WWE veteran thought his career was "doomed" after John Cena beat him
The Miz has admitted he feared for his WWE future following his defeat against John Cena at The Bash pay-per-view in 2009.
A recent WWE 24 documentary told the story of The Miz’s upbringing and journey to WWE stardom. The two-time WWE Champion recalled in the episode how he expected his first high-profile match with Cena to go better.
Speaking on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast, The Miz elaborated on his one-sided match against Cena:
“For eight weeks, I remember I was challenging him for a match, and I’d be like, ‘Alright, Cena, come on, I challenge you right now,’ and he wouldn’t come out,” The Miz said. “So I’d go one to nothing, two to nothing, three to nothing. It was like eight to nothing, and then we went on to this pay-per-view, right? Literally, John Cena mopped the floor with me, swept me. I don’t even think I got any offense in. I walked backstage and, I’ll never forget, I was like, ‘I’m doomed, I just got…’ I don’t know, I don’t wanna say jobbed out, but yeah. Literally, I got taken out real quick.”
John Cena’s convincing win over The Miz took place in June 2009. Within two years, The Miz worked his way up to the main event of WrestleMania XXVII, where he defeated Cena to retain the WWE Championship.
How The Miz reacted to his loss against John Cena
Wrestling legend Arn Anderson worked as a WWE producer from 2001 to 2019. Following The Bash, he told The Miz he “hadn’t been through the battles” to be viewed as a worthy opponent for John Cena.
Although The Miz took exception to the comment at the time, he now understands what Anderson meant:
“In my mind, I was like, ‘Well, yeah, I’ve been through this and this,’ and then now I understand,” he said. “I didn’t go through those stories, those big storyline arcs that really push you to that main-event caliber, understanding how to get an audience into you.”
The Miz added that John Cena and Randy Orton both taught him a lot when he worked with them on WWE live events. He also said he praised Orton while filming his WWE documentary, but those comments did not make the final cut.
Please credit Out of Character and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.