The Miz was considered a poster child of everything wrong with WWE during the PG-era, and fans did not appreciate his work for a long time. Only in the last few years have people started showing respect for everything the former World Champion has done in his career, though this has created a new problem for him.
The WWE star spoke about his career in detail with Chris Van Vliet in a new interview. Discussing his on-screen persona, The Miz explained how being a heel comes naturally to him, and it works with his character because he can lose matches and still be taken seriously as a villain. Though he noted how things have been weird for him the last couple of years because people do not want to boo him anymore:
"It’s been weird these past couple of years, though. I would say this past year has been weird. So the things I do that I know in my rolodex of being a heel and being a bad guy, I’ll do and it doesn’t get the boos anymore. If you’re gonna cheer me, cheer me. If you’re just gonna go Ah! He’s so good. I don’t want that. I don’t want that. That’s the death, because that’s just, I don’t know what to really do.”
When asked, The Miz accepted that he does feel like the fans and his peers show him more respect than they used to. Though the wrestling veteran does not feel like this works out in his favor, claiming that the flowers he is receiving are half dead:
“Yes, I feel the respect. I feel it in the locker room. I feel it in the crowd, but I’ll hear you say it. ‘Oh, Miz has gotten his flowers.’ You know what kind of flowers I get? I get the ones that are half dead, that you give to me and they’re gonna die the next day. You don’t give me a full bouquet of flowers that are like, here are your flowers. John Cena gets the flowers. I don’t get the flowers. I get the half-dead flowers that are like, Here you go, here’s your flowers. We’re giving you your flowers. It’s the half-assed flowers.”
Apart from this, The Miz discussed things such as how losing to John Cena early in his career helped change his perspective, the day he won his first WWE title and more.