The Miz Talks About Making The Transition From Reality TV Star To WWE Superstar

The Miz recently spoke to Vulture about making the transition from reality TV to WWE. During the interview Miz offered advice to any former reality TV star looking to move forward and break away form their past. You can check out the interview here and read some highlights below.

Go big or go home:

“When I was on The Real World, I moved back to Cleveland, and I had a choice: My dad was like, ‘You should stay in Cleveland and be the big name out here.’ I was like, ‘But no, Dad, I wanna be a WWE superstar.’ He was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I looked on Yahoo and found wrestling schools all over America, and I wanted to find one that was in Los Angeles, ’cause I wanted to not only prepare myself for WWE, but I wanted to take acting classes, improv classes — get all the tools I would need to become a WWE superstar. Not only that, I wanted to do as many reality shows as I could so I could get my name out there, because WWE might be able to see that and say, ‘Hey, not only is this guy on TV, but he has a following.’ I moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles in a matter of a month.”

On trying not to be Ryan Seacrest:

“When I first came to WWE, I was told I was going to be the host of Friday Night SmackDown, and if you wanna be a WWE superstar, the worst thing you can be told is they want you to be the Ryan Seacrest of the WWE. I said, ‘Ya know what, they’re gonna give me a microphone. If they give me a microphone, I can make an audience boo me or cheer me.’ That’s how I proved myself [as a WWE star].”