Over the years, The Miz slowly grew himself into a legitimate star, becoming a bankable cross-over attraction for WWE. Miz’s entry into the promotion was odd for the time, as he was first introduced as a contestant for WWE’s “Tough Enough” reality game show — but as he recently explained, he wasn’t even initially allowed to try out.
“I wanted to try out for ‘Tough Enough’ Season 2,” he recalled during an interview on “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet.” “I asked MTV, I said ‘Hey, I want to try out for this,’ and they were like ‘You can’t try out,’ because back then you couldn’t mix-match — unless you were Real World Challenge — you couldn’t mix-match reality shows. It wasn’t a thing back then.” Miz explained that both shows were airing on MTV, and the network believed a crossover would be too confusing.
“So I had to stick with UPW in Los Angeles, continue learning the art of professional wrestling,” he said. “Plus, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to be on ‘Tough Enough,’ because I started [hearing] rumblings … that if you were on ‘Tough Enough,’ you weren’t respected. And I wanted respect, right? I felt like people were gonna see me on a reality show and instantly say, ‘he just wants his 15 minutes of fame.’ Which, by the way, I did!”
expressing that he wanted to be respected in WWE if he ever made it that far, and would have preferred to avoid going through that pipeline and enduring the hazing he’d ultimately face.
‘I don’t want people to look at me as the Tough Enough Guy’
Despite his reservations, The Miz eventually made his way into WWE through “Tough Enough.” The journey began when he got a call from WWE personally to do a tryout for the show with 50 people, which he still had reservations about. He reached out to WWE star and longtime industry veteran Simon Dean.
“I was like: ‘Would you do this? Like, I want respect in the business,” he said. “I don’t want people to look at me as ‘the Tough Enough Guy’ … Because if you watch the Tough Enough people back then? They got it!” he recalled.
The Miz added that other names from Tough Enough were not respected in WWE and when the locker room wanted them out, they were eventually ousted.
“So I knew I needed people to teach me inside the ring, and I knew I needed the respect, and if I went on ‘Tough Enough,’ I wouldn’t get that.” he added. However, Dean reminded him that the opportunity was for a million dollars, and Miz’ previous experiences trying out for WWE outside of reality TV hadn’t worked.
Recalling the first ever day of ‘Tough Enough,'” The Miz claimed he had to take around 500 bumps on the first day, and that one of the other would-be competitors (a military veteran) quit immediately afterward. On top of this, he survived an 18-person firing.
“They put us through the ringer on Tough Enough; but you had to earn it, right?” he added. “You had to see who wanted to be there.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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