WWE Six-Pack: The Miz Steals the Show

Biggest Winner: The Miz, Smackdown

The Miz just keeps doing the damn thing.

Not only does he keep performing at a peak heel level, he keeps raising that peak with both nuance and bluster each week.

This week, he returned to his hometown of Cleveland for what looked to be a rare positive celebration. Heels denigrating whatever town they’re in is a hallowed wrestling tradition. But often, a heel will make an exception for when he’s home, and for a brief second, that appeared to be the case with The Miz. Instead, that feeling evaporated as soon as he chastised the crowd for being so small and the people of Cleveland for cheering for a traitor in LeBron James.

Speaking of, Miz continues to add little flourishes that make him the best at what he does. Having his headshot ready to replace LeBron’s in the tunnels of Quicken Loans Arena was just perfect. Introducing his “Real World to WWE” career montage with nothing more than a silent wave of his hand is the kind of subtle action that keeps putting him over. In that one movement, The Miz told us he literally needs no introduction.

It didn’t stop there: his improvisation once the crowd started chanting the name of his dad’s sandwich shop is the kind of quick-thinking crowd play many younger superstars would kill for. Going after Dolph Ziggler’s parents bought him even more heel currency. And mocking Ziggler for being close to the top but not quite there – considering Miz rose from similar ashes not too long ago – added extra weight to the promo that eventually forced Ziggler to put his career on the line.

All we can say is this: the millionth iteration of a feud between two guys we’d gotten sick of seeing together is now all of a sudden the most hotly anticipated match at No Mercy. And it’s all thanks to The Miz’s A+ work.