Former WWE Champion’s disappointment at missing out on ‘insane’ WrestleMania

Every WWE superstar wants to perform at WrestleMania. After 21 years with the company, The Miz is exactly the same.

The A-Lister – who is one of the most decorated former champions in WWE – is a mainstay, first joining after Tough Enough in 2004 before making his main roster debut two years later.

When it comes to WrestleMania, he’s beaten John Cena in the main event, had an unplanned (and unscripted) match with Snoop Dogg, won a Ladder Match last year, and more.

This year, with just three weeks to go, his path is less certain, and he has exclusively told Metro how he feels about potentially missing the show in Las Vegas.

‘No! No, it’s not easy! You kidding me? As a WWE superstar, if your goal is not to main event WrestleMania and be the WWE or [World Heavyweight] Champion, then you shouldn’t be here,’ he said in London hours before SmackDown at The O2 arena.

‘So my goal is always to do that. If the cards don’t fall where they may, you better believe I’m trying my best to to try to get into a spot, or trying to get to that level of what I feel I can produce.

‘And I do feel I can produce at that level still to this day. It’s just, you know, sometimes the cards don’t fall where they may.’

When WrestleMania rolled into Hollywood two years ago, Miz reiterated his talents as a veteran of the wrestling business when things took a very awkward turn.

Shane McMahon made a triumphant comeback as an impromptu opponent for The Miz, but the returning star landing badly seconds into the match and suffering a legitimate injury.

Everyone involved had to think fast, with Snoop – who isn’t trained – hitting Miz and landing a People’s Elbow for a quick win.

‘That definitely wasn’t supposed to happen, but it does happen,’ he admitted. ‘Those are moments that you don’t want to happen, but are also moments that you literally are like, “Okay, this is what I’ve been prepared for.” ‘

He added: ‘The number one thing that was talked about was Snoop Dogg giving me a People’s Elbow, rather than, “Oh man, something happened at WrestleMania.”

‘This is the biggest event we have, and those type of situations do happen, and it is our job to make sure that you don’t realise it’s happening.’

Of course Miz, 44, is a trained professional, whereas Snoop was having to improvise on the fly in front of tens of thousands of fans.

‘He was seamless. He was so good in that moment,’ he said.

For this year’s WrestleMania, Miz – who has been aligned with rising star Carmelo Hayes in recent weeks – doesn’t seem to have a clear match for the big show, having spent much of last year embroiled in a storyline with the Final Testament and the spooky Wyatt Sicks.

‘It was actually a blast,’ he enthused on working with the Wyatt Sicks. ‘You have to use your creative mind, and you have to use everything that you have to really let that thing blossom.’

The Wyatt Sicks have been off TV for several months now with reports of an injury to leader Bo Dallas/Uncle Howdy.

‘It felt like we were getting our footing and getting our place,’ Miz explained. ‘And then certain things happened to where we weren’t able to continue and finish the story.’

However it ended, Miz was glad to be part of a storyline using characters and influences from the late, great Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda), who tragically died aged 36 in August 2023.

‘Bray in the locker room, and as a person, was a really, really awesome person,’ he said. ‘You kind of take pride in [the storyline] even as the person that they’re coming after. You’re like, “Alright, well, we got to make this something special, just for Bray.”‘

It was a very different role for Miz, but one he threw himself in to, having spent decades doing everything from acting and improv classes, a new nutritionist and wrestling school to learn ‘all these tools’ to become a WWE superstar after appearing on reality show The Real World.

While he acknowledge that not everyone would want to be a ‘utility player’ rather than a consistent main eventer, he added: ‘Sometimes it’s good to be there.’

With this year’s WrestleMania, Miz knows even for those without a match on the main double header, it’s a stacked week, between SmackDown, Raw,the Hall of Fame, WWE World and various other events.

‘I know my role. I’ve got a lot going on at WrestleMania week, and so does every superstar,’ he pointed out. ‘When someone has maybe a match, other people have different appearances and different things that they have to do as part of the team.’

Plus, with the men’s side featuring everyone from John Cena and Roman Reigns to CM Punk and GUNTHER, Miz knows it’s a difficult lineup to break into.

‘There’s so many superstars that are well deserving of being in WrestleMania, and it’s a tough card to get onto this year,’ he said. ‘Even the [matches] that I’ve been hearing about, I’m like, my gosh, this is going to be an insane WrestleMania!’

WWE returns to London’s O2 arena on Monday for Raw. WrestleMania 41 airs live on Netflix on April 19 and 20.

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