The Miz talks smack.
As part of the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Intercontinental Championship, WWE held a roundtable featuring IC Title legends The Miz, Christian, and Randy Orton. During the roundtable, all three shared their many memories of the title and what it meant to them. While discussing why the title was so prestigious to him growing up, Miz stated that his infamous Talking Smack promo was born out of frustrations that WWE wasn't treating the title the way he thought it should be treated.
"I was in a time where, [the title] through the years started going down where anytime a person had the IC title, they would be on a show and lose, all the time, with the title," said Miz. "It was like, 'He has the title, he'll just lose today.' I was sick of that mentality because the title meant so much to me as a kid. It kept getting thrown away, so I came to a point where, I got drafted to SmackDown and they wouldn't put me on the show. I was the Intercontinental Champion and I couldn't get on the show. They were debuting new SmackDown titles and the one title that I thought was prestigious and had such a rich history, was being forgotten. That's how the infamous Talking Smack came where I went off on Daniel Bryan. All my frustrations I had with the title were being unleashed on Bryan."
Later in the roundtable, Miz revealed that he looks back on the promo and doesn't have the same feeling that many have when they re-watch it.
"Talking Smack was a show that they needed 'a little oomph.' That promo gave it the 'oomph' it needed. I got a lot of texts from people that were like, 'Holy cow, you went off.' Honestly, I look back at that promo and I go, 'Oh wow, that wasn't that good.' I was stuttering, my mind was..."
At this point, Miz was cut off by Randy Orton, who said, "It was real though. I remember it. I was like, 'Oh, Miz went off.' That was good stuff, dude — the emotion. I'm not known for being the best on the stick, but when I get behind something emotionally and feel what I'm saying, and I take the time to absorb what's going on and turn it into my own, that's my best stuff. I'm stuttering and tripping over myself. That's what it was."
Miz went on to say that the perfectionist in him noticed the stuttering and as his own harshest critic, he noticed that over everything else.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit WWE with a h/t to Fightful for the transcription.
