{"id":37871,"date":"2017-01-21T14:38:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T20:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=37871"},"modified":"2017-01-21T14:38:11","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T20:38:11","slug":"friday-feature-miz-lister-not-just-gimmick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/21\/friday-feature-miz-lister-not-just-gimmick\/","title":{"rendered":"FRIDAY FEATURE: The Miz &#8211; The A-Lister, not just a gimmick"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1284885458\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Be honest here, if you had been asked before the brand split which wrestler\u00a0would benefit the most, would you have said The Miz?<\/p>\n<p>No, neither would I. And yet the A-lister took a chance, forced himself down everyone\u2019s throats, and by the end of it he has become the must-see Superstar that he always said that he was.<\/p>\n<p>How much of this is his own work and how much was decided by the writers remains to be seen, but the simple fact remains, nobody else could have legitimately pulled this off. The amount of passion, stemming from real life issues, that goes into a Miz promo is unreal. He cares about what he\u2019s saying, so I care about what he\u2019s saying. It\u2019s a dynamite combination.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8d4SLA4HYp0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The line between shoot and work is blurred so far, both on Talking Smack in general and in every Miz promo, that a viewer simply isn\u2019t sure whether they\u2019re watching reality or not. Typically with any promo mistakes, slow speaking and tangential dialogue are a cause for ridicule. Not so The Miz. He speaks quickly, assertively, and with genuine fury.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this has blossomed into a magnificent feud with Daniel Bryan. The Miz has adopted a lot of Bryan\u2019s moves. This gives Miz, as a heel, a great face character to generate heat from. This heat has then been transferred through The Miz to other wrestlers, namely Dolph Ziggler and Dean Ambrose.<\/p>\n<p>It helps as well that The Miz is putting on much-improved matches with everyone that he goes up against. His old school star and manager heel tactics combine well with a vastly improved performance level to produce must see moment after must see moment. Even if he could barely wrestle,\u00a0the story that goes with him into the ring is simply too good to ignore. He is absolutely killing it out there.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hFvzAPyzcco\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A lot of credit should be given to opponents that he has faced, of course. Ziggler and The Miz stole the show at No Mercy and The Miz has appeared in several main events this year on Smackdown Live. That said, we should also appreciate certain nuances to his development. He had to drop his \u201cI\u2019m The Miz and I\u2019m awesome\u201d line because it would have turned him face given the run that he\u2019s on.<\/p>\n<p>Going back to the promo in which he gave Dean Ambrose a participation award, the crowd were eating out of his hands. Not only did he get the participation award over on someone as popular as Dean Ambrose, but he even managed to earn a \u201cyou deserve it\u201d chant. A derogatory chant aimed at a major babyface. The &#8220;Participation Award&#8221; didn\u2019t return again until Ambrose was returning it weeks later. Once again, it would have turned him face if he\u2019d followed it up.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1344866782\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>For now, The Miz is the best pure heel in WWE and probably one of the only major WWE\u00a0wrestlers\u00a0with consistent heel booking. He\u2019s almost unique. When Dean Ambrose started to get a negative reaction from the crowds, he was paired up against The Miz and the negativity vanished.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s just hope all of this isn\u2019t building to a 10 second squash match at WrestleMania against Daniel Bryan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS ARTICLE:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/06\/friday-feature-kevin-owens-paper-champion-someone-talented-ko-deserves-booked-much-better-universal-champion\/\">FRIDAY FEATURE: Kevin Owens, the Paper Champion \u2013 Someone as talented as KO deserves to be booked much better as Universal Champion<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Follow\u00a0Tom Colohue on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/06\/friday-feature-kevin-owens-paper-champion-someone-talented-ko-deserves-booked-much-better-universal-champion\/%E2%80%9Chttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tomcolohue\/%E2%80%9D\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/06\/friday-feature-kevin-owens-paper-champion-someone-talented-ko-deserves-booked-much-better-universal-champion\/%E2%80%9Chttp:\/\/www.twitter.com\/colohue%E2%80%9D\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0@colohue for updates.<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2660704785\"><div id=\"pwtor-2823861570\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Be honest here, if you had been asked before the brand split which wrestler\u00a0would benefit the most, would you have said The Miz? No, neither would I. And yet the A-lister took a chance, forced <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/21\/friday-feature-miz-lister-not-just-gimmick\/\" title=\"FRIDAY FEATURE: The Miz &#8211; The A-Lister, not just a gimmick\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,52,4561,27],"tags":[257,432,505],"class_list":["post-37871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-friday-feature","category-specialists","tag-dean-ambrose","tag-maryse","tag-the-miz"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/MizGG_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37872,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37871\/revisions\/37872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}