Mike Mizanin (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Michael "The Miz" Mizanin (born October 8, 1980) is an American professional wrestler working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its ECW brand.

Mizanin is best known for his time on numerous MTV reality shows prior to becoming a professional wrestler.

Biography

Mizanin, a native of Parma, Ohio, attended Miami University, where he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity, and studied business at the Richard T. Farmer School of Business. During his freshman year, he roomed with former Miami RedHawks member Nick Jardine, and bodybuilding male gymnast Todd J. Hartman.

Mizanin later relocated to southern California in order to attend acting classes. He also visited high schools and colleges, delivering motivational speeches.

Television career

Mizanin dropped out of college in order to appear on the tenth season of MTV's reality television program The Real World in 2001. He went on to appear in multiple spin-offs, including seasons 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge with contestants from MTV's Road Rules. He appeared on the Challenge seasons Battle of the Seasons, The Gauntlet, The Inferno, Battle of the Sexes 2, and The Inferno 2. He was known for doing well on the challenges and made it to the end of them all except for Battle of the Sexes 2, winning Battle of the Seasons and The Inferno 2.

It was during an episode of The Real World that Mizanin first displayed an alter ego known as "The Miz". In contrast to Mizanin's usually placid demeanor, The Miz was angry, confrontational and headstrong. Mizanin later realized that "The Miz" would make an excellent professional wrestling gimmick.

Mizanin had a number of relationships during his various "Challenge seasons"; during The Gauntlet he dated Trishelle Cannatella of The Real World: Las Vegas, during The Inferno he had a relationship with Kendal Sheppard of Road Rules: Campus Crawl, and during Battle of the Seasons he had another brief relationship with Tara McDaniel of Road Rules: Northern Trail.

He's also known for his roller coaster friendship with Coral Smith on The Real World and various Real World/Road Rules Challenges after.

In 2004, he appeared on the Bravo reality show Battle of the Network Reality Stars where his team finished second.

Mizanin was also a contestant in the Reality Stars episode of Fear Factor. His partner was his former girlfriend and cast mate, Trishelle Cannatella, and the two of them ended up winning the competition.

On April 20, 2007, he appeared on the game show Identity, where he appeared as a stranger, and contestant John Kim correctly identified his identity as a professional wrestler.

Wrestling career

Pursuing the goal of becoming a professional wrestler which he had harbored from an early age, Mizanin joined Ultimate Pro Wrestling, where he trained in the Ultimate University. He made his in-ring debut in 2003.

In October 2004, Mizanin entered the fourth season of Tough Enough, a televised competition which would award the winner a World Wrestling Entertainment contract and the sum of $1,000,000. Despite coming last in an arm wrestling tournament on November 25, 2004, Mizanin outlasted six other wrestlers. On December 12, 2004 at Armageddon 2004, Mizanin faced the other remaining entrant, Daniel Puder, in a three round "Dixie Dogfight" (boxing match). Neither man achieved a knockout, and the contest was awarded to Puder on the basis of crowd reaction. On the December 16, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, Puder was announced as the winner of Tough Enough by head trainer Al Snow.

Despite losing the Tough Enough contest, Mizanin had piqued the interest of WWE, and he was eventually offered a developmental contract. Mizanin was sent to Deep South Wrestling to train under Bill DeMott, relocating to McDonough, Georgia in the process. In July 2005 he wrestled two dark matches for WWE, teaming with former Tough Enough champion Matt Cappotelli to face The Highlanders. On December 1, 2005, Mizanin defeated Mike Knox in the finals of a tournament to crown the first Deep South Heavyweight Champion.

He continued to tag with Matt Cappotelli throughout the second half of 2005 in WWE dark matches and house shows until Cappotelli, nominally of Ohio Valley Wrestling, was diagnosed with a brain tumor after an injury at a taping in December 2005.

Ohio Valley Wrestling

On January 3, 2006, it was reported that Mizanin was transferred to Ohio Valley Wrestling. On the January 18, 2006, OVW TV show, Mizanin made his debut as "The Miz", with a "Miz TV" segment, where he was shown talking backstage. He talked with Chris Cage, who was supposed to be his tag team partner in OVW, but Cage said he was quitting the business after someone had cut off Johnny Jeter's hair and wished Mizanin good luck with his wrestling career. As Chris Cage left, Mike then met with his old tag team partner Matt Cappotelli and Christy Hemme as later that night they had a six person tag team match as Christy Hemme, Matt Cappotelli, and Mike Mizanin defeated The Highlanders.

