It ain’t easy being awesome, but that’s the lot The Miz has chosen in life. From day one, Superstars have been trying to knock the self-proclaimed “most must-see Superstar in history” off his lofty perch. They dismiss his title reigns, discount his victories (the man beat John Cena at WrestleMania, people), and generally treat him as somewhere between a cockroach and the white stuff that accumulates at the corner of your mouth when you’re really thirsty.
Most recently, Miz’s ranks of haters have expanded to include his Survivor Series teammates, although there’s something to be said for the fact Miz willingly jumped into the lion’s den when he defected from Team Ziggler (then–Team Punk) to Team Foley. Suddenly, Miz finds himself allied with 1) his most recent rival, Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston; 2) the man he won the WWE Championship from in 2010, Randy Orton; 3) his former NXT Rookie, Daniel Bryan, who currently hates him; and 4) Kane, whose history of unchecked rage has been covered at great length and needs not be repeated.
Here’s the thing, though: This ragtag band needs The Miz. Not only do they need him, but they also likely won’t win without him. Because whatever the perception is, Miz wins matches — always has, and always will. He’s a WWE Triple Crown Champion who won’t take no for an answer and marches to his own drum. Despite the enduring (and mounting) animosity of his teammates, this lewd, crude, rude, bag-of-pre-chewed-food dude (yes we did) might just prove to be The Hardcore Legend’s ace in the hole at the fall classic. ( PREVIEW: TEAM FOLEY VS. TEAM ZIGGLER)
For one, Miz is going into this match focused in a way none of his teammates can claim to match. Kane and Bryan are just as likely to throw down against each other as their opponents; such, we suppose, is the nature of the therapy-fuelled bromance from hell that is the WWE Tag Team Champions. As we said, there’s nobody on Team Ziggler who will likely catch the Intercontinental Champion Kingston’s eye quite as much as the man he defeated to claim the illustrious championship last month. And Orton, by his own admission, doesn’t play well with others. We get the sense that, frankly, his general happiness is directly proportional to the amount of RKOs he can hit in a given night.
Miz, on the other hand, wants Ziggler defeated. Badly. And he’s the only Superstar on Team Foley who seems to get the idea of the Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Tag Team Match: It’s a bragging rights contest, a brawl for supremacy among some of WWE’s best and brightest. To be the “sole survivor” is a testament to a Superstar’s endurance, and this contest is purely personal for The Miz (more so than for the others). Ziggler disparaged The Awesome One’s heart, ability and efficiency when he quit him the squad, and Miz will be looking for retribution via victory. In other words, a win in this contest is uniquely important to him because he’s the only Superstar on Team Foley who truly has something tangible — and personal — at stake (Kofi’s and Team Hell No’s titles are not on the line; Orton has vanquished Del Rio already). Miz has his faults, but let it never be said he’s faded quietly into defeat. Rather, he tends to bounce back resoundingly from the brink (case in point: WrestleMania XXVIII, where he snapped a lengthy losing streak by pinning Zack Ryder and winning control of WWE for John Laurinaitis). On a team whose direction is all over the place right now, a steadfast anchor with a history of clutch performances could be the difference-maker.
And if they won’t march in line behind him, there’s something to be said for Team Foley uniting in spite of The Miz. Professional sports are littered with stories of teams who bonded in mutual distaste of their coaches, and everyone on Team Foley seems to dislike Miz immensely. He’s humiliated and defeated most of them at several turns, and at any length, he’s aggravated each and every one of them every chance he gets. He’s outwitted Orton, outgunned Kofi and nearly derailed Team Hell No by simple virtue of his awesomeness. (Of all his transgressions real and imaginary, though, we can’t really blame him for turning down a hug from Bryan. Both the beard and the man attached seem pretty prickly to us.) Such a divisive figure could galvanize the rest of Team Foley — who really have no love lost for each other — into uniting in defiance of their newest addition and giving Team Ziggler a fight for the ages.
With the fall classic fast approaching, it may take something just that dramatic to get The Hardcore Legend’s squad ready to rumble. We endorse Foley’s choice to let Miz join the team (we actually recommended it), and frankly, he was at the spot where no idea was a bad one. By thinking outside the box, Foley has flipped the script, changed the game and enlisted one of WWE’s most polarizing (and decorated) Superstars into his own ranks. And the results should be (dare we say it) awesome.
Well, that or it’ll completely blow up in their faces. Either way, like everything Miz does, it’s got “must-see” written all over it.