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What's the story?
The Miz recently did an interview with Build Series to promote MTV's The Challenge: Champs vs Pros that he is currently hosting. During the interview, the author was lucky enough to ask the 7-time WWE Intercontinental Champion about his time working with Paul Heyman.
In case you didn't know...
The two first worked together when The Miz was first training at Deep South Wrestling and Paul Heyman was helping out. From there he handpicked the young upstart to come over to OVW where he was producing.
Heyman has stated that when he first saw Miz, he was a "frustrated, teenybopper, goody-two-shoes" and that "someone really needed to take Miz out of his misery". That someone would be none other than Mr. Heyman himself.
The finer points
The Miz spoke about starting out as a babyface as opposed to the heel persona that he has portrayed for the majority of his WWE career. He was the first ever Deep South Wrestling champion and did it with the fans behind him.
However, he explains that it did not last long as he was brought over to Ohio Valley Wrestling and those fans tended to feel differently. Since it was Heyman's decision to bring him to OVW in the first place, he clearly saw something special in him and dedicated time to helping him develop and perfect the character that we have come to know as "The Miz".
"From then on I was a bad guy and Paul was just so on me about everything, teaching me the ins and outs. And people don't know this like I feel like I was one of the first Paul Heyman guys. But yea, in Ohio Valley Wrestling and in my developmental territory days, developing into "The Miz", Paul was right there with me honing into that character and honing in on everything. He's an amazing brain in the WWE and we're very lucky to have him around."
Video
Author's take
As someone who grew up watching The Miz on "The Real World" and on "The Challenge" I have been following The Miz's career long before I even knew I was doing it.
I am a huge fan of his and I think Paul Heyman is one of the most brilliant minds in all of wrestling. It was an honor to ask him this question and it truly was AWESOME.
