The Miz: How Not To Book An A-Lister

The Miz started 2019 as one of the main roster’s top babyfaces destined for a major championship run sometime throughout the year. All seemed to be going well, Miz engaged in a hot WrestleMania feud with Shane McMahon, delivered on said feud with a fantastic Falls Count Anywhere bout but fizzled out after taking the big loss and failed to pick up any momentum since.

Aside from the occasional episode of Miz TV, which is only ever used to help put over another feud, The Miz has been largely absent from all WWE programming. Where he should have spent the past few months excelling in the main event scene of a revamped SmackDown Live, The Miz flirted with a couple of minor feuds with the likes of Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura & Dolph Ziggler (where he was eventually replaced by Goldberg).

It’s a real shame to see such a shining star fall from grace. The Miz had well and truly earned the respect of the WWE Universe, honing his in-ring craft and continuing to put the rest of the WWE roster to shame on the mic. Fans were ready to see him finally break out of his never-ending limbo in the mid-card, but ultimately things never seemed to come together for ‘The A-Lister’. This seems to be a running theme of Miz’s career: whenever he manages to generate some momentum after a successful mid-card feud, WWE drop the ball with him by not pulling the trigger on a main-event run.

Looking back to 2016, when The Miz ‘grabbed the brass ring’ and started to turn heads in the wrestling world, Miz had all eyes on him following his critically-acclaimed feud with Dolph Ziggler, which culminated at No Mercy in the main event of the show. This was the first time an Intercontinental Championship match had headlined a major pay-per-view in what felt like forever. Miz lost that match, and rightfully so. He was more than ready to move on to a WWE Championship feud against the likes of John Cena, Dean Ambrose or AJ Styles, but was immediately thrust back down into the IC title picture less than two weeks later.

I’m sure The Miz wouldn’t turn his nose up at holding onto the prestigious mid-card title, but there’s only a certain amount of times we can witness The Miz win that belt and consider it a credit to his name. If he were to pick up the IC title again tomorrow, it would be meaningless. He needs the WWE Championship before it’s too late.

His run with (and against) Shane McMahon did him a lot of favours. It presented him as a plucky babyface that all of the WWE Universe could get behind, something WWE had never really managed to pull off with him in the past. Even though Shane is nowhere near the same calibre as an Undertaker or a John Cena, facing the GM at WrestleMania really helped put him over as a top star, suggesting that he had what it took to stand across the ring from a bonafide legend. A big win over Shane-O would have easily granted him passage into the WWE Title or Universal Title picture following Seth’s and Kofi’s respective WrestleMania victories. Whether as a face or heel, Miz would have been in the best career position, ready to finally make that next step.

But he didn’t.

Miz ate the loss at WrestleMania and then went on to lose the sequel at Money in the Bank. May I remind you this was all to Shane McMahon. ‘The A-Lister’ was made to look like a total chump and was left to be forgotten amongst the ever-growing talent pool on SmackDown Live.

As of writing, The Miz is completely directionless on the blue brand. His most recent appearance was as part of the NXT Invasion, being attacked by Tommaso Ciampa in an episode of Miz TV. Some might consider this the start of an inter-promotional feud between ‘The A-Lister’ and ‘The Blackheart’, or a subtle hint towards The Miz being included as part of WWE’s Survivor Series team, but I’m sure you’d all agree that it’s more likely the case that he was just used as easy pickings.

When you’re literally subbing The Miz out for a returning Goldberg, you know his star has suffered some real damage. If he were to hit the stage, I imagine he’d be met with crickets. There’s no reason whatsoever to care about The Miz right now, and that’s solely down to the poor booking he’s been on the receiving end of. Since taking the L to Shane, he’s fallen further and further down the card to the point of not even being included on an episode of Main Event.

The Miz could easily slot into a feud with Andrade, Aleister Black, Cesaro, Elias, hell, even ‘The Fiend’ could make for a fun opponent. There’s so much potential for Miz to blow the roof off of an arena with fantastic technical matches and intense promos. But WWE refuse to exploit this and continue to put the focus on adultery storylines. Here’s hoping that once the brand warfare passes, The Miz might find himself included in a high-profile match once again. But for now, I fear for the worst.