The Miz Talks Ratings Going Up After He Won WWE Championship This Year

Former WWE Champion The Miz sat down with Alfred Konuwa of Forbes to talk about wrestling and his reality TV series Miz and Mrs. The interview, which was released today but was conducted prior to Miz suffering a torn ACL at WrestleMania: Backlash this past Wednesday, also focused on some of the criticism towards Miz' spot on the card. Miz pointed to a specific example of how fans react when things go well for him.

"When I did the interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated, we were all talking 'it's amazing, it's incredible," Miz said, recalling when he topped the PWI 500 list in 2011.  "When I see the cover, and I'm on it, and I'm like 'wow that's amazing...' and it says 'Yeah, he's really #1' and it's like 'Come on! I just did amazing interview!' That's the mentality that everyone has when I win something. But the thing is, all I care about is that people are talking. That's it.

"When I won the WWE Championship for the second time, nobody believed that was gonna happen, and if you looked at the ratings—and I know you probably did—they went up. And they went up the next week."

Compared to WWE Champions such as Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton, Miz was seen as a beatable world champion when he won the belt in February. For Miz, that was a good thing.

"There's just something to a WWE champion not always being the strongest or toughest, and basically running away from a fight," Miz said. "And I always prided myself on being a champion where you never know, anybody can beat him at any given time.  I remember my first WWE Championship, my first match, I think, was against Jerry Lawler on his 60th birthday. We had everyone in Philadelphia, which, Philadelphia are our uber fans, like the people that are just very intrigued and always know everything about WWE, and we had them literally thinking Jerry 'The King' Lawler was going to go to WrestleMania as WWE champion. That's how much they wanted it."

Another thing Miz is thrilled about is Miz and Mrs' success. The reality show has been climbing the ratings charts during its recent run and Miz believes its the one thing about his career that everyone agrees about.

"With Miz and Mrs' success, top 5 in cable last week, our ratings are through the roof!" Miz exclaimed. "I think USA is absolutely happy with our show and everything we've been doing. It's a great show. Honestly, it's the only thing I get on the internet that is absolutely positive 100%. With Miz and Mrs, people seem to really gravitate toward that, and our fanbase is only getting bigger."

Miz being out of action will leave his regular tag partner, John Morrison, to fend for himself for awhile. Regardless, Miz believes the partnership between him and Morrison will never truly end, even if he does think Morrison is capable of having a prolonged singles run.

"I don't see myself and John Morrison splitting up for a very long time, if ever," Miz stated. "I don't see that happening. We're too connected, we have too much chemistry and we still have more to go. John pushes me more than anybody else in WWE. Right now, he is just absolutely incredible, he is on a tear, and I think if he's not in the main event scene going for the WWE or Universal Championship in the next year I think this is something we're missing in WWE."