On the January 28, 2006, edition of the OVW TV show, The Miz wrestled his first match against Rene Dupree. Chet the Jet and Seth Skyfire came to ringside during the match and acted as a diversion to allow Rene Dupree to gain the upper hand on The Miz. As The Miz was about to finish Rene Dupree, Chris Cage came out and attacked Seth Skyfire. When The Miz left the ring to try to control Chris Cage, he ended up losing the match by count out.

At the February 8, 2006 TV taping, The Miz and Chris Cage captured the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship, defeating Chet the Jett and Seth Skyfire. In what was deemed a "disciplinary move," WWE released Chris Cage over the weekend of March 18, 2006 making it necessary for Miz and Cage to drop the titles. On March 19, 2006, Deuce Shade defeated The Miz in a singles contest to win the titles for his team The Untouchables (Deuce Shade & Domino). On June 8, 2007 he lost to Atlas DaBone at OVW's second Summer Sizzler Series event at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Kentucky.

SmackDown!

On March 8, 2006, WWE.com featured a video of "The Miz" stating that he was headed to Friday Night SmackDown! and throughout April, SmackDown! aired vignettes hyping his debut. However, when Mizanin actually attempted to make his debut on the April 21, 2006 edition of SmackDown! he was (kayfabe) barred from entering the arena by "network executive" Palmer Cannon who told him that he had been "canceled" before having security escort him from the premises.

In mid 2006, WWE.com announced that he would serve as SmackDown!'s "host" on May 31.

Miz debuted as "host" on June 2, 2006 announcing the planned card at the top of the show and attempting to hype up the crowd. Other "host" duties included backstage interviews and hosting a bikini contest. The hosting duties seemed sporadic at best, with some weeks having little to no Miz at all.

Starting in July, Miz, along with Ashley Massaro, became host of the annual Diva Search competition appearing on both RAW and SmackDown!. At the start of his new hosting duties, in front of the live RAW crowd, Miz was noticeably nervous and flubbed his lines, including calling contestants by the wrong name. Though he seemed to get better as the weeks went on, he quickly became the butt of on-air jokes by other WWE Superstars.

After the end of the Diva Search competition, The Miz returned exclusively to SmackDown! and adopted a cocky heel persona, starting his in-ring competition with a win over Tatanka on September 1, 2006. After this win he, along with commentator Michael Cole, began to note whenever possible that he was "undefeated", though he only wrestled five matches over the next two months, defeating such superstars as Matt Hardy and Scotty 2 Hotty. At the same time he began a feud with Diva Search winner Layla El, who spurned his advances on more than one occasion, leading to Miz helping Kristal Marshall defeat her in various competitions. Soon, however, Miz and Kristal found themselves being stalked by the returning Boogeyman, beginning a feud during which The Boogeyman handed Miz his first defeat at Armageddon.

Following a brief absence from TV, Miz returned to SmackDown! to host an interview segment called Miz TV. After the segment went nowhere, Mizanin returned to wrestling with a more intense style and began to pick up wins once again. On the June 11, 2007 edition of RAW, Mizanin faced off against Snitsky in a match to determine a draft pick for SmackDown!. Snitsky easily squashed Mizanin to give ECW the pick, but after constantly attacking The Miz after the match, the referee reversed the decision and awarded the match to Mizanin, thus allowing SmackDown! a draft pick. SmackDown!'s pick was then revealed to be Chris Masters.

ECW

Miz was drafted from Smackdown! to ECW on June 17, 2007 as part of the 2007 Supplemental Draft. He was absent from the first few weeks of ECW, though he was the subject of backstage mentions between matches and had several short Miz TV Crashes ECW video segments. He made his debut on the July 10, 2007 edition of ECW in a match against Nunzio, which he won. Following this match, Extreme Exposé began expressing admiration in him, and even gave him a lap-dance. The Miz has also been constantly beating Balls Mahoney.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves

• Reality Check (Knee lift followed by a neckbreaker slam)
• The Mizard of Oz (Wrist-lock swinging reverse DDT)
• Modified running corner clothesline into a Reverse STO
• Discus punch
• Leg drop bulldog
• Falling neckbreaker
• Springboard bulldog
• Backflip kick
• Triangle Choke
• Shoulder jawbreaker
• Springboard hurricarana
• Rolling cutter

• Managers

• Kenny Bolin
• Roni Jonah
• Kristal Marshall
• Layla El
• Kelly Kelly
• Brooke Adams

Championships and accomplishments

• Deep South Wrestling

• Deep South Heavyweight Championship (1 time; First ever)

• Ohio Valley Wrestling

• OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Chris Cage

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