The Miz, aka Mike Mizanin, was born in October of 1980 in Ohio.  The future WWE superstar originally studied acting, and has appeared on several television shows, including Fear Factor and The Real World.  However, he had always wanted to be a professional wrestler, and he eventually joined Ultimate Pro Wrestling.  He made his debut in 2003, and the next year, he participated in the Tough Enough contest and, although he didn’t win, he was still given a WWE developmental contract.

Miz was first assigned to the WWE training camp at Deep South Wrestling where he became the first Deep South Heavyweight champion. After Deep South, he moved onto Ohio Valley Wrestling where he and Chris Cage picked up the tag teamchampionship. Cage was released and The Miz lost the titles.  In 2006, he was moved to Smackdown.  However, his storyline was changed so that instead of wrestling, he conducted backstage interviews and hosted a WWE Diva Bikini Contest.  He also hosted the Diva search contest, where he was written as a bit of a dork and made fun of. 

Miz soon began actually competing in the ring, however, and he won a number of his early matches.  In 2007, he was moved from SmackDown to ECW.  There, his character suddenly went from a bumbling, nervous dork to a chick magnet.  His new confidence led to feuds with CM Punk, John Morrison, and Balls Mahoney, although he and Morrison eventually teamed up to win the tag title.  They defended their belts multiple times, but in July of 2008, the lost them at the Great American Bash. 

The Miz/Morrison tag team then feuded with Evan Bourne and Ricky Ortiz on ECW while hosting their own WWE internet show.  WWE Diva Jillian Hall joined them in mid 2008, and the team began a feud with Cryme Tyme.  They defeated Cryme Tyme in October at Cyber Sunday, but they would lose their match at the Survivor Series.

In December, Miz and Morrison once again won the Tag Team titles.  They then feuded with the WWE Tag Champions, the Colons.  The two met up at WrestleMania XXV, where Miz and Morrison lost their titles.  The Colons then became the top Tag Team as the holders of both belts.

In April 2009, The Miz was drafted to Raw where he proceeded to challenge John Cena to matches every week, even though he knew that Cena was out a kayfabe injury. This ended once Cena defeated The Miz at The Bash. The Miz also lost a match where he would he be banned from Raw, the Staples Center, and Summerslan. The following week, Miz wrestled under a mask and a false name in a "Contract on a Pole" match earning a contract. In October, he won his first singles title when he beat Kofi Kinston for the United States Championship.