How The Miz Got Kicked out of the WWE Locker Room for Accidentally Spilling Chicken Crumbs on Chris Benoit's Bags
The career that The Miz has had is remarkable, especially when you think about the start of his career in WWE and all the hazing and bullying he experienced. The Miz already had a name for himself when debuting in WWE from his time on the MTV reality show, 'The Real World.' Veterans of the locker room despised him strongly for where he came from.
Locker rooms shared backstage are usually crammed with not a lot of space. Early in his career, The Miz had made the mistake of eating fried chicken, and in the process, got some crumbs on Chris Benoit's bag. The Miz thought this was a light-hearted mistