The Miz talks about why he loves getting booed and learning to be comfortable mentoring younger wrestlers on the roster. WWE’s Miz is probably the best heel on the roster or at least the most versatile. He can be the cool heel, the cheating heel, the despised heel and the underdog who people are rooting for like in his match with GUNTHER.
The Miz has proven himself to be one of WWE’s most reliable Superstars. He can and will make any match and feud worthwhile. He has been involved with WWE in some capacity for almost 20 years. When a Superstar has been around for that long it can be hard to root against them. However, he has stayed a heel and still gets booed.
The Miz has been a heel for most of his time in WWE. When he is cheered it is because his opponent is hated more or because of the fan’s respect for Miz’s ability. In that time it wouldn’t be unreasonable to want to try being a babyface and getting cheered. However, that isn’t the case for Miz.
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On a recent episode of What Do You Wanna Talk About?, Miz talked about why he loves getting booed and prefers to be booed. He also talked about the downsides of being a heel and especially a really good one.
“I’d rather be booed. I love being booed. It’s crazy that some people don’t like it. The only thing I don’t like is maybe my T-shirts don’t sell, right? My merchandise doesn’t sell, and that’s a big thing when you’re negotiating contracts and stuff. It’s like a big metric and it’s like, well, I’m a bad guy. My job is to make them hate me so much that they don’t buy my T-shirts and stuff. But you want them to buy your T-shirts but can’t stand you, right?” H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
The R-Truth Effect
Despite Miz’s love for being a heel he admits he isn’t really one right now. However, the only reason he isn’t is because of one reason or one person more specifically, R-Truth. He explains that anyone R-Truth is paired with immediately becomes a babyface. Host of the show, Cody Rhodes, agreed with the effect R-Truth has on people surrounding him.
Miz and R-Truth have been teaming up for a while now. They have been a team since January and have been fighting against Judgement Day and in R-Truth’s case fighting with Judgement Day.
The Awesome Truth as their tag team is called are former World Tag Team champions after defeating Finn Bálor and Damian Priest. They eventually lost those championships to Bálor and JD McDonagh.
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Rhodes talked about how some people have a hard time being a heel. They can’t accept the heat and the boos that come with being a bad guy. Miz echoed that statement and talked about people wanting to be liked.
“A lot of heels, even to this day, they want to be liked,” he said. “Like I want people to be like, ‘Oh, yeah!’ The cool heel.”
The A-Lister Becomes A Veteran
Miz being with WWE for almost 20 years comes with a lot of experience. He has worked with some of the best in the business and is a former world champion. With all that comes a lot of respect earned. However, when he first started he was not accepted into the locker room. There is even a story about him getting kicked out of the locker room and having to get dressed in the hallway or closets because he may have dropped chicken on a wrestler’s bag.
Rhodes acknowledged that Miz had a rough time getting accepted into the locker room and asked if he tries to be accepting of younger wrestlers. Miz explains that he tries, but it was hard to accept his position and learning to be comfortable with mentoring up-and-coming wrestlers.
“I try. I don’t know how much I do because sometimes I’m like, what am I gonna teach them, right? And then I’ll sit there and watch a match, or some of them will go like, ‘Hey, will you watch my match?’ And I’ll watch it, and I’ll go, this, this, this, this, and I’ll think of a million things, and I can actually see it now … It’s interesting to be that guy, I never felt like I was that guy. I was uncomfortable with it three years ago and now I feel like I’m more comfortable, more confident.” H/T Wrestling Inc.
Miz went on to explain that he thinks the new found confidence came from celebrity matches. He has wrestled Logan Paul in his first singles match and his second match ever. Miz also wrestled Bad Bunny. After having good matches with people who had zero to very close to zero experience in wrestling boosted his confidence. He said that was the moment that he realized that he is pretty good at this wrestling thing.
What do you think of The Miz’s heel work? Do you like when he finds himself as a babyface? Do you think he is the best heel in WWE? Would you be able to love the boos like Miz does? What do you think of Miz being a mentor to younger talent? Let us know on social media what would be the top thing you would want Miz to pass on to younger talent.
Sources: Wrestling Inc., What Do You Wanna Talk About?, Wrestling Inc.
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