KB’s Review: He Is Indeed Awesome

You know who has been on one of the best rolls in a good while in WWE? The Miz, and that really shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’re paying attention. Over the last few years, Miz has been one of the more consistent wrestlers in the company and has figured out how to play his character like few others have. Today we’re going to look at why someone like Miz is valuable and why people need to stop over thinking role players like him.

For the life of me I don’t get why Miz gets the receptions he receives. I know he’s not exactly perfect and his in ring work has a firm ceiling to it but people act like he’s one of the worst things that has ever lived. Yeah Miz had a bad stretch in there but who hasn’t been at that point somewhere in their careers? That’s not exactly how things are now though.

Miz has been around WWE for a long time now and there isn’t much he hasn’t accomplished. He’s held multiple Tag Team Titles and midcard titles as well as a WWE World Title run which hasn’t been well remembered but was certainly the right call at the time. While Miz might not be everyone’s favorite, there is no denying that he’s figured out his character and plays it as well as almost anyone else.

After dropping the WWE World Title, Miz floated around trying to figure out his place in the company. They tried making him a glorified Ric Flair tribute (because the world needs so many of them) and then a good guy but neither of those exactly clicked. Eventually he started making a few movies and appeared on some talk shows, which gave birth to the Hollywood Miz character that is currently rolling along.

Now here’s where we get to the point: Miz’s current character isn’t going to take him to the top of the card or back to the main event. What it has done though is taken him to his fifth Intercontinental Title and a much better spot on the midcard. He’s using movie lines in his promos and has his gorgeous blonde wife at his side to really complete the package. In other words, Miz has turned into a much more complete and defined character.

What people fail to realize is how valuable someone like this really is. How many people can you think of on the roster who don’t have the most unique character? The key thing to Miz is that he does have all those roles in movies and he really is married to someone as beautiful as Maryse. Miz is the only person on the roster who can play the role at this point and that makes it so much more effective.

Take for example David Otunga. You might remember him as the Harvard educated lawyer who claims to be a wrestler at the same time (read as he wrestles maybe once a year at most). For a while his character was mainly legal council who would work with various clients to sue other wrestlers, because when you watch wrestling, you want to see legal issues discussed.

However, the thing that made Otunga’s character so effective was its authenticity. No writer had to tell Otunga how a Harvard educated lawyer would speak because Otunga knew how a Harvard educated lawyer would speak. The same theory runs true for Miz: he can speak like someone who has been in a lot of movies because he HAS been in a lot of movies. You can look at his Titantron video and see him in various roles or on talk shows etc. because that’s the kind of stuff he’s done. It adds an extra layer to a character and makes it fit that much better.

The other major positive that Miz offers is a strong midcarder. Here’s the thing that people often overlook: not everyone is going to be a World Champion. There’s nothing wrong with being a guy who stays in the midcard for the majority of their career and acts as little more than a gatekeeper for up and coming faces.

No matter how many people have beaten Miz over the years, they’re still beating a former World Champion and multiple time everything else champion. The important thing about Miz is that he’s able to get every bit of his heat back with a few promos about how he has movie star good looks and Maryse on his arm. How do you not want to see someone like that take a beating and get shown up every single week?

That kind of a character is one of the most valuable pieces of a roster that you can have. Miz can be thrown into almost any story and do perfectly fine. If you need him as a midcard champion or challenger, he’ll fit in well. If you need him as a quick (as in one night or week) World Title challenger, it can work. It helps to have someone you can just throw in there and still have him keep his heat.

Finally, and in something that’s a bit more subjective, Miz has been doing a lot better in the ring lately. Above all else he’s dropped the Figure Four as a finisher and gone back to the move that won him the World Title in the first place. I never understood the logic behind changing his finishing move as it really did seem like a way to pay homage to Ric Flair, because being a two time Hall of Famer just wasn’t enough.

Miz can more than hold his own in the ring and has a good enough moveset to keep him moving right along. No he’s not a John Cena or a Daniel Bryan but he’s more than capable of holding his own in there. You’re more than set when you have a finisher that can put people away and actually has a bit of a history, unlike the Figure Four which has barely ever worked for anyone, including Flair.

I know Miz gets on people’s nerves at times but at the end of the day, he’s one of the best assets the company has. Even after ten years with the company, he’s doing some of his most successful heel work in a very long time. He’s currently the Intercontinental Champion and fits the role perfectly. When someone beats him, it’s going to be a bigger deal than beating most heels and feel like an important deal. Miz is good, and there’s really no way around that.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews, check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com and pick up my new book of the History of the Intercontinental Title at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D4D3EGQ

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6