The Miz Got The Gift Of Pushing People’s Buttons From His Dad, Who Knows All About Making An Impact
The Miz finally realized one of his best (or worst) talents came from his father.
The new WWE Champion was this week’s guest on Oral Conversations with Renee Paquette and was asked if he’s worried about being able to get heat now that people are starting to respect him more. Miz said it’s not something that concerns him, explaining that he finally realized he’s a good “button pusher” and he got it from his dad.
“I’m really good at making people hate me and I think I get it from my dad. My dad is a button-pusher and if he finds a button, he’ll push it. You [Renee] know my dad, you like him, but you know he’s going to push your buttons and you’re going to get very aggravated and mad at him. And he can do it [snaps fingers] like that. I never realized I had that, and he did that, until I was at WrestleMania [31] in San Francisco,” Miz explained. “We were out eating afterwards and my dad was just kinda picking at me, saying ‘I think I need to have a conversation with Vince.’ And I go, ‘You’re not going to talk to Vince. You’re my dad…’ [and he goes] ‘No—if I ever see him, I’m going to make sure he knows exactly who I am and I just want to have a conversation.’ And, you don’t ever want your parents to have a conversation with your boss, ever. Ever.”
“We’re just out eating and you never know—my dad was actually in an elevator once with Vince,” Miz said to Renee, who noted her mom did the same thing to her. “And [Miz’s Dad] he goes [to Vince], ‘You know who I am?’ and I was like, ‘Dad, please tell me you didn’t do that…’ but he was like, ‘I’m the Miz’s Dad!’ and Vince was like ‘Oh, pleased to meet you sir, it’s a pleasure’ and walked out. But I was like ‘Man, my dad could have really made this really bad for me.’ But [at the restaurant] he was doing, ‘The next time that I see him, we’re going to have a conversation about what I think WWE needs’—and mind you, my dad tells me this every Monday, what I need to do, and he’s stepped in the ring once in his life and it might have been the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Miz noted, “because at WrestleMania [32] I was facing Shane McMahon in a no disqualification, anything goes match and my dad got in the ring. I said ‘Dad, if you get in the ring, just put up your hands and fight him.’
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Miz and Renee noted how it ended up turning into a huge meme, with Renee joking that Mr. Miz’s stance was comparable to the Notre Dame leprechaun. Miz said his dad went on about how he created “such an impact” with being in the ring for under a minute, so he knew what he’s talking about.
“I saw the gleam in his eyes, like the pleasure he was getting out of it, getting a rise out of me. I was like, ‘Oh my God…’ and a realization happened,” Miz said. “I went, ‘I do this.’ I had no idea that I had this gene, or talent, to find a button and keep pressing it.
Despite Mr. Miz almost screwing things up, The Miz says he still feels like Vince McMahon has always believed in him. He said Vince knows he can trust him because WWE is his passion and he gets his job done.
“I think Vince has always believed in me, which has always been incredible, in my mind, that whenever I’ve had a conversation with him, you can tell—I think he can tell that if he tells me something, I don’t just hear it. I listen to it, I absorb it, and I’m able to get exactly what he wants out of it and make sure that the big picture is in place. He can lean on me to do that. I’m not a guy that—a lot of people go into Vince’s office and complain or say, ‘We need to do this. We need to do that.’ I’m not that guy. I’m a guy that says, ‘Vince needs this done. I can do that. Not only can I do that, but I can make it even better than what he wants it to be.’ I think that’s the trust that I’ve developed with him and with the company. The company knows this is my passion. This is my life. This is my love. There is nothing I love more than doing this. I love entertaining. I love being out in front of a live audience, granted we have a virtual audience now,” Miz noted, “but I still love that. There’s still an energy, there’s still a difficulty to it that no other entertainment business can understand. I just enjoy it.”
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