10 Times Promoters Sided With A Wrestler The Locker Room Hated

8. The Miz

CM Punk Tony Khan
WWE

To his eternal credit, it would've been so easy for Mike Mizanin to have walked away from his WWE dreams shortly after he became a fully-fledged member of the roster. Likewise, it could've been easy for the sports entertainment giant to cut bait and release the Cleveland native during his early days and deem him not worth the unrest.

Having made his initial splash in the entertainment industry as a loudmouth asshat on The Real World, a major part of the Miz's schtick was that he rubbed people the wrong way. Far from merely just part of an act, though, this is something that bled through into his burgeoning wrestling career upon formally landing on the WWE main roster in 2006. At that time, the rookie's behaviour saw him earn the ire of locker room veterans such as JBL, Chris Benoit and Hardcore Holly.

As the story goes, Miz was forced to change in the hall during one SmackDown taping due to eating chicken over the bag of Benoit. What Mizanan first thought was a joke, ended up being a seven-month run of him having to change in hallways, cleaning closets, and public bathrooms.

Given the problems Miz's very presence caused - even if the other side of this is that the 'veterans' acted like damn children - it could've been viewed as safer just to let him go. Instead, WWE stuck with the charismatic star, and he's nowadays viewed as one of the most valuable overall players within the company.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.