When The Miz began his WWE career, not much was likely expected of him. As a runner-up on the WWE's reality show Tough Enough, Mike Mizanin was a loudmouth whose claim to fame was being a cast member of the The Real World: Back to New York. Still, The Miz believed he could be a successful WWE Superstar.

It took some work.  He wasn't a talent who came from a wrestling background, so The Miz wasn't accepted in the locker room as one of the boys. He was ostracized, kicked out and told to dress separately from the rest of the roster in an attempt to break him. Only, he didn't break.

The Miz pushed forward until he teamed with John Morrison and won the tag team championships in WWE's version of ECW. Eventually, he went on to win the WWE Championship in 2010 and wrestled in the main event of 2011's WrestleMania XXVII. He was crowned that year's winner of the PWI Top 500 wrestlers.

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He after dropping the WWE title, he wasn't ever brought back to the main event, but he has won the Intercontinental Title seven times since 2011, bringing prestige back to a belt that was often considered forgotten. Today, The Miz is considered one of the premier promo guys in the wrestling business, and he's earned the respect of every WWE Superstar, including guys like John Cena who publicly gave The Miz props on Raw despite "The A-Lister" being a consistent heel character.

via wwe.com

Just recently, The Miz set a milestone. With his seven title reigns as Intercontinental Champion, he has now officially passed The Honkytonk Man as the third-longest reigning champion in WWE history. While The Honkytonk Man still holds the record for the single-longest reign as champion, The Miz has surpassed the total number of days being the champion as he's now held the belt for more than 454 days.

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It appears as though the plan might be to give The Miz a chance to break the record. He needs a mere 97 more days to take over second place on the list and he would need less than six more months to be considered the WWE Superstar to have held the title the longest.

There is potentially no current wrestler in the WWE who came from less and has captured more than The Miz. Never expected to be the star that he is, he's become a quiet go-to guy for the WWE in many ways. From movies to promos and working with rookies and celebrities, The Miz has a way to make anyone look good, including himself.

He clearly knows what he's doing. If he didn't, his WWE career would have ended a long time ago and when everyone first counted him out.