The Miz On Talking Smack Confrontation – “I Was Waiting To Get Hit”
The Miz has admitted he didn’t know if Daniel Bryan would hit him during their famous confrontation on Talking Smack in 2016.
Speaking to the then host of Talking Smack Renee Paquette on her Oral Sessions podcast, the new WWE Champion discussed the fiery interview. On Talking Smack following SmackDown, The Miz would aggressively confront SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan.
Miz explained:
“I thought he was going to hit me, I was waiting to get hit. I was going to start spitting fire because I was so angry. And then when he left it got me even more angry.”
Daniel Bryan walked out of the show as The Miz continued to make his point in front of Paquette and Miz’s wife Maryse. Miz, who had recently become WWE Intercontinental Champion at the time, revealed how he was laying bare some real frustrations he was feeling at the time.
He recalled:
“That was a bad day for me. It was a really bad day. I really wanted to make the Intercontinental Championship, like I said I wanted to make it relevant again. Like I want to make it as big as it was when I saw it in the 80s with like the Ultimate Warrior having it, Shawn Michaels having it. It was literally like the workhorse title and I wanted it to get back to that and then you walk into TV and they said, ‘Ah, yeah. You’re not needed. You’re going to be on the dark match tonight.'”
Miz also recounted how it was his idea to appear on Talking Smack and lay his soul bare in this way:
“I was so angry. I went up to Road Dogg and I said, ‘Put me on Talking Smack.’ He said, ‘Why?’ ‘Daniel Bryan’s the General Manager. I’m gonna unleash it all on him.’ And so they were like, ‘Alright, cool.’”
“So we go into Talking Smack and he called me like a coward. In my head, I’m going, ‘This guy’s calling me a coward,’ and everyone gets called a coward, but when Daniel Bryan called me it, it was different. It was different than when someone on a promo: ‘You’re a coward!’ There was something underneath it. I knew what it was. I knew where he was going with that and it infuriated me because I was still able to do what I do and he wasn’t. He wasn’t there. He’s [at the time was] not there anymore.”
“The way you wrestle and you can sit there and hate it the way I’m in the ring but I guarantee I can entertain an audience. I don’t have to do all the flippy stuff. All the stupid stuff that gets you injured because I’m gonna be there day in and day out. Each and every week and you’re not. And when he said that, it was like, ‘Hmmm, I know where you’re going,’ and I feel it right now. I feel it right now talking to you.”
Finally, The Miz revealed how he felt Daniel Bryan walking off the set was more disrespect being shown towards him:
“It made me think of like of everyone that doesn’t get it or doesn’t understand me. I was trying to make people understand what I go through and what I do and why I do the things I do. And then when he walked off, it was almost like, that was even more disrespectful. If you’d have punched me, it would have been better than him just walking off.”
Miz and Daniel Bryan have been rivals since Bryan’s debut in the company in 2010. Debuting in the original NXT as The Miz’s rookie, the pair have portrayed a fractious on-screen relationship ever since. Bryan would win his first title in WWE when he would defeat The Miz for the WWE United States Championship.
The Miz cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase to defeat Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at the Elimination Chamber event. Miz has also recently discussed the reaction to his first WWE Championship reign in 2010.
Credit: Oral Sessions