Miz Talks About If WWE Is "Watered Down," If CM Punk's Promos Are Staged & More

As noted earlier, The Miz was interviewed on WOIO, the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, OH. Here are more highlights from the interview:

Being on the receiving end of a Rock bottom: "To be completely honest with you, being in front of a sold out Madison Square Garden with millions watching at home – I blame R-Truth for everything, hence the reason on Monday Night Raw I left him laying in a puddle of his own drool."

Staring across the ring and seeing The Rock: "What I really wanted to do in the ring was not only prove that I'm on his level but? It's cool to idolize someone but it's even cooler to surpass your idol and be better than him. So that's what I planned on bringing to The Rock, to Team Bring It, to the captain of Team Bring It, to the big movie star. It's been seven years since he's been in the ring. That's a huge, huge moment – not only for The Rock but for me because I get to share that. I'm one of those people that not only do I want to share that but I want to outshine him as well. If you can outshine The Rock, you can outshine anybody and I've outshined everybody now.

"I'm better than The Rock, better than John Cena. I am the icon in the WWE. When you look at a face, it's not CM Punk. It's the Miz."

CM Punk claiming to be the best wrestler in the world: "So did Chris Jericho. He's no longer in the WWE. There are so many people that have said, 'I'm the best in the world.' The thing is I never claim that I'm the best in the world. I just prove it each and every time I go out in the ring."

If CM Punk's promos are staged: "I don't know. With CM Punk you don't know and that's the best part about CM Punk. You really don't know what's on a script, what's coming from his head. I'll tell you one thing – just by knowing CM Punk, he is the type of person that is very witty, very on the top of his head, on top of his game and when he says he's the best in the world, honestly, he is very, very, very good."

Zack Ryder's popularity: I want to ask you -who were the first people who let Zach Ryder put his phrase out on air? [It was Miz and John Morrison] Do you know where 'woo woo woo you know it' was created? This is Zach Ryder's catchphrase. 'Woo woo woo you know it', which is the stupidest catch phrase of all time. However, people are starting to get into it. The first time he ever did that was when we were all in a bar in Loreto. Zach Ryder started doing this, 'woo woo woo woo we woo woo' and it was the most annoying thing we ever heard in our life. Me and Morrison go, 'We're putting him on the Dirt Sheet and he's doing that. He goes, "Okay bro. Bro, I'll do it, bro. Let's do it, bro. Woo woo. Woo woo we woo.'

"It started there and now he has progressed to have his own internet show, Z! True Long Island Story, which is getting a cult following. Once 10 people of a group start chanting something, the entire arena will start because they're a bunch of followers. Me, I like to be a leader. I like to be the person that starts things. So the fact that Zach Ryder is now one of the people that is a fan favorite is amazing to me. He did it on his own. He was going to get fired; he was on the cutting list and he said, 'You know what, if I'm going out then I'm going out with a bang,' and you have to respect that. Now granted he will be on the receiving end of a beat down if he ever steps in my way because nobody ever steps in my way."

If he's ever considered working for TNA: "No, I've always loved WWE from Hulk Hogan to Ultimate Warrior to The Rock to Demolition to Legion of Doom. I was always a WWE fan, even when WCW and ECW? I was not a WCW fan. I liked ECW better than WCW. WWE was always my number one. I don't know why. I just always felt like it was a huge production, there was larger than life characters, I loved the story lines, I fell in love with the characters and I've always wanted to be a WWE Superstar."

If WWE is watered down in the PG era: I don't think it's watered down... It's certainly PG. I don't think the story lines are hurt by it because we have to basically go within the extent of what we have and I think we're getting great TV. Even though it is PG I actually like it better because I don't have to bleed and I don't have to take chair shots to the head. These are just precautions that we take now. I mean if you look at football they're no longer to do helmet to helmet contact, they're watching out more, there's a lot more rules. With rules it's like, okay, now we have restrictions. How can we still make this amazing brand? I think we are absolutely doing it.
Right now we have the biggest WrestleMania sale that we've ever had in the entire WrestleMania. Rock versus Cena, with just one match announced, is the biggest WrestleMania ever. It's not even done yet. We're not even done selling but it was the fastest ever."

Favorite arena to perform in: "Madison Square Garden or Chicago or Quicken Loans Center because it's my hometown. The loudest are always Madison Square Garden and Chicago. In Cleveland it usually goes this like, 'And from Cleveland, Ohio?' 'Yay!' 'The Miz.' 'Boo!' Thanks a lot guys. I'm the one who brought the championship to Cleveland, not Lebron James or Peyton Hillis."

How much sleep he gets a night: "On average, I'll sleep when I'm dead. I'm that kind of person. For instance, right now I'm here doing this with you. After this I go to MMS to do a radio interview. After that I go do my radio show on Sirius XM and then after that I go do this autograph signing at the Sip-N-Post restaurant for my uncle. After that Mizfest begins, which is something I created. I take out all my best friends from high school all over Cleveland. We rent a bus. There's like 70 of us and it's one of those times where all of my friends get together that I don't get to see ever. It's a 10 year anniversary so Cleveland will never be the same again... I'm on maybe three hours if I get any sleep. I don't need to sleep. It's one of those things – when you're a superstar, you want to be the best and biggest of whatever you can do and that's what I'm trying to be. I'll sleep when I am the biggest superstar in the world."

Favorite food to eat on the road: "Anything besides McDonalds. The reason being is that McDonalds is the only thing open whenever we're done with our shows so it's the only thing we can eat. I have to go there and go, 'This quarter pounder is not going to sit well with my six pack.'"

Favorite match he's wrestled: "It would have to be either main event at WrestleMania 27, retaining my WWE Championship twice, which has never been done in the history of the WWE."

Favorite match he's watched and wasn't in: "Hell in a Cell: Mankind versus Undertaker just because some of the things Mankind went through in that match were just unbelievable and I can't believe he's still alive to this day."

On the UFC: "I can understand why some people are really into it. I'm more driven to WWE for its soap opera storylines, the larger than life characters. I enjoy promos. Whenever I watch UFC I feel like the main event goes 30 seconds and I'm like, 'Really? It was interesting for 30 seconds but 30 seconds? Really? I paid $60 for this?' but I can see why people love it. You can have a 30 second match or you can have this amazing bout. You never know what you're going to have."

Word Association: R-Truth: Failure. Daniel Puder: Won but lost at the same time. Bill DeMott: Great teacher. Vince McMahon: Genius.

You can check out the full interview below. Miz also took over "The Buzz" entertainment segment and covered stories on the Dancing With the Stars champion and talked about the release of WWE '12, you can check that out at this link.