WWE WrestleMania 33: The Miz’s Rivalry with John Cena Can Benefit Him

How does The Miz stand to benefit from his upcoming WrestleMania 33 program involving Maryse, John Cena and Nikki Bella?

The rumors have all but been confirmed as of this week’s rendition of SmackDown Live — John Cena will be engaging in a program with The Miz in the lead-up to WrestleMania 33 on April 2 in Orlando, likely culminating in a mixed tag-team match involving each man’s significant other, Nikki Bella and Maryse respectively.

On two occasions now, Nikki’s backstage brawls with Natalya during their heated rivalry have resulted in the unintentional humiliation of Maryse.

Much to the misfortune of the longest-reigning WWE Divas Champion in history, it was two strikes and you’re out as far as Maryse was concerned, as she attacked Nikki with a lead pipe during her brutal falls count anywhere match to give Nattie the win.

To follow this up, The Miz — who had rushed out to stop his wife from doing any more damage earlier in the night — didn’t take too kindly to being eliminated by John Cena in the 10-man battle royal to determine the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship.

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“The A-Lister” would re-insert himself into the match to eliminate Cena and officially cement a backstory for their inevitable clash on the grandest stage of them all.

So now that we know what these individuals are going to be doing on the single biggest night on the WWE calendar, what does it mean for both parties involved?

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We know that John Cena is arguably the biggest name in the WWE at the moment — with the exception of The Rock who hasn’t wrestled a scheduled match since 2013 — and his new part-time status means that he’s allowed to cherry-pick the periods of the year where he’s expected to work the full WWE schedule.

He’s reached the peak of stardom, where it doesn’t necessarily matter who he’s in the ring against; his match is going to be big regardless. We saw hints of that in previous WrestleManias where Cena would take a backseat to the title picture in favor of rivalries with the likes of Bray Wyatt and Rusev in the undercard.

With Cena perched to have a big WrestleMania moment anyway, the real question is how The Miz — and to a much lesser extent, Maryse, who up until now has only worked a managerial role since her return – benefits from this story.

While it may seem grim if you look at this as merely a way for Cena to get a win — and potentially propose to Nikki in the middle of the ring, as many have been predicting — there is definitely an opening for The Miz to benefit from this feud quite substantially.

To start, the fact that John Cena is supposedly going to be taking more time off shortly after WrestleMania should give Miz fans some hope. This means that the only person who can actually capitalise on this match is “The Awesome One”.

That doesn’t necessarily imply that he’s going to win, but surely it means the man can be afforded a little bit of respect and protection in the bout, even if it means having Maryse eat the pinfall from Nikki Bella when all is said and done.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, there is a total of five weeks left before these two couples collide, which is way more than enough time to build this match.

That means a lot of promos, and while Cena may be considered untouchable with regards to his mic work, The Miz is still up there as one of the best today.

In kayfabe, this man’s meal ticket may be “The Moneymaker” — as he calls his face — but in reality, the thing about The Miz that pays the bills is his innate ability to talk.

When allowed to truly unleash, The Miz can be relentless — as exemplified by his extraordinary responses to Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack — and there’s really no better performer to prove that against than the 16-time world champion.

With Maryse laying waste to Nikki Bella this week, and The Miz squandering John Cena’s chances of becoming a 17-time champion at WrestleMania 33 for the time being, there’s a logical pattern slowly starting to emerge with the heels maintaining the upper-hand in this feud into April, which will do wonders for everyone involved.

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It’ll make Nikki and John look great for overcoming their adversaries at the end, and it will allow Miz and Maryse to shine for the bulk of the rivalry.

The Miz has had a career year, and this feud has the potential to make 2017 even more lucrative for the self-proclaimed “most must-see WWE Superstar in history” — with a main event push possibly on the horizon in the near future.

Plus, consider the contrast between this and WrestleMania 27, which coincidentally was the last big ‘Mania match Miz had where he took up half of the spotlight.

Miz was considered one of the worst WWE Champions of all time, but now that he’s got a lot of new supporters in his corner following the work he’s put in since the draft, he could turn that string of lackluster ‘Mania outings around in one fell swoop.

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The Miz has the potential to be the biggest heel on SmackDown Live, and though his rivalry with John Cena may not look like much at face value, the openings it creates going forward are more than enough for any Mizfit to take interest in this one.