You know, I disagree with a lot of your points, but I won't join in on the Miz-bashing others have engaged in, as I agree with you that The Miz HAS elevated himself. He is an immensely improved performer. When you look at how terrible he was at first, then through hard work and dedication, he made himself passable in the ring, then with even more hard work and dedication, he made himself good. I don't think The Miz had innate wrestling ability, this didn't come naturally to him, so I have a lot of respect for his passion, in the face of naysayers, for elevating himself the way he did.
But though he's good in the ring, he's not the best. Though he's good on the mic, he's not the best. So my point is, why is it that you see him as a star over superior contemporaries. Why, in turn, do you suddenly find him less compelling now? Which brings me back to my point: you thought The Miz was a star, because he was presented as a star. He had an extended run, on Raw - the show you watch - where he was WWE Heavyweight Champion for a long time, got a lot of mic time and a lot of interaction with top stars like Cena. He was presented as a top guy, and you bought into that.
But WWE's problem from time to time is that they don't have long-term commitment to such pushes. Someone is a top guy for a while, then once Cena beats them, there's nowhere else for them to go but down the card, and they flounder while someone else gets pushed up and is top guy for a while. There's not enough depth on the top of the card to keep people on top. And that's the problem with the lack of stars comes from.
Is someone like Daniel Bryan going to be The Guy, the top babyface who moves merchandise and sells out arenas with his name on the marquee like Cena? Sadly, I doubt it, even though he's probably my favourite wrestler. But he could very easily be The Other Guy, a dependable top-tier heel who can be set against your top babyfaces who move the merchandise and sell out the arenas. That's the kind of role that made Jericho, Edge, Kurt Angle, even HHH into stars. But the key is continued commitment. It's not an interchangable role. If you depush Bryan after he drops the title, he only gave the rub to Sheamus or whoever. If you keep him in top-level programs, and keep him credible for a second title reign in the future, that's an investment, and he becomes a guy who you can continue to use to elevate others in future, while he in turn is elevated through a consistent commitment.
I'm not going to talk about Miz in the ring, because anytime I talk about in ring performances guys like Hunter and Metallo flock to bash the **** out of me for disrespecting the wrestling business and telling me that I don't understand it.
As far as on the mic goes, when The Miz is actually doing something legitimate, I believe he's the most on character of today's generation of super stars. CM Punk obviously has the higher ceiling, his shoot promo last year was proof of that, but Punk doesn't consistently grab my attention the way Miz does. Not bashing on Punk, but constant shoots and shock value promos lose their novelty after awhile.
Whenever I praise Miz, I'm always told by those who apparently understand better than me what Miz doesn't excel at, but the fact is that's all subjective, and in my subjective opinion, Miz actually
does excel at all the things people say he doesn't. His character work from promos, to his antics, to his match shenanigans all make him the best all around character in wrestling right now as far as I'm concerned. And as part of the character, I also think it's absolutely hilarious when he takes a beating, and taps out at the first sign of fight after all the big talk he puts out. I would get more enjoyment out of watching Miz get squashed in a match than to watch Daniel Bryan "put on a clinic", because Miz' character work while getting squashed is going to be a thousand times more enjoyable than Bryan's character work in his match.
I'm using that as an example, because Miz and Bryan are two main subjects of this discussion.
I don't
hate Daniel Bryan. In fact, in many ways I do quite like him. He just doesn't entertain me enough to carry a show. If Daniel Bryan was holding the US or IC title, and mid carding Raw, I think he'd be awesome. But as the focal point of an entire show (Smackdown), he absolutely bores the crap out of me.
So while people say Miz doesn't do this, that, or the other thing as well as his contemporaries, I disagree. I think he
does do those things as well as, and better than, his contemporaries.
As for why Miz is less compelling now, it's because he's now in a rather standard and stale, played out story arc of the heel who *****es about not having a match. And while some can say "AHA! You don't like him because he's not being
booked right", I would respond to that by saying he's really not doing anything new or innovative with the opportunity he has at the moment. This isn't the same guy who, same time last year, was dressing up as The Rock to put a People's Elbow on Cena. He's toned down on so many of the things that made me a fan of his in the first place. He's like Miz-Lite lately, which is why I find him less compelling.
It also helps that Raw is now filled with guys like The Rock, Chris Jericho, Triple H, Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels who all own high spots on my top 10 all time favorites, including Rock, Triple H, and Jericho who all fill out my top 3.
I do agree that the post title reign de-pushes don't help these guys much, but I think where my problem lies is that most of these guys who get a title reign, then de-pushed, shouldn't have been holding the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship in the first place. The WWE right now has a backwards way of doing things where they put a belt on the guy to push him, instead of letting him get pushed and work his way up to the belt.
Jack Swagger may be the worst offender of this, but the original Sheamus title runs, some of CM Punk's earlier runs, Del Rio's runs, hell even my boy Miz I feel got the belt a half a step too soon but he made the best of it.
The CM Punk of
now earned his top spots, and deserves all the title reigns he's ever gonna get. Ziggler is being incorporated slowly into the main event, giving him some major upper mid card focus with some main event dabbling as he works to show he belongs. These are proper ways to build main event stars with credibility that deserve main event belts.
