The Miz Discusses Earning Respect with WWE, Being Left Off TLC

The Miz has been one of the great success stories within the WWE over the last couple of years.

It's no secret that the company has struggled in building new stars in recent years, but The Miz is a name that sticks out from the pack. Over the last two to three years, he has become one of the top workers in the company, including a lengthy recent run as arguably the best heel in the company.

It wasn't always that way for The Miz. For his first several years in the WWE, he was fighting the stigma of being a former reality television star and had to really scrap and fight to earn respect from both the fans and the performers and brass in the back.

During a new wide-ranging interview with Brian Fritz of the Sporting News, Miz spoke about his new found reputation with fans and performers, as well as his disappointment of being left off the WWE TLC PPV card last weekend.

"I think that everyone gets that I work very hard," Miz said. "I think I'm starting to get the respect that I fought for since day one and it took a long, long time. But not only do I feel like the locker room is seeing it but also I'm seeing it from the WWE Universe. I can't actually believe it because I never thought they would actually respect me. One thing that I always thought was that I'd always be looked at as a reality star and, in my opinion, reality stars were viewed as the scum of the earth. They were they were the worst type of entertainer. All they did was live their life on TV. Me, myself, I loved it. I loved reality TV. I loved The Real World. I loved MTV. I loved everything it did for me but the thing about it is the perception of what people will look at it. But now, everything's reality TV.

"You look at social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. You know what everyone's doing at any given time and so now I look at it differently. And not only do I look at a different, I think people look at it differently. With "Miz and Mrs.," now I'm not only the star but I'm also the executive producer and it's one of those things where I look at our reality show and I call it a hybrid reality because you get an inside look of what it's like to be first-time parents in the entertainment industry. The number one thing I always got when I was on "The Real World" was whether or not it was real? The number one thing I got when I was in WWE was whether or not it was real? And the number one thing I'm getting right now on Miz and Mrs. is if it is real?

"What I've learned is that we're like magicians and we're not going to show you our hand. You just need to be entertained by it. Look at it like it's a movie, like a television show. Look at it like its "Seinfeld" or "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or any type of other show that you wouldn't necessarily go oh, is that real? You don't care if it's real because entertaining and that's what it's all about. And that's what I think "Miz and Mrs." does. And you should check out the marathon Thursday night right after the Tribute to the Troops."

WWE TLC was a stacked card featuring well over ten different matches. Unfortunately for The Miz, that left no room on the card for him. Though that was obviously a disappointing way to end what has been a very successful year for him, The Miz looked at it with a positive spin.

"You always want to be a part of every show when you're a WWE superstar," he said. "You want to be the main event. You want to be the talk of the entire the entire show. But, sometimes, you're left off because that's just the nature of the beast. Sometimes you're needed, other times you're not. I looked at it as I need to work harder. I need to try harder but to be completely honest, I don't know how to work harder because I don't think anyone works as hard as me."