The Miz had discussed that he was shunned by the WWE locker room. He gained his fame by being a reality TV star and was a runner up for WWE's Tough Enough show.

He spent a few years working on the indie scene before he arrived on SmackDown in 2006. While he recalled his early days, he said the WWE locker room saw him as a reality TV star not looking to aspire to become a pro wrestler.

"When I first came to WWE, I think everyone assumed , and I wasn’t out there telling everyone I was on the independent scene , I was on The Real World and that’s why I was there. Everyone was like, ‘We don’t care who The Miz is. As a matter of fact, we don’t like The Miz, we don’t like Mike, we don’t like you. Period. You don’t belong here.’ I was always trying to find the right spot on the dial. I was turned up [as The Miz] for so long that when I got to WWE and I was at 100, WWE wanted me to take it down to like a 20. It takes time to develop that, it takes time to learn where you have to be and where you need to go.

To work on his promo abilities, he used WWE media days, and picked John Cena's brain during live shows.

“Guess what? Vince heard about [the media days] and would come up to me and say, ‘You’re doing a great job.’” Miz recounted. “That’s my boss. That’s the person I want to impress and the person who could get me to where I want to be. Now, at 40, with 16 years in the business under my belt, I get [what I was doing wrong then.] It was just through time and repetition and one day it just clicks. John Cena taught me all of that. When I started working with John Cena in live events, that’s when I learned what it takes to be a main-event caliber superstar.”