While the battle for the Miz to be accepted by wrestling fans as a potential main event player is still ongoing, his battle to be accepted by the wrestling industry was a much harder victory.
Accepting the Miz
When you want to point out wrestlers who grew up obsessed with the industry, two names immediately come to mind - Mick Foley and Edge. For the longest time, both men had dreamed of becoming professional wrestlers. They wanted a career inside the squared circle.
You've heard countless stories involving wrestling with these two guys. Mick Foley has various videos of him jumping off of the roof of buildings and crashing down on to various objects and friends. Edge always recalls the story about how he was in the audience when the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan had their epic battle.
Miz, on the other hand, took an entirely different approach to becoming who he is today. The 29 year old Ohio native, whose real name is Mike Mizanin, became a professional wrestler after taking the reality TV show route.
Since he took such an unusual route, it's been a bit difficult for him to be accepted by some of the older wrestlers that took the more traditional route (i.e. working their way up through the hardships of the independent wrestling circuit).
The Irony
Of course, there is a bit of irony from those that don't accept the Miz because he didn't go through the traditional route of working small shows in small towns for small paychecks.
Fact is, that traditional route has been phased out slowly over the years. While it is not an easy route whatsoever to become a professional wrestler nowadays, it quite simply is not as hard as it used to be.
Mick Foley would tell stories about sleeping in his pathetic little car with no heater in the middle of a winter night. He would drive hundreds of miles to and from a show for paychecks that weren't even enough to cover the cost of gas.
Up in Canada several years back, a group of guys traveled all over the independent circuit together through the frozen tundras, forming lifelong bonds over their universal desires to become stars in pro wrestling. You now know them as Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, Rhyno, and Lance Storm.
Nowadays, the guys go through wrestling schools that have been designated by the big companies as credible ones. While the training is just as grueling, the conditions by which they live is not comparable.
Acceptance
Regardless of how he came up in the industry, people are just going to have to start accepting Miz because he's slowly growing into one of the best characters that this business has.
He's still miles away from being as good as Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chris Jericho. However, the seeds have already been planted because he has the natural charisma that these guys possess. He also knows how to work an audience, an aspect that is lost amongst peers with comparable experience.
The mic work and the character traits are there. Now, Miz just needs to continue focusing on the in-ring aspect. He's not a bad performer, but he's definitely got a while away before becoming a ring general that knows how to tell a story without utilizing any words whatsoever.
Closing Thoughts
I, too, was someone that did not accept the Miz when he first started with WWE. Being an old school guy, I wanted to see someone coming up through the independent wrestling circuit. However, he's won me over simply by being entertaining on a weekly basis. |
