WWE Superstar The Miz recently spoke with the folks at Ring Rust Radio for an in-depth interview. During the discussion, Miz talked about the return of Tough Enough, his recent tag-team with Damien Mizdow and his hopes for this year’s WrestleMania.
Below are highlights from the interview:
On his recent role on “Sirens” on USA Network: “Here is what I want you to imagine. When you go to the gym, the guy grunting, wearing compression pants, barely has anything on, staring in the mirror, checking out his muscles, and flexing is the character that I am portraying right now. It was a lot of fun. I have been in a lot of gyms and seen a lot of these characters so it was a lot of fun to play. The cast of Sirens is just so cool and so fun. Sometimes when you do a guest-starring role, it’s very hard to come in because these guys all know each other and you don’t know anybody. They really made me feel like part of the family which made me very comfortable on set. That is acting 101, to be comfortable and relax and they made me feel like that. We had a lot of fun and it’s going to be a great episode. With Psych no longer on, I feel like Sirens has taking over where Psych left off. Psych was such a great show, a fun show, and an interesting show that I also once guest starred on. Now Sirens is taking over that funny, interesting, cool comedy that I’m really happy to be a part of.”
On what he takes away from his acting experiences: “You know anytime you get to act with different actors it’s a whole new experience. You learn so much about yourself and different things. Acting on a movie set is very different than acting in the WWE. In WWE we are performing for everybody in that arena. You have 18,000 strong cheering or booing you, where when you are on set you just have 20 people there. You don’t have anyone chanting “you suck” so it’s a completely different experience. You get more than one take, you get a bunch of different camera angles. You take what you learn from every experience and bring it back to the WWE. What I’ve learned is with acting and doing things for film you get a bunch of different takes, but in live TV you only get one.”
On finding downtime and what he does with it: “Time to myself is being in the WWE. We are on the road 250 days a year, we’re traveling, and the media stuff is a blast. I enjoy going to these different locations and going over the different media we do is a blast for me. Time to myself I don’t really need it. I’m young, I’m having fun, and as long as I’m having fun I don’t need time to myself. I want to work as much as possible because I enjoy what I’m doing.”
On the future of Miz and Damien Mizdow: “It’s funny that every sees to see this tension brewing between Mizdow and myself. The fact is that Damian is a stunt double. What was he doing before he met me? Nothing. He was crazy, he was barely on TV, and he never had a championship. Since he has been with me I have brought him to the promise land. I have made him relevant. I have made people cheer for him and love him. The reason why they are cheering for him is because he is an extension of me. If you watch him he is doing everything I do. So in a sense, everyone is cheering for me. So teasing this and that and the other thing, as long as Damian keeps doing what he is doing then that is completely fine with me. As long as he knows his place and where he stands. If he starts thinking that he is better than his place then we will start having problems.”
On how he and Mizdow play off each other and how they help each other in terms of furthering their characters: “It’s because I can play off of anyone and I am an amazing actor as well as a sport entertainer. I am a seasoned vet, I’ve been in WWE for ten years and I can make anybody look good. That is exactly what I am doing with Damian right now. I am making him look a million bucks, like the star that he could finally be. The problem is that if Damian decides that he is a bigger star than he really is, he is going to have a problem. Look at anyone that has been attached to me as a tag team partner, where are they at now? Look where Alex Riley is. You think he just wants to be in the preshow? No. Every Superstar wants to be in the main event of WrestleMania and do the things that I have done. If they over step their boundaries then they are going to have a problem. As long as Damian doesn’t overstep his boundaries, than he will be ok.”
On the return of Tough Enough and the benefits and disadvantages of participating: “I only see benefits to be honest with you. You look at me: a person trying to make it to the WWE, trying to get there, it’s difficult, and it’s hard. Putting a show like Tough Enough on air you get to see what people have to go through to make it into WWE. That is just a part of it. That’s just the beginning round. They don’t tell you about the middle and even the end game. I think it’s a great opportunity for people and the fans to really appreciate what people have to go through on a day-to-day basis. I love the show and it gave me the opportunity to be a WWE Superstar. I thank that show every day because if that show was never there, there may never have been a Miz.”
On what he hopes to do at WrestleMania: Everybody wants that moment. “That Monday after WrestleMania that everybody is talking about. Everybody saw that moment at the Super Bowl yesterday when Butler got that amazing interception and won that game that’s the kind of moment you want. Did he get the MVP? No he didn’t, but people are talking about Butler and that’s what I’m doing. Right now, Roman Reigns VS Brock Lesnar is probably going to be the main event at WrestleMania so obviously I can’t take that. I can make sure though that I have a moment that everybody remembers and is talking about that next morning. That is what the goal is.”
On the person he would most like to face at a WrestleMania: “Right now I would love to wrestle the Rock. It would be movie star VS movie star. Obviously I am a better actor than the Rock. I will be a bigger movie star I just need to find those couple of movies that really elevate me. I am building my cape and my resume right now to get to that level. Obviously the Rock is a little older than me and he is going to do great. I imagine I’ll be bigger, I’ll be the one hoisting up an Oscar and an Emmy and a Golden Globe as well as the WWE championship if we ever do get in that ring.”
On what he needs to do to get back to the WrestleMania main event level: “Everyone always has different answers for that type of question. I think they are a lot of things involved with getting to the main event of WrestleMania. With me when I started going towards the main event, I felt the elevation and kept feeling that every time I did something it got better and better. Right now I am feeling like I am in those beginning stages again. It takes a while to build until you get to that main event at WrestleMania. This WrestleMania main event is already set in stone, so I am looking forward to the next WrestleMania. To build and build, and get bigger and bigger. Just keep making entertaining television where people are captivated by the Miz and what I am doing. They always want to know what I am doing and what I am going to say when I am not there.”
On whether he feels he’s still trying to prove himself to fans and wrestlers because his journey to the top was so unconventional: “Every day of my life is a fight. I don’t think I will ever get the respect I deserve in the WWE. I will never go to the Philadelphia’s or the New York’s and get cheered or get “Miz is Awesome”. They just don’t like me and don’t respect me. They don’t respect the way I got to the WWE even though they respect people whose Daddy got them into the WWE which I find amazing to me. I felt like I did the right path and I did everything right. Obviously I did everything right because I am the one being successful and proving everyone wrong. So I do enjoy the negativity I get because I generate positivity out of it and use it as adrenaline and energy to basically go out there and perform to the best of my availability.”
Check out the complete interview at BlogTalkRadio.com.
