Through the years, The Miz slowly grew himself right into a legitimate star, becoming a bankable cross-over attraction for WWE. Miz’s entry into the promotion was odd for the time, as he was first introduced as a contestant for WWE’s “Tough Enough” reality game show — but as he recently explained, he wasn’t even initially allowed to check out.
“I desired to check out for ‘Tough Enough’ Season 2,” he recalled during an interview on “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet.” “I asked MTV, I said ‘Hey, I would like to check out for this,’ they usually were like ‘You possibly can’t check out,’ because back then you definately couldn’t mix-match — unless you were Real World Challenge — you could not mix-match reality shows. It wasn’t a thing back then.” Miz explained that each shows were airing on MTV, and the network believed a crossover can be too confusing.
“So I needed to follow UPW in Los Angeles, proceed learning the art of skilled wrestling,” he said. “Plus, I wasn’t sure if I actually desired to be on ‘Tough Enough,’ because I began [hearing] rumblings … that should you were on ‘Tough Enough,’ you were not respected. And I wanted respect, right? I felt like people were gonna see me on a reality show and immediately say, ‘he just wants his quarter-hour of fame.’ Which, by the best way, I did!”
expressing that he desired to be respected in WWE if he ever made it that far, and would have preferred to avoid going through that pipeline and enduring the hazing he’d ultimately face.
‘I don’t need people to take a look at me because the Tough Enough Guy’
Despite his reservations, The Miz eventually made his way into WWE through “Tough Enough.” The journey began when he got a call from WWE personally to do a tryout for the show with 50 people, which he still had reservations about. He reached out to WWE star and longtime industry veteran Simon Dean.
“I used to be like: ‘Would you do that? Like, I would like respect within the business,” he said. “I don’t need people to take a look at me as ‘the Tough Enough Guy’ … Because should you watch the Tough Enough people back then? They got it!” he recalled.
The Miz added that other names from Tough Enough weren’t respected in WWE and when the locker room wanted them out, they were eventually ousted.
“So I knew I needed people to show me contained in the ring, and I knew I needed the respect, and if I went on ‘Tough Enough,’ I would not get that.” he added. Nevertheless, Dean reminded him that the chance was for one million dollars, and Miz’ previous experiences trying out for WWE outside of reality TV hadn’t worked.
Recalling the primary ever day of ‘Tough Enough,'” The Miz claimed he needed to take around 500 bumps on the primary day, and that considered one of the opposite would-be competitors (a military veteran) quit immediately afterward. On top of this, he survived an 18-person firing.
“They put us through the ringer on Tough Enough; but you needed to earn it, right?” he added. “You needed to see who desired to be there.”
For those who use any quotes from this text, please credit “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.