Seven-time WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz, as noted, recently was interviewed by the Hard Hidz Wrestling podcast. During this portion of the interview, The Miz discussed his epic “Talking Smack” promo on current SD Live GM Daniel Bryan, went over him making the I.C. Title important & more.
Here are the highlights:
The Miz On Making The I.C. Title Prestigious:
“I make this title relevant so I have to keep this title. Now, Dean Ambrose in the ring, no doubt he’s very good at what he does, yes, we know, we get it; you’re a big fan, but Dean Ambrose is someone to be reckoned with in the WWE ring and I know that for a fact for sure. But him as the Intercontinental Champion, his reign wasn’t as good as when I have the title and as prestigious as when I have the title because that’s what it’s all about to me. Because me as a kid growing up; the Ultimate Warriors, the Shawn Michaels, the Bret Harts, they were all the workhorses of the WWE. They were the ones to make it prestigious and I am that guy and as good as Dean Ambrose is, he’s not The Miz.”
“When it’s more talked about than the Universal Title, given more airtime, which obviously it has been because someone doesn’t show up a lot, but it’s quite alright. He is ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar and he has earned the right to do that because, I mean, let’s face it; when he’s on the show, you want to watch to see what’s going to happen next. Right now, the Intercontinental title is the title on the show, the single’s title, on the show, so applause to me.”
His Promo On Daniel Bryan:
“I was pissed, I was angry and the main reason I was angry; so that day, I get to the building and I’m Intercontinental Champion. As Intercontinental Champion, I was doing nothing. I was like, ‘I have this title, it’s the title I remember as a kid thinking, ‘God, I love this title.’ I always wanted to be that guy. Everybody always says, ‘I’m going to make this title relevant again,’ ‘I’m going to make it prestigious’ and everybody’s always chomping their gums doing that and it always seems like whoever was Intercontinental Champion would be losing every single match until the Intercontinental Championship match and win. I didn’t want to be that Superstar, I didn’t want to be that guy. So I get to the building and they tell me, ‘yeah, you’re not needed today on the show.’ I’m like, ‘excuse me? I’m the Intercontinental Champion.’ ‘Sorry, yeah, we’re debuting the new Tag Team titles and we’re debuting the new Women’s title, so we kind of don’t have enough room for the Intercontinental title’ and I went, ‘huh. You’re telling me the rich history of this title; all the Superstars that held this title before me are just irrelevant because we have two new titles you need to put in there?’ And so I go, ‘put me on Talking Smack tonight’ and they go, ‘why?’ I go, ‘everything I’m going to unleash it on Daniel. He’s the General Manager, he’s the person to get things done, right? Well, he’s going to need to get things done.’ We went in there and I had no idea he was going to walk away. I was actually planning on him hitting me, like, ‘when is he going to hit me? When is he going to hit me?’ And I knew I couldn’t hit him back, but I was just so angry and it got the attention it needed and I succeeded at doing what I wanted to do, which was making the title mean something.”
The Difficulties Of Cutting A Good Promo:
“It’s great, right? Yeah, I love it. I love Talking Smack, I think they do an incredible job with it and they allow the Superstars to really shine, superstars you don’t really get to see. A lot of it, I’ll be honest, the crowd messes up a lot of stuff. They can make a promo and elevate it and make it the most amazing thing ever or they can really shut it down. A couple of things that happen that people don’t realize; I’ll be cutting a promo and there will be one guy, one guy and he’s like [shouting incoherently] and nobody else hears him. Everyone in the audience hears him, but the people at home don’t hear him. I hear him, but I’m trying to get across what I need to get across and showcase what we’re doing for the millions at home, but one guy is ruining it for everyone. Or they’ll start the ‘what’ chant.”
