The Miz
The Miz as WWE champion
Ring name(s)	Calgary Kid[1][2] The Miz Mike "The Miz" Mizanin
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[3]
Billed weight	221 lb (100 kg)[3]
Born	(1980-10-08) October 8, 1980 (age 31)[4] Parma, Ohio[4][5]
Resides	Los Angeles, California[4]
Billed from	Calgary, Alberta, Canada Cleveland, Ohio[3]
Trained by	UPW staff Al Snow Bill DeMott
Debut	2003[4]
Website	http://themiz.net/

Michael "Mike" Gregory Mizanin (born October 8, 1980) ^[4] is an American professional wrestler, reality television star, media personality, and actor better known by his nickname and ring name The Miz. He is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment on its Raw brand. Mizanin first gained fame as a cast member on MTV's The Real World: Back to New York, which first aired in 2001, and its spinoff series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He later entered the fourth season of Tough Enough, a televised competition that would award the winner a WWE contract, and became the first runner-up. Mizanin has also made appearances on television shows including Battle of the Network Reality Stars, Fear Factor, Identity, Ghost Hunters, Dinner Impossible, Psych and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.

Mizanin trained and wrestled with Ultimate Pro Wrestling and Deep South Wrestling, where he became the first Deep South Heavyweight Champion. Mizanin was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), working in tag team matches and winning the tag team title, the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship, on one occasion.

After signing with WWE, Mizanin became host of the annual WWE Diva Search competition in 2006. Following his hosting duties, Mizanin made his wrestling debut in September 2006, as a villain who went undefeated. In 2007, was drafted from SmackDown to the ECW brand, where he formed a partnership with John Morrison, in which the two held both the WWE Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship. He was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 WWE Draft, and won the WWE United States Championship on two occasions. He also won WWE Unified Tag Team Championship with The Big Show and the WWE Tag Team Championship with John Cena. In July 2010, he won a Money in the Bank ladder match at the first WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view, earning a contract for a WWE Championship match, which he used in November to win the WWE Championship for the first time. In 2011, The Miz was ranked number one on Pro Wrestling Illustrated's annual PWI 500 list.

Early life[link]

Mizanin, a native of Parma, Ohio, attended Normandy High School, where he was the captain of the basketball and cross country teams.^[4][5] He also participated in swimming, the student government and was the editor of his high school yearbook.^[4] He then attended Miami University, where he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity, and studied business at the Richard T. Farmer School of Business.^[4][5][6]

Television career[link]

Mizanin dropped out of college, where he was pursuing a degree in business, in order to appear on the tenth season of MTV's reality television program The Real World in 2001.^[7][8] He went on to appear in multiple seasons of its spin-off series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge,^[8] along with contestants from both Road Rules and The Real World, including Battle of the Seasons,^[9] The Gauntlet,^[10] The Inferno,^[10] Battle of the Sexes 2,^[11] and The Inferno 2.^[12] Except for Battle of the Sexes 2, Mizanin made it to the end of the rest of the Challenges on which he competed, and won both Battle of the Seasons and The Inferno 2.

After a seven year long absence from The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, Mizanin returned to the reality show on April 4, 2012 as the host of The Battle of the Exes season finale Reunion special. It marked the first time The Miz appeared on the series since becoming a main event WWE superstar.^[13]

It was during an episode of The Real World that Mizanin first displayed an alter ego known as "The Miz".^[4] In contrast to Mizanin's usually placid demeanor, The Miz was angry, combative, and headstrong. Mizanin later realized that "The Miz" would make an excellent professional wrestling gimmick.^[4]

In 2004, he appeared on the Bravo reality show Battle of the Network Reality Stars,^[8][14] where his team finished second. Mizanin was also a contestant in the "Reality Stars" episode of Fear Factor.^[8][15] His partner was his former girlfriend and cast mate, Trishelle Cannatella, and the two won the competition. In April 2007, he appeared on the game show Identity, where he appeared as a stranger, and contestant John Kim correctly identified his identity as a professional wrestler by the odd way he added "Miz-" before most words.^[16] In 2008, Mizanin appeared on the Sci Fi reality series Ghost Hunters Live as a guest investigator.^[17] In 2009, Mizanin appeared on two episodes of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, which were both aired on September 29.^[18][19] He appeared on an episode of Destroy Build Destroy on March 3, 2010.^[20][21] On October 5, 2011, Miz starred in an episode of H8R. He also appeared as a guest star in a March 2012 episode of Psych. On March 31, Miz appeared in the first ever Slime Wrestling World Championship at the Kids Choice Awards, losing to the Big Show which resulted in him being thrown into a tub of slime.

