The Miz, appearing on a recent episode of the “Unbreakable” podcast with Jay Glazer, touched on a variety of subjects in a detailed conversation. He also revealed that when he signed with WWE on a developmental contract back in the early noughts, he actually took a significant pay-cut compared to what he was making through reality TV at that time.
He began,
“I was making a lot of money, I was making six figures. When I got to developmental, I took a pay cut, because I said ‘I can take a pay cut in this because I believe that I can make more.’ So I invested in myself. I’ve always invested in myself … I paid for acting classes, improv classes, and learning the art of professional wrestling, UPW, and wrestling classes. And then I also was like ‘Oh, where do all the big world trainers go? Gold’s Gym.’”
As to how he got WWE to notice him , Miz added
“I worked out there, got a nutritionist. So I invested all my money I would make into myself. I bought all these t-shirts ahead of time and got them at $3 a t-shirt and sold them for $15 a t-shirt. So I wouldn’t make money off them, but it wasn’t to make money, it was necessary to promote myself and get people talking about me … so WWE would see that. WWE would see that, they gave me a contract, I took a pay cut, went to McDonough, Georgia, went to Louisville, and then from Louisville, I got into WWE and started making the money I thought I could possibly make.”
(h/t Wrestling Inc)
