The Miz

Mike Mizanin
Born	October 8, 1980 Parma, Ohio
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Mike Mizanin Mike The Miz Mike "The Miz" Mizanin The Miz
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Billed weight	220 lb (100 kg)
Billed from	Cleveland, Ohio
Trained by	Ultimate Pro Wrestling Al Snow Bill DeMott
Debut	2003

Michael "The Miz" Mizanin (born October 8, 1980) is an American professional wrestler working for World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown! brand.

He is probably best known for his time on numerous MTV reality shows prior to becoming a professional wrestler.

Biography

Mizanin attended Miami University, where he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity, and studied business at the Richard T. Farmer School of Business. That freshman year, he roomed with former Miami Redhawks hockey star Nick Jardine, and bodybuilding male gymnast Todd J. Hartman.

Mizanin later relocated to southern California in order to attend acting classes. He also visited high schools and colleges, delivering motivational speeches.

Television career

Mizanin dropped out of college in order to appear on the tenth series of MTV's reality television program The Real World in 2001. He went on to appear in multiple spin-offs, including seasons 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge with contestants from MTV's Road Rules. He appeared on the Challenge seasons "Battle of the Seasons", "The Gauntlet," "The Inferno," "Battle of the Sexes 2," and "The Inferno 2." He was known for doing well on the challenges and made it to the end except on "Battle of the Sexes 2." He won on "Battle of the Seasons" and "The Inferno 2."

On one episode of The Real World, Mizanin first displayed an alter ego known as The Miz. In contrast to Mizanin's usually placid demeanor, The Miz was angry, confrontational and headstrong. Mizanin later realized that "The Miz" would make an excellent professional wrestling gimmick.

During one Challenge season, "The Gauntlet" he dated Trishelle Cannatella of The Real World: Las Vegas. On the challenge season "The Inferno" he had a brief relationship with Kendal Shephard of "Road Rules: Campus Crawl." On the challenge season "Battle of the Seasons" he had another brief relationship with Tara of "Road Rules: Northern Trail."

On "The Real World" and on the challenges, he is also known for his roller coaster friendship with fellow castmember, Coral Smith.

In 2005, he appeared on the Bravo reality show Battle of the Network Reality Stars where his team finished in second.

Mizanin also was a contestant in the Reality Stars episode of Fear Factor. His partner was Trishelle Cannatella who is his former girlfriend and cast mate. The edition of Fear Factor he was on was Reality Stars, and also featuring partners from The Apprentice, American Idol, The Amazing Race, and Survivor. Mizanin and Trishelle ended up winning the competition.

Wrestling career

Pursuing the goal of becoming a professional wrestler which he had harbored from an early age, Mizanin joined Ultimate Pro Wrestling, where he trained in the Ultimate University. He made his in-ring debut in 2003.

In October 2004, Mizanin entered the fourth season of Tough Enough, a televised competition which would award the winner a World Wrestling Entertainment contract and the sum of $1,000,000. Despite coming last in an arm wrestling tournament on November 25, Mizanin outlasted six other wrestlers. On December 12, 2004, at the WWE pay-per-view Armageddon 2004, Mizanin faced the other remaining entrant, Daniel Puder, in a three round "Dixie Dogfight" (boxing match). Neither man achieved a knockout, and the contest was awarded to Puder on the basis of crowd reaction. On the December 16 episode of SmackDown!, Puder was announced as the winner of Tough Enough by head trainer Al Snow.

Despite losing the Tough Enough contest, Mizanin had piqued the interest of WWE, and he was eventually offered a developmental contract. Mizanin was sent to Deep South Wrestling to train under Bill DeMott, relocating to McDonough, Georgia in the process, and in July 2005 he wrestled two dark matches for WWE, teaming with former Tough Enough champion Matt Cappotelli to face The Highlanders. On December 1, 2005, Mizanin defeated Mike Knox in the finals of a tournament to crown the first Deep South Heavyweight Champion.

He continued to tag with Matt Cappotelli throughout the second half of 2005 in WWE dark matches and house shows until Cappotelli, nominally of Ohio Valley Wrestling, was diagnosed with a brain tumor after an injury at a taping in December 2005.

Ohio Valley Wrestling

On January 3, 2006, it was reported that Mizanin was transferred to Ohio Valley Wrestling. On the January 18, 2006, OVW TV show, Mizanin made his debut as "The Miz", with a "Miz TV" segment, where he was shown talking backstage. He talked with Chris Cage, who was supposed to be his tag team partner in OVW, but Cage said he was quitting the business after someone had cut off Johnny Jeter's hair and wished Mizanin good luck with his wrestling career. As Chris Cage left Mike then met with his old tag team partner Matt Cappotelli and Christy Hemme as later that night they had a six person tag team match as Christy Hemme, Matt Cappotelli, and Mike Mizanin defeated The Highlanders.

On the January 28, 2006, edition of the OVW TV show, The Miz wrestled his first match against Rene Dupree. Chet the Jet and Seth Skyfire came to ringside during the match and acted as a diversion to allow Rene Dupree to gain the upper hand on The Miz. As The Miz was about to finish Rene Dupree, Chris Cage came out and attacked Seth Skyfire. When The Miz left the ring to try to control Chris Cage he ended up losing the match by count out.

At the February 8, 2006 TV taping, The Miz and Chris Cage captured the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship, defeating Chet the Jett and Seth Skyfire. In what was deemed a "disciplinary move," WWE released Chris Cage over the weekend of March 18, 2006 making it necessary for Miz and Cage to drop the titles. On March 19 Deuce Shade defeated The Miz in a singles contest to win the titles for his team The Untouchables (Deuce Shade & Domino).

SmackDown!

On March 8, 2006, WWE.com featured a video of "The Miz" stating that he was headed to Friday Night SmackDown! and throughout April, SmackDown! aired video packages hyping his debut. However, when Mizanin actually attempted to make his debut on the April 21 SmackDown! (taped April 17) he was (kayfabe) barred from entering the arena by "network executive" Palmer Cannon who told him that he had been "canceled" before having security escort him from the premises.

With the April 21 show being pre-taped to allow WWE to tour Italy, both WWE and The Miz were caught unaware when Palmer Cannon abruptly quit the company on April 20. As a result, the planned Miz/Cannon program had to be shelved and Miz was left with nothing to do until WWE.com announced that he would serve as SmackDown!'s "host" on May 31.

Miz debuted as "host" on June 2 announcing the planned card at the top of the show and attempting to hype up the crowd. Other "host" duties included backstage interviews and hosting a bikini contest. The hosting duties seemed sporadic at best, with some weeks having little to no Miz at all.

Starting in July, Miz, along with Ashley Massaro, became host of the annual Diva Search competition appearing on both RAW and SmackDown!. At the start of his new hosting duties, in front of the live RAW crowd, Miz was noticeably nervous and flubbed his lines, including calling contestants by the wrong name. Though he seemed to get better as the weeks went on he quickly became the butt of on-air jokes by other WWE Superstars.

After the end of the Diva Search competition, The Miz returned exclusively to SmackDown! and adopted a cocky heel persona, starting his in-ring competition with a win over Tatanka on September 1. After this win he, along with commentator Michael Cole, began to note whenever possible that he was "undefeated", though he only wrestled five matches over the next two months. At the same time he began a feud with Diva Search winner Layla El, who spurned his advances on more than one occasion, leading to Miz helping Kristal Marshall defeat her in various competitions. Soon, however, Miz and Kristal found themselves being stalked by the returning Boogeyman, beginning a feud during which The Boogeyman handed Miz his first defeat; at Armageddon.

Wrestling facts

• Finishing and signature moves

• Mizard of Oz (Swinging reverse DDT)
• Discus punch
• Falling neckbreaker
• Springboard bulldog

• Quotes

• "I'm your Miz!"
• "Live life to the fullest"
• "This is the TRUUUUE story..."
• "Be Good. Be Bad. BE MIZ!"
• "HooRah baby! Step into my reality!"
• "It's Time For A Reality Check!"
• "HooRah!"
• "I'm just being Real!"
• "You're all Mizfits"
• "I am your host with most, The Miz, HooRah!"

• Managers

• Kenny Bolin
• Roni Jonah
• Kristal Marshall

Championships and accomplishments

• Deep South Wrestling

• Deep South Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Ohio Valley Wrestling

• OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Chris Cage

References

• Mike Mizanin at Obsessed with Wrestling.com
• New SmackDown! host
• The Miz interview

External links

• Official Site
• WWE.com Profile
• TV.com Profile
• Mike Mizanin at IMDb
• UPW profile
• The-Miz.com Fansite