Professional wrestling career[link]

Ultimate Pro Wrestling (2003)[link]

Pursuing the goal of becoming a professional wrestler which he had harbored from an early age, Mizanin joined Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where he trained in the Ultimate University.^[4] He made his in-ring debut in 2003 as the Miz.^[4] During his time with UPW, the Miz competed in UPW's Mat War's tournament, making it to the finals before losing to Tony Stradlin.^[4]

World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE[link]

[edit] Tough Enough and training (2004–2006)

The Miz in 2005

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 $1,000,000.^[4][22] Despite coming last in an arm wrestling tournament on November 25, 2004, Mizanin outlasted six other wrestlers, and made it to the final round.^[6] At the pay-per-view event, Armageddon, 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.^[23] On the December 16, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, Puder was announced as the winner of Tough Enough by head trainer Al Snow.^[24]

Despite losing the Tough Enough contest, Mizanin had piqued the interest of WWE, and he was eventually offered a developmental contract.^[4] Mizanin was sent to Deep South Wrestling (DSW) to train under Bill DeMott,^[4] relocating to McDonough, Georgia in the process. In July 2005, he wrestled two dark matches for WWE, teaming with former Tough Enough champion Matt Cappotelli to face The Highlanders (Robbie and Rory McAllister). On December 1, 2005, Mizanin defeated Mike Knox in the finals of a tournament to determine the inaugural Deep South Heavyweight Champion.^[4][25] He continued his partnership with Matt Cappotelli throughout the second half of 2005 in WWE dark matches and house shows until Cappotelli, nominally of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), was diagnosed with a brain tumor after an injury at a taping in December 2005.^[26]

On January 3, 2006, it was reported that Mizanin had been transferred to OVW. 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.^[4] On the January 28, 2006 episode of the OVW television show, The Miz wrestled his first singles match against Rene Dupree, but lost by countout.^[27]

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.^[4][28] In what was deemed a "disciplinary move", WWE released Cage over the weekend of March 18, 2006, making it necessary for Miz and Cage to drop the titles.^[29] On March 19, 2006, Deuce Shade defeated The Miz in a singles contest to win the championship for his team The Untouchables (Deuce Shade and Domino).^[4][30]

SmackDown! host (2006–2007)[link]

On March 7, 2006, WWE's official website featured a video of "The Miz" stating that he was headed to SmackDown! and throughout April, SmackDown! aired vignettes hyping his debut.^[4][31] When Mizanin actually attempted to make his debut on the April 21, 2006 episode of SmackDown!, however, he was, in storyline banned 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.^[32]

The Miz standing on the apron at an ECW/SmackDown live show

On May 31, 2006, WWE's official website announced that he would serve as SmackDown!'s "host".^[33] The Miz debuted as the "host" on June 2, 2006,^[34] 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 involvement of 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!.^[35][36][37]

After the end of the Diva Search competition, The Miz returned exclusively to SmackDown! and adopted a villainous persona, starting his in-ring competition with a win over Tatanka in a September 2006 episode of SmackDown!.^[38] 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, defeating such superstars as Matt Hardy,^[39] Funaki,^[40] and Scotty 2 Hotty.^[41] At the same time he began a feud with Diva Search winner Layla El, who spurned his advances on more than one occasion,^[42][43] leading to Miz helping Kristal defeat her in various competitions.^[44][45] Soon, however, Miz and Kristal found themselves being stalked by The Boogeyman. This began a feud in which the Boogeyman ended the Miz's winning streak at December's Armageddon event.^[46]

Following a brief absence from television, The Miz returned to SmackDown! to host an interview segment called Miz TV.^[47] After the unsuccessful segment, the Miz returned to in-ring competition with a more intense style and began to pick up wins once again.^[48][49] On the June 11, 2007 episode of Raw, Mizanin faced off against Snitsky in a match to determine a draft pick for SmackDown!.^[50] Snitsky easily defeated the Miz to give ECW the draft pick, but after constantly assaulting the Miz after the match, the referee reversed the decision and awarded the match to Miz, thus allowing SmackDown! a draft pick.^[51] SmackDown!'s pick was then revealed to be Chris Masters.^[51]

ECW and teaming with John Morrison (2007–2009)[link]

Miz was drafted from SmackDown! to ECW on June 17, 2007 as part of the 2007 Supplemental Draft.^[52] He was absent from the first few weeks of ECW, though he was the subject of backstage mentions between matches and had several short Miz TV Crashes ECW video segments.^[53][54] He made his debut on the July 10 episode of ECW in a match against Nunzio, which he won.^[55]

Following this match, Extreme Exposé began expressing admiration in him and gave him a lap-dance, starting a new gimmick for him of a self-proclaimed "chick magnet".^[56] Extreme Exposé then became managers for The Miz.^[57] He then began a feud with Balls Mahoney, after Kelly Kelly began to fall in love with Mahoney on screen.^[58][59][60] On the October 2 episode of ECW, it was revealed that Miz owned the contracts of Kelly Kelly, Layla, and Brooke Adams, and used this excuse to stop Kelly from going out with Mahoney.^[61] He was voted at Cyber Sunday to face CM Punk, for the ECW Championship but lost the match.^[62]

Miz (left) and John Morrison as World Tag Team Champions.

On the November 16 episode of SmackDown, he became one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with John Morrison when they defeated Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) in a title match, which gave the Miz his first title within the company.^[63][64]