The Miz opens up about kicked out of the locker room at the start of his WWE career
While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, WWE star The Miz reflected on being kicked out of the locker room when he first started his career in WWE…
I’m a grown man, a WWE superstar, and I’m changing in a broom closet. I’m going to the bathroom with fans around, and they’re going, ‘Hey, I think I saw The Miz just go in the stall,’ and meanwhile my music is about to play in five minutes.
But man, there were so many times where I was just like, ‘Why are you doing this? What are we doing?’ If they’re kicking you out of the locker room, they’re not going to teach you inside the ring. But I just kept going because I knew I could do this.
[Did you have any idea of when you might be invited back into the locker room?] No. [A week? Two? A month?] I had no idea. The person who told me, ‘Hey, you’re kicked out of the locker room,’ said, ‘You’re not coming in until I say so.’
[Was that The Undertaker?] No. That person went away. And when that person went away, I thought, ‘Oh boy, how am I going to get back in the locker room? I’m never going to.’ I had to wait another three months before I finally asked Taker, ‘Man, I’ve been out of the locker room for a long time.’ He goes, ‘Oh, you have?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been out for like six months.’
You know, I ate a piece of chicken in the locker room, and it got all over—and I still believe it did not. But other people will tell you differently, and they can have their opinions. I was under a microscope: ‘Let’s get this guy.’ And a lot of times in a locker room, someone could see, ‘Oh, he had a piece of chicken over my thing. Oh man, what are you doing? Why are you doing this?’
Then another guy walks in: ‘Oh, you ate chicken over his bag?’ Another guy walks in: ‘He did what?’ Then someone outside the locker room hears: ‘He threw chicken all over.’ By the time the telephone game played, it sounded like I was smearing chicken all over the place. That’s what it felt like.
So yeah, I went to Taker and said, ‘I ate chicken over a bag.’ How silly is that sentence? Really. I’m glad you’re laughing at my torment—six months of being kicked out of a locker room. But you have to realize how ridiculous that must have been. It was so ridiculous. I’m a grown man.
People are always like, ‘Why didn’t you fight him? Why didn’t you stick up for yourself?’ Because back then, if I had done that, I probably would have been fired.”