Vince McMahon didn't initially see The Miz as a WWE Superstar.
The newest episode of WWE 24 chronicles The Miz's life from his childhood in Parma, Ohio, to his time on MTV's The Real World, and finally to WWE. After finishing as the runner-up on Tough Enough Season 4, Miz was offered a developmental contract and went to work at Deep South Wrestling, where he became their first-ever Heavyweight Champion. Soon after, he got a call to meet with Vince McMahon, but WWE's Chairman of the Board had a different vision for Miz than what he was hoping for.
Miz said, "So then I got a call from John Laurinaitis, who was the Talent Relations, and he goes, 'Miz, Vince would like to see you.' Oh my God, this is my first sit-down with Vince McMahon. So I knock on the door, [Vince gruffly says] 'Come in.' [Miz replies and opens the door] 'Yes, sir.' I go in, I sit down, and 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, 'I see you as the next Rock. As my next WWE Superstar. My main eventer. My money guy. This is the guy that's going to put asses in seats.' That's the kind of thing you want from Vince McMahon, not 'We see you as the host.'"
Taking any opportunity afforded to him, Miz began hosting on June 2, 2006 and was quickly tasked with being a part of the Diva Search competition. The experience was bitter-sweet as, although he would meet his future wife, Maryse, it also leads to a disastrous promo on the July 10 episode of Raw that he believed was going to get him fired. He said the following:
"So we did the Diva Search casting special, and then we brought them into the ring. There's no cue cards. There's no teleprompter. It's just in your memory and you need to go, go, go. We were live, by the way, you don't get a second take. Then a cold sweat came over me and my entire mind went blank and 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. I remember going backstage thinking, 'I'm going to get fired.' I walked back, I went over to Vince McMahon and said, 'I am so sorry. I apologize. This will never happen again. I will make sure it won't happen again.' He goes, 'I know it won't happen again.' He took me aside and he said, 'Bullet points, kid. You need to learn bullet points. I know you will do better next time because you will have to do it next Friday.' So it was like, 'Oh, I'm not fired.'"
Former writer Brian Gewirtz said the promo was akin to watching a shark attack. Triple H and Shawn Michaels even mocked Miz for it during a future DX segment. Like all other setbacks, Miz took it in stride, worked hard and began earning the trust of Vince McMahon.
The docu-special would then delve into his partnership with John Morrison, his WWE Championship win, and everything thereafter.
The Miz currently performs on WWE Raw in a tag team with John Morrison, and also stars in the reality series, Miz and Mrs., alongside Maryse.
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