The Miz Discusses The Challenge Of Being A WWE Heel After Building 'Equity' With Fans

The Miz has finally achieved a certain sense of stability in his WWE career. Over the years of his tenure in the promotion, he's fine-tuned his heel persona and maintained a natural level of heat with fans, but fans have begun to respect Michael Mizanin's efforts instead, which he admits have made being a heel far more difficult than it originally was.

"I've been a babyface a couple of times. With the character that I am and as a Superstar, it's hard to be a babyface," he admitted during an interview with Jimmy Traina on "Sports Illustrated," explaining that it's become harder to shake his equity with the fans. The Miz pointed out that now, when he walks out, even though they know his character, people respect him.

"Even when it is a huge-huge babyface -I still am like lately, like this- I would say this is like, the last six months to a year, where I walk out and I go: 'I'm the bad guy' but then I'm like 'Hmmm, I'm not really the bad guy anymore,'" he further expressed, noting that no matter what he does or how bad he is, it doesn't seem to matter anymore and fans still seem to love him.

The Miz has changed the way he approaches not just his character but his matches, saying that he has decided to meet the crowd where they are at, as opposed to forcing the heel heat.

"My goal now is just to get you invested in the match," he explained. At the same time, The Miz claims that other factors have caused him to instead approach the situation as a babyface, and work with the crowd being on his side. 

"This is going to sound so egotistical, but that's The Miz. I will literally just do whatever I need to do to get to what I think this crowd needs and get them to the best possible point that I can get them at, whether it's them cheering me or them booing me," he concluded.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Sports Illustrated" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.