Miz had many successful WWE Championship title defences over the coming months, from defeating John Morrison once again, to even beating Jerry Lawler it seemed Miz was untouchable. Miz was partnered with John Cena to take on The Corre (Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater) for the WWE Tag Team Championships, they succeeded in the win, but lost the belts quickly back to The Corre causing Miz to turn on Cena. Miz successfully retained the WWE Championship against Cena at WrestleMania XXVII but lost the Championship to him at Extreme Rules the following month. After having some refused opportunities to regain the WWE Championship, Miz then decided to blame his protégé Alex Riley for his continuous downfalls and a feud ensued between the pair.
Attacking Santino Marella together, Miz and R-Truth formed a tag team they named The Awesome Truth,they seized any and every opportunity, interfering in each others matches to help the other one out. They attacked wrestlers at the 2011 Hell In A Cell Match, hitting Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, John Cena and even the referee and camera man. Triple H came out with the police and the entire roster, to escort Awesome Truth out. Awesome Truth made an apology video for YouTube and upon their return, Awesome Truth defeated CM Punk and Triple H at Vengeance and then they attacked Cena in his WWE Championship match that night. At Survivor Series, Awesome Truth lost to Cena and The Rock, and then on RAW, Cena started an argument between the pair. This caused Awesome Truth to split and Miz hit Truth with a Skull Crushing Finale.
RAW 1000, Miz won his first ever Intercontinental Championship defeating Christian for it, he successfully defended it against Christian at SummeerSlam and then against Cody Rhodes, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara at Night of Champions. However he lost if to Kofi Kingston during the premier episode of Main Event. Turning face and after Survivor Series, Miz feuded Cesaro for the United States Championship, though unsuccessful in each attempt, Ric Flair became his mentor and Miz even used Flair’s infamous Figure Four as a finisher. Miz then turned his sights back towards the Intercontinental Championship, he defeated Wade Barrett for it at WrestleMania XXIX but then lost it back to Barrett the following night on RAW.
After hosting that year’s SummerSlam, Miz had various feuds, it was upon coming back heel after filming The Marine 4 (the following year) that Miz debuted his A-Lister gimmick. Miz again won the Intercontinental Championship in a Battle Royal, but then lost it to Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam, later that month Damien Sandow started appearing with Miz as his stunt double. The pairing was amusing, because Sandow copied whatever Miz did whether fighting or being hit, Sandow was dubbed Mizdow and the pair even became Tag Champions defeating Goldust and Stardust. They lost the Tag Championships to The Usos, the next Royal Rumble, Miz entered the Royal Rumble at number 1 but was eliminated by Bubba Ray Dudley. Mizdow entered the Rumble at number 21, Miz tried to take his place but when he got on the apron, Roman Reigns pushed him away before he had a chance to enter, Mizdow seized this opportunity to enter the Rumble. Miz fired Mizdow from being his stunt Double in February but quickly rehired him to be his personal assistant, Mizdow stopped being his assistant at WrestleMania XXXI. After The Marine 4 came out, Miz was shown to disrespect co-star Summer Rae so she sided with Mizdow, the pair had a match to decide who would keep the Miz brand. Miz won after help from Summer Rae who’d been on his side secretly all along.
The night following WrestleMania XXXII, Miz defeated Zack Ryder for the Intercontinental Championship, after his wife Maryse made her return and slapped Ryder’s father, Maryse became Miz’s manager. Miz and Maryse called themselves The It Couple and at Payback Miz fought in an amazing Fatal Four-way against Ceasaro, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens to successfully retain the Intercontinental Championship. The It Couple took time off to film The Marine 5, and returned just in time for the brand split, The It Couple made SmackDown their home, under GM Daniel Bryan and still armed with the Intercontinental Championship. In what would be called as the promo of 2016, Miz ripped into Bryan on SmackDown’s after show Talking Smack, the promo was intense and filled with rage as Miz laid into him, calling him a coward for not returning when he promised fans he would. Miz defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the Intercontinental Championship at Backlash.
Miz continued his tirade against Bryan, refusing to defend the Intercontinental Championship till he got a contract renegotiation, despite saying he wasn’t going to defend it, he did once retaining against Ziggler and then losing to Ziggler at No Mercy in a Title vs Career match. Smackdown 900, after initially refusing a rematch against Ziggler Miz won the Intercontinental Championship for the 6th time. Miz successfully defended against Ziggler at TLC thus ending their feud, he also successfully defended Dean Ambrose. Miz then decided to confront AJ Styles as Styles was saying he was the sole reason SmackDown was such a hit, the following week, Miz once again successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews. After the match in an interview with Renee Young, Renee said Miz losing the Fatal Four-way the previous week was due to his obsession with Ambrose, Miz made her relationship with wrestler Dean Ambrose public, Renee responded by slapping Miz across the face and walking away. Miz lost the Intercontinental Championship to Ambrose in January 2017.
Miz was entered into the Elimination Chamber for a shot of being WWE Champion, but was eliminated by John Cena, Miz then entered a 10 man Battle Royal to determine who would go against WWE Champion Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania XXXIV but was once again eliminated by Cena. During an episode of Miz TV, that was made entirely to critique Cena’s powers backstage, Maryse slapped Cena and his then girlfriend Nikki Bella came out to make the save. This prompted a feud between the foursome, with The It Couple hilariously parodying The Bella Twins realty TV show Total Bellas but they renamed it Total Bellas Bullshit. The feud ended at WrestleMania XXXIII with The It Couple losing.
The It Couple moved over to RAW in the Superstar Shakeup dressed again as John Cena and Nikki Bella and were confronted by Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose, he then defeated Ambrose for the Championship making it his 7th reign. Miz decided to take Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel under his wing saying he’d help them become the stars they deserved to be, the pair became known as The Miztourage after they attacked Dean Ambrose allying with Miz. Miz had even more successful title defences over the coming months, even having a special episode of Miz TV announcing he was to become a father. Towards Hell In A Cell, Miz (and The Miztourge) teamed with The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) to take on the newly reformed The Shield. The trio lost to The Sheild, then towards Survivor Series SmackDown’s Baron Corbin called out Miz to start their match off at Survivor Series in Champion vs Champion, Miz lost this match. Miz then entered a feud with Roman Reigns and Reigns defeated him for the Intercontinental Championship. RAW’s 25th Anniversary episode, Miz once again became Intercontinental Champion, this being his 3rd big episode win.
Miz teamed with Asuka in WWE’s first ever Mixed Match Challenge in which they won. At WrestleMania XXXIV, he lost the Intercontinental Championship to Seth Rollins, transferred back to SmackDwon in another Superstar Shakeup, Miztourage had broken up and Miz was back by himself. Miz failed to regain the Intercontinental Championship at Backlash and then again at Greatest Royal Rumble. His feud with Daniel Bryan was once again reignited after Bryan was cleared to be back in the ring at SummerSlam after Maryse handed Miz some brass knuckles to defeat him in their matchup. Maryse returned to partner with Miz once again, and during a segment where Miz mocked Daniel Bryan’s retirement speech, Bryan’s wife Brie Bella made her comeback to SmackDwon and attacked Miz. New GM Paige scheduled a mixed match for them at Hell In A Cell, The It Couple won, Maryse retired from being in the ring and it was then announced that Bryan would fight against Miz at Super Showdown in Australia to be the number 1 contender for the WWE Championship, Bryan won in under 3 minutes.
Miz’s career has definitely been amazing, and it’s still far from over. The feud with Bryan has yet reached its climax, and another WWE Championship reign is absolutely coming to him. Miz is 100% – AWESOME.
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