4 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw (Aug 23)
2. Miz & Morrison Finally Split
The Miz and John Morrison's split was overdue.
The act has been stale for a long time now. Miz, in particular, has been treading water, having failed to evolve at all over the past few years, still throwing down the "when my hand goes up, your mouth goes shut" catchphrase of yore amongst other tropes that outlived their use before colour television was invented. His and Morrison's comedy act barely registered towards the end. Their bit was played out, so they had to go their separate ways.
WWE did a good job with this. Miz lost a straightforward singles match with Xavier Woods when Morrison's interference backfired, with the referee's distraction allowing Woods a roll-up. John was apologetic afterwards, disappointed with his own behaviour, and while Miz played it up like everything was okay, he struck when Morrison's guard was down.
The Skull Crushing Finale served as the exclamation point on an angle that drew "why, Miz, why?!" chants in the building, marking this an objective success. It got over.