On the August 23 episode of Talking Smack, The Miz went on a highly praised tirade against SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan for calling him a coward, with Miz calling Bryan a "coward" for not returning to the ring when he promised the fans he would. At Backlash on September 11, Miz successfully defended the title against Dolph Ziggler after Maryse sprayed an unknown substance at Ziggler while the Referee was distracted. Afterwards, The Miz continued to blame Bryan and vowed not to defend his Intercontinental Championship on any show until he was granted a contract "renegotiation". On the September 20 episode of SmackDown Live, Miz retained the Intercontinental title against Ziggler in a rematch after he used the same spray on Ziggler. At No Mercy on October 9, Miz lost the Intercontinental Championship to Ziggler in a title vs career match after Maryse and The Spirit Squad (Kenny and Mikey), were ejected from ringside, ending Miz's reign at 188 days. On the October 18 episode of SmackDown Live, Miz and the Spirit Squad defeated Ziggler, Slater and Rhyno. The Miz initially refused Ziggler's offer for a rematch for the Intercontinental title, but on November 8 episode of SmackDown Live, Maryse accepted Bryan's offer to Miz face Ziggler the following week for the Intercontinental Championship in the 900th episode of SmackDown Live. Later that night, Bryan would state on Talking Smack that if Ziggler successfully retained the championship, The Miz and Maryse would be traded to Raw for someone else. On SmackDown's 900th episode on November 15, Maryse helped Miz to win the championship for the sixth time. Miz would go on to defend the title against Raw's Sami Zayn at Survivor Series on November 20, where Miz would defeat Zayn after Maryse prematurely rang the bell, causing a distraction. On the November 22 episode of SmackDown Live, Miz successfully retained his championship against Kalisto after Kalisto was distracted by Baron Corbin and later Miz himself was attacked by Ziggler. Later that night, General Manager Daniel Bryan scheduled The Miz to defend the championship against Ziggler in a ladder match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 4 which Miz won to end their feud.
Michael Gregory Mizanin was born on October 8, 1980 in Parma, Ohio, where he was raised. His parents are divorced; he has a step-father and two half-siblings. He attended Normandy High School and was the captain of its basketball and cross country teams. He also participated in swimming, was a member of the student government and edited the yearbook. He then attended Miami University, where he was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity and studied Business at the Richard T. Farmer School of Business before he was cast as a member of The Real World (2001).
Mizanin dropped out of college, where he was pursuing a degree in Business, in order to appear on the 10th season of MTV's reality television program The Real World in 2001. He went on to appear in multiple seasons of its spin-off series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, along with contestants from both Road Rules and The Real World, including Battle of the Seasons, The Gauntlet, The Inferno, Battle of the Sexes 2 and The Inferno 2. Except for Battle of the Sexes 2, Mizanin made it to the end of all the Challenges on which he competed and won both Battle of the Seasons and The Inferno 2.
Pursuing the goal of becoming a professional Wrestler, Mizanin joined Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where he trained in the Ultimate University. He made his in-ring debut in 2003 as The Miz. During his time with UPW, The Miz competed in UPW's Mat War's tournament, making it to the finals before losing to Tony Stradlin.
In October 2004, Mike Mizanin entered the fourth season of Tough Enough, a televised competition which awarded the winner a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) contract and US$1,000,000. Despite coming last in an arm wrestling tournament on November 25, Mizanin outlasted six other Wrestlers and made it to the final round. At Armageddon, 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 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 (DSW) 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 (Robbie and Rory McAllister). On December 1, Mizanin defeated Mike Knox in the finals of a tournament to determine the inaugural Deep South Heavyweight Champion. He continued his partnership with Matt Cappotelli throughout the second half of 2005 in WWE dark matches and house shows until Cappotelli, nominally of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), was diagnosed with a brain tumor after an injury at a taping in December 2005.
After the end of the Diva Search competition, The Miz returned exclusively to SmackDown! as a villain, starting his in-ring competition with win over Tatanka in the September 2006 episode of SmackDown!. 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 Wrestlers as Matt Hardy, Funaki 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 defeat her in various competitions. However, Miz and Kristal soon found themselves being stalked by The Boogeyman. This began a feud in which the Boogeyman ended The Miz's winning streak at December's Armageddon event.
Miz was drafted from SmackDown! to ECW on June 17 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 episode of ECW in a match against Nunzio, which he won.
In February 2008, Miz and Morrison were given a streaming segment on the WWE website named The Dirt Sheet in which they mocked other Wrestlers and facets of pop culture, showing off their promo skills. Morrison and The Miz co-wrote each episode of The Dirt Sheet each week. As the duo continued to hold the titles, WWE downplayed the angle of Miz and Morrison disliking each other, and portrayed them as friends. Miz competed in a battle royal on the pre-show of WrestleMania XXIV, but was unsuccessful in winning after being eliminated by Jamie Noble. The team of Miz and Morrison had many successful title defenses over the next few months before dropping the championship to Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder at the Great American Bash in a fatal four-way match which also featured Jesse and Festus and Finlay and Hornswoggle. Neither Miz nor Morrison were pinned as Hawkins pinned Jesse to win the titles. Miz and Morrison soon followed a feud with Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard and JTG) as a battle of their webshows, Word Up and The Dirt Sheet. They were voted into a match with, and defeated, Cryme Tyme at Cyber Sunday. The team also feuded with D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels), using phrases such as "Are you 50?" instead of DX's usual catchphrase "Are you ready?" to mock their ages due to DX being formed in 1997, when both Miz and Morrison were in high school. On the 800th episode celebration of Raw, Miz and Morrison competed in a match against DX, and were defeated. During the match, they mocked DX's signature moves, with Morrison successfully performing a superkick (mocking Michaels' Sweet Chin Music) on Triple H. On December 13, Miz and Morrison defeated Kofi Kingston and CM Punk to win the World Tag Team Championship during a WWE house show in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
He has featured in WWE video games WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, WWE All Stars, WWE '12, WWE '13, WWE 2K14, WWE 2K15, WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17 and WWE 2K18 as a playable character.
Miz appeared on the NXT show as the storyline mentor of Daniel Bryan. At WrestleMania XXVI, ShowMiz defeated John Morrison and R-Truth to retain the title again. During the 2010 WWE draft on the April 26 episode of Raw, ShoMiz lost the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship to The Hart Dynasty when Tyson Kidd made The Miz submit to the Sharpshooter. After the match, Big Show knocked him out and was later drafted to the SmackDown brand.
Desperate for a spot on the card for the upcoming WrestleMania XXVIII event, he later joined John Laurinaitis' team for the 12-man tag team match after saving Laurinaitis from Santino Marella. Miz picked up the win for Team Johnny after pinning Zack Ryder with the help of Eve, ending his 20 match losing streak dating back to 2011. He followed this up by losing a battle royal and a singles match against Brodus Clay at Over the Limit.
Mizanin played a small role in the film The Campaign. On April 30, 2012, it was announced that The Miz would star in WWE Studios film The Marine 3: Homefront. Mizanin replaced fellow Wrestler Randy Orton, who was dropped from the role due to his past with the USMC. That day it was also announced that Mizanin would be featured in the WWE Studios and Kare Prod project Les reines du ring (Queens of the Ring) alongside Eve Torres and CM Punk. In 2012, he was on MDA Show of Strength with Maryse and other celebrities. In March 2013, he attended the Kids Choice Awards with Maryse and The Rock.
Mizanin starred in the ABC Family TV movie Christmas Bounty, which premiered in December 2013. In 2015, he starred in the WWE Studios Christmas film Santa's Little Helper.
Mizanin married his longtime girlfriend, French-Canadian fellow WWE Wrestler Maryse Ouellet, on February 20, 2014 in the Bahamas. On the September 11, 2017 episode of Raw, Mizanin and Ouellet announced they are expecting their first child, a daughter. Their daughter, Monroe Sky Mizanin, was born March 27, 2018.
At Survivor Series on November 23, Miz and Mizdow won the WWE Tag Team Championship by winning a fatal four-way match against defending champions Gold and Stardust, The Usos and Los Matadores. The next night on Raw, Miz and Mizdow retained the titles against Gold and Stardust. Miz and Mizdow then entered into a feud with The Usos and Miz interacted with Jimmy Uso's wife Naomi, offering to connect her with a Hollywood Producer to distribute her music video. At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 14, Miz and Mizdow lost by disqualification against The Usos after Miz hit Jimmy Uso with a Slammy Award. On the December 29 episode of Raw, Miz and Mizdow lost the titles to The Usos. Miz and Mizdow were unsuccessful in regaining the championship in rematches on the January 9, 2015 episode of SmackDown and at the Royal Rumble on January 25. Miz was the first entrant in the Royal Rumble match and was eliminated by Bubba Ray Dudley. Mizdow entered at number 21, where Miz tried to take Mizdow's spot only for Roman Reigns to push him off the apron, allowing Mizdow to enter before quickly being eliminated by Rusev. On the February 9 episode of Raw, Miz fired Mizdow as his stunt double after Mizdow began to gain more attention from fans, though he quickly rehired Mizdow as his personal assistant. Mizdow then ceased being his assistant at WrestleMania 31 on March 29. The Miz's film The Marine 4: Moving Target was released in April, but he disrespected co-star Summer Rae, who sided with Mizdow. On the April 20 episode of Raw, Miz defeated Mizdow in a match where the winner retained the Miz brand, with help from Rae, whom Miz was planning with from the start.
In 2016, Mizanin guest starred in Supernatural as a Wrestler named Shawn Harley in an organization targeted by a demon.
In 2018, Mizanin and his wife Maryse will star in a reality television series titled Miz & Mrs.
