During an appearance on The Ringer Reality TV podcast, The Miz spoke about how it was Simon Dean who convinced him to try out for WWE's fourth season of Tough Enough.

I knew who Simon Dean was because he was on television at the time on SmackDown. I called him, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m just looking for a little bit of advice. Do you think that this is a good move if I want, you know, respect in the business?’ And he said, ‘Dude, this is called the million-dollar Tough Enough. You could be a millionaire if you win this. You will have a WWE contract. Do it. Do the show. This is your opportunity. This is your moment’. And I don’t know, if I didn’t get that kind of advice, if I would’ve taken that advice and done it.”