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by Les Honig For many MTV fans he has
already reached stardom through his continued “Real World”
presence, but for Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, the true dream has
yet to be achieved. “When I make public
appearances now,” says Mizanin, “much of what I do is focused
on my goal of becoming a pro wrestler.” Explaining that he is
constantly asked to perform the wrestling-based flipped out
character called “The Miz” that he created on his original
“Real World 10” series of appearances, he now uses such
opportunities to cut Miz promos, providing him an opportunity to
refine what is currently the core of his in-ring persona. Coming to UPW and to
California after winning the “Real World/Road Rules: Battle of
the Seasons” original contest, (the challenges still continue
with “The Gauntlet” currently being shown on MTV every Monday
night), Mike brought with him a rich background as a developing
performer and outstanding athlete. Excelling in high school in
baseball, cross country, basketball and swimming, it wasn’t a
surprise that he would turn to a sports-oriented career, but the
choice of squared circle sports entertainment might even surprise
a few of his closest friends. “I’ve always been a big
fan of wrestling since I was a little kid,” the native of Parma,
Ohio recalls. “I remember watching Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate
Warrior, Andre the Giant, Jake “the Snake” Roberts, and they
were all my heroes. I
would play with
friends making believe we were wrestling but I realize now that we
really didn’t know what we were doing.
I followed the sport later, through college, and just loved
it but didn’t have any idea of how you could actually get into
it.” As a life-long “living
room” performer and self-admitted fun-lover who always sought
new challenges, Mike found his first quest to become a member of
“The Real World” cast an unbridled success, weathering seven
interviews and making a name for himself, at least partially as a
result of his Miz creation. And
this creation was no accident, but a natural evolution of Mike’s
own lifelong love. “I was not getting along
with any of my roommates on the show and I didn’t know how to
deal with it, so I’d bring out this alter ego named the Miz who
basically said ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone’.
I just started going off on all the girls with my Miz
character and the girls were really loving it and they developed
their own characters. Coral developed a character named Coco Loco
and Lori her own character too.
We’d have these wrestling matches; nothing big; kinda
silly but it still made my interest in becoming a wrestler really
begin to grow.” With some of his later prize
money from “The Real World/Road Rules” challenge, he made the
big move out to So Cal; hoping to use his unique talents to forge
a career either in acting or in sports entertainment.
Searching for a wrestling school to put abstract concept
into firm reality, he came upon UPW; spoke with promoter Rick
Bassman and soon was enrolled as a stand-out member of Ultimate
University. During the year-and-a-half
since, Miz has distinguished himself not only by his developing
wrestling skills, great look and natural on-the-mic talents, but
by his continuing association with “Real World” and the Miz
creation. Having to
leave training recently for several long periods to tape the
current “Gauntlet” challenge as well as the upcoming
“Inferno” series; Mike
continues to use even these away-from-UU opportunities to build
his wrestling image. “I think there’s more to
wrestling than just the in-the-ring art of the sport. You have to
be able to market yourself and have a marketable character.
So that’s what I am doing now. Whenever I go on these
challenges or to public appearances I always take tee shirts with
me; just stuff that represents the Miz. I still want to learn as
much as I can about wrestling itself but I hope that if I can
build a big enough fan base that WWE and other major organizations
will see that I can be profitable to them.” Still, with a heart that has
always found itself giving more than it is taking in; Mike
continues to work in his free time with both valuable charities
like the Elizabeth Glasier Pediatric Aids Foundation as well as a
motivational speaker, hoping to reach uncertain college students
trying to make it through those challenging years as well as
looking ahead to their futures. “Whenever you hear one kid
saying you made a difference it really makes it all worth the
effort. It fulfills people and hopefully helps them to do what
they really want to do instead of what their mom or dad or their
friends tell them to do. Basically
I tell each kid to follow his or her heart which is what I am
doing myself right now.” Admitting that the discipline
acquired so far in the Ultimate U training ring has already
translating into positive results in his own missions on “The
Gauntlet” and “The Inferno”, Mike has nothing but positive
words for his UPW experiences; hoping that upcoming hiatus’ in
his MTV taping schedule will allow him to return to the learning
ring more actively again. Already though he has many
self-admitted great memories of training and of the “family
atmosphere” he encounters while learning here.
Already featured on several venue cards, he lists as
favorites squared circle encounters several battles with partner
James Lukash against the Ballards. “We are 2 and 0 against
them. It was definitely a highlight for us to beat them twice since
they are also our instructors. I even used The Mizard of Oz once
on Shane to win the match.” Asked recently to participate
in a pre-Smackdown taping workout session where he was tested
against Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, Mike feels even more
motivated now to make pro wrestling the center of his future
career life. “The main thing that has gotten me to where I am today and the main thing to motivate me to keep going on has been UPW. They have taught me so much.” And he adds: “With wrestling you learn so
much about life as well. You
learn about where you are, how dedicated you are and what you have
to do and the sacrifices you have to go through to get to that
place you want to be at.” We can all say with assuredness that Mike the Miz is well on his way to making a major splash in the wrestling biz in the months and years to come and for that reason we proudly name him our December Wrestler of the Month. ***Please note that you can find out the latest happenings with the Miz by reading his regular column here at www.upw.com as well as through his own website www.themizareyouready.com
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