'DWTS': How reality star Mike 'The Miz' Mizanin became WWE's era-defining icon
Mike “The Miz” Mizanin is undoubtedly one of the biggest WWE stars in the world and has achieved a lot in his career. After becoming a WWE superstar and achieving massive success in professional wrestling, The Miz became a worldwide sensation with his stints in movies and TV shows.
After spending decades in wrestling, the superstar is now trying his hands at one thing that’s not supposed to be his strong point: dancing. Yes, The Miz will be entering the popular dance competition ‘Dancing with the Stars’ as a contestant and shaking his leg to win the trophy.
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This will be another milestone for the WWE superstar in his sparkling career. But his journey hasn’t been easy and she also suffered a lot of setbacks on the way. So, let’s take a look at how he became one of the era-defining WWE stars.
The Miz and his stint with MTV
Born on October 8, 1980, Michael Gregory Mizanin aka “The Miz” always wanted to become a celebrity and have an awesome career. While in college, he auditioned for the show ‘The Real World’ and became one of the most beloved characters on the show’s tenth season, ‘Back to New York’. It was on this show where he debut the name “The Miz” and garnered a lot of success. He became really popular with the fans of MTV and became a mainstay for the channel.
However, his appearance on the spinoff competition show ‘The Challenge’ made him non-existent. According to Mike, it was not a good period of his life because he started drinking a lot, started hitting his head on things, and became really heavy. He believe that he was living split life: an athlete and an entertainer for the world and a professional and a family man for his loved ones.
His journey of becoming a WWE superstar
Miz’s journey in the wrestling world hasn’t been easy as well. We know that wrestlers don’t get to be WWE superstars in one night, there’s a lot that has happened in the background. Just like everyone, The Miz also started small and had fought at smaller venues. At the time, he was also doing ‘The Real World’ and kickstarting his wrestling career.
But no one wanted him. He spent 10 years creating a character, but he didn’t have any place to go with it because no one wanted him. Speaking about his initial part of the wrestling career, Miz said, “I am a true underdog story. I was the outcast. When I first got there, nobody wanted me. I was kicked out of the locker room, the audience didn’t want me, and I fought tooth-and-nail with crowds booing me, telling me I suck.”
After a lot of hardship, the star saw an opportunity when WWE launched the ‘Tough Enough’ challenge. He wanted to make The Miz a phenomenon and he did exactly that. Mike finished the ‘Tough Enough’ competition in second place and signed a contract with WWE and made his debut on ‘Smack Down’ in 2006. Although his start at WWE wasn’t as promising as everyone thought it would, soon he became one of the most likable villains.
He used his reality show skills to host his own interview segment, ‘MizTV’, and started getting popular. After spending a lot of years in the industry, The Miz finally won his first WWE Championship in 2010 and successfully defended it at the biggest WWE event, Wrestlemania.
Since then, The Miz has won numerous titles in WWE and acted in various movies and TV shows like ‘The Marine’, ‘Psych’, ‘Supernatural’, and ‘Fighting with my Family’.
He is married to fellow WWE star Maryse Ouellet and shares two daughters together.
‘Dancing with the Stars’ returns to ABC with its 30th Season on Monday, September 20.