The next time you see me, I'll be a dad.

- And I'll be a grandpa.

[laughter]

- This is it.

This is the moment.

To my little girl, I will do the best I possibly

can to be the best father.

I never met you before yet, but I can tell you without a doubt

that I already love you.

There it is, mom.

Babe, I'm sorry, she looks just like me.

Oh.

- Mwah.

- Gorgeous.

Look over here, Maryse.

Oh, that is-- you are so beautiful.

- She loves you.

- People always say like life changes when you have a kid,

and everyone always usually goes, "Yeah, whatever.

Yeah, okay, I got a dog and a cat.

It's not that big of a deal."

Yeah, your life changes 100%.

Hi, Monroe.

- She's cute, huh?

- You think you're ready, you think you know what you're

doing, but you have no idea.

- She looks just like you.

- Yeah.

[Monroe passes wind]

[laughs]

- That was not me.

We're really good adjusters, but add another-

- Yeah.

- -human being, it's like, what am I doing?

That first four months,

[crying]

you are not sleeping,

you are tired.

It's okay, shh.

And If I thought one was pretty tough.

Hello, sweetheart.

It's okay.

The most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

Sorry, babe.

I can't wait for you to meet your big sister.

Holy cow is two a whole another world.

Monroe, where are you going?

No, don't go in there.

It's okay, Madi.

Monroe, Monroe, it's okay.

But then you look down and you're like, "Oh, my gosh,

you're the greatest thing ever."

Yes, yes, my beautiful girl.

Man, I love this family.

I love everything that we are whether it is going golfing for

the first time.

Whoa.

Wow.

High five, Monroe.

That was a really good shot.

Or building a sand pit for my daughters, like, even my wife

was like, "Why don't you just hire someone to do that?"

"No, I'm going to do that."

That is my responsibility as a father.

Oh.

Oh, oh, you got me.

I get you.

I get you, Monroe.

- I don't think fatherhood changed Mike Mizanin.

I think it changed him in the eyes of the world because he's a

good guy, biggest babyface.

So when, you know, you try to be the biggest villain on TV and

then they see you being the dad that you are with two little

girls and so great.

It's hard to hate on the guy.

- I guarantee Monroe and Madison look at me as a dad.

They do not look at me as WWE Superstar, The Miz.

They could care less about The Miz.

As a matter of fact, Monroe makes fun of me as The Miz.

She goes, "I'm The Miz, I'm The Miz, I'm The Miz."

Hi, beautiful.

Do you want me to read you a book?

You do?

I feel brave.

But yeah, I guess I just look at me as dad.

Here are some of the feelings you might have.

You may look at me as The Miz.

- Oh, we are now bracing ourselves for the second

Elimination Chamber match this evening for the

WWE Championship.

- All the guys who are really the locker room leaders when he

got there, I think even though those guys truly had already

come to respect him, I think he always wanted to like keep

showing them they were wrong.

He was right.

- Here we go.

- Hi, sir. How are you?

- Good. How are you?

- I'm not gonna tell-- I'm not gonna tell him.

It's been 10 years since I've been in this situation.

People are gonna hate this and I'm gonna love it.

I did not think I would ever win the WWE Championship again.

I dreamt about it.

I wished I would, and then my number came again.

- The Miz is WWE Champion.

- I did it again.

Walking back, I think about all the hard work, and dedication,

and sacrifices that it took to get there.

Thank you so much, man.

Great match.

- Congratulations, buddy.

- Thank you so much.

Man, I appreciate that.

First time it was cool.

People were clapping.

I wasn't sure if everyone really took to me.

- Nobody works harder.

- Thank you, AJ.

This time I've earned the respect and that's all I've ever

fought for in WWE.

Now, that's respect.

- There was a real respect thing with him, man.

- Congrats, man.

You earned it, you deserve it.

- Whether he needed it or not, he understood, you know,

what this meant.

Respect.

- This is a guy who nobody wanted in the WWE.

- I hate him.

I personally hate him.

- And then you fast-forward, he's not only the guy you want

in the locker room, but he's the guy you want for everything.

[crowd chants "Miz is Awesome."]

- Are you guys ready for an autograph signing?

- I say to Miz every time I see him,

"Miz, if I could have 50 more of you."

To have a talent like Miz-

- Awesome.

- -that you can place in any situation and have the

confidence to know that they will knock it out

of the park is invaluable.

We know that we can send Miz on any television show, on any talk

show anywhere in the world-

- I know.

I have peop-- I'm used to people telling me I suck and then I'm-

- -and Miz will make it work and knock it out of the park.

- You got it.

- The Miz, everybody.

- Whatever you give him, he's going to make it the absolute

best he can and he's going to do it really, really well.

- International superstar, Bad Bunny,

who won his very first Grammy Award.

- When The Miz and Bad Bunny met, Bad Bunny was one of,

if not the biggest recording artists in the world.

- You get these celebrities that come in, they're inexperienced.

They just don't know how to do what we do even if they're from

different fields of entertainment.

- What do you got, bro?

- Oh.

- And a right hand dropped Miz.

- And to have someone as reliable as The Miz is to be

able to put him in a ring and have it come out flawless.

- Bad Bunny, crossbody.

- No one can do that like him.

I don't care who you are.

He is a special, special performer when it comes to that

sort of thing.

- What's going on, man?

You ready?

- Yeah, yeah.

I think so.

- Logan Paul comes in.

Logan Paul has a huge fanbase.

- Logan Paul is a social media megastar.

- But when you come into WWE, it's very hard to gain respect.

- This is the real deal here, WWE.

- And so I was like, "Oh, Miz and Logan Paul.

This is perfect."

- Miz.

- No.

You got to go like this.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- I'm not gonna lie, The Miz is a fantastic partner.

He's the superstar and I'm the new guy.

He's willing to coach me, hold my hand, and let me do it.

- Logan Paul continues to set the world on fire.

Oh, and by the way, his coach/tag team partner, the most

must see WrestleMania performer in WWE history.

- Man, I can't give Miz enough flowers.

He was instrumental in teaching me the ways of the industry.

- Paul looking to end it all.

- Gosh.

- Did you see what, like, Miz did here, here, here,

like here, here?

Like I have to do that [bleep].

- Yeah.

- I definitely owe him the-the beginning

and the kick start of my career.

- To Mike, it's just another challenge.

It's like, "Okay. Great. What else can't I do?

Tell me and I'll prove all of you idiots absolutely wrong."

- Okay, you're going blue.

You just need to get a little black.

- Yeah, switch it up, Mike.

- I don't-- I don't think you have enough camera and enough

people with you.

No, I think you need more people with you.

Talk about coming full circle.

You started off as the host of-of SmackDown and here I am

last WrestleMania, the host of WrestleMania.

You get to play here all the time.

Are you kidding me?

- Multiple times, yeah.

It's just different when there's a ring in the middle.

- We get there the day of and they're like, "Hey, Snoop's

gonna be with you."

I'll get you right.

I got you.

It's a dream come true.

I'm from Parma, Ohio.

Like six foot nothing, 200 and nothing pounds.

But hard work, dedication, sacrifice.

Man, I put everything into this.

- You are looking live at sold out SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Welcome to WrestleMania.

- My second home is Los Angeles, California.

So to come here and all eyes on me, I mean, that's what every

person dreams of.

Welcome to WrestleMania.

My job is obviously to be the biggest superstar I could

possibly be, but it's also to pass it down.

- Shout out to my coach, man.

- There it is.

- This is my coach right here.

We spent time and we spent numerous, numerous minutes with

me to get me right.

- It was an absolute honor.

- Love you, man.

- It was an absolute honor.

- Love you, man.

- Love you too, man. Thank you.

Cena took me under his wing.

Now it is my job to return the favor that he passed

along to me.

- From a professional aspect, if all the secrets I pass out don't

ever go beyond who I pass them out to, they're gone.

So I hear guys like Mike making sure he give, "Hey, guys, this

is at least how I did it."

Take it and use it as you want.

At least I know they're linking the chain and the chain

is not broken.

- When The Miz first came to WWE, he was seen as a reality

star who just wanted fame, but he's one of the most decorated

stars in our industry.

- He's the most, not one of the most, the most underrated WWE

Superstar in-in the history of the business.

- Who has ever done better?

Who has ever proven more with their potential in

WWE than The Miz?

- Miz.

- Don't do this.

- Oh, my God.

- Part of that is a tribute to his sticktoitiveness,

and the fact that he always had something to prove.

- I look the part, I act the part, I walk the part, I talk

the part because I am the part.

- Every time I see him, I make it a point to go,

"Thank you so much for going with the flow and thank you

for being as good as you are."

I'm so happy for you, brother.

- Thank you so much.

- You made us all proud, brother.

He-- this guy's got it in his blood, you know.

He loves this business, so that--

- Have to.

- That's why we love you, man.

- Miz has exceeded and obliterated all expectations.

I didn't think I'd be in a chair talking so highly about him.

He's a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the

most entertaining presences we've ever had on WWE.

- Are you getting this?

Do you see my life?

- When it's all said and done, Mike's laughing.

You kidding?

He's living his dream life.

- Who you are always changes, right?

Changes and evolves, but I realized if you peel back the

onion now, like, what's at the core of Mike Mizanin?

Hard work, dedication, love, passion, drive, go after

whatever I want, like I go after it.

If it's, you know, for work, if it's for my kids,

if it's for my wife.

I have so much drive for them to be the best dad and husband

I can be.

So if that make sense, if that's a layer,

then there's your layer.

Custom made to fit Madison and Monroe and Maryse.

We've got ketchup, we got mustard.

I wanna be at all my daughters' dances.

I wanna be there for their first day of schools.

I wanna be there for them.

I want to be the best parent, best husband

I could possibly be.

And in WWE world, I just really enjoy entertaining and being

in front of the camera. I'm a ham for it.

I love it.

I don't know why.

It's been driven in me since I was a child.

It makes me happy.

So as long as I'm able to entertain people-

Hoorah.

-it will make me a very, very happy person.

[crowd chants "Thank you Miz"]

I'm The Miz and I'm-

[crowd yells "Awesome"]

[crowd chants "Thank you, Miz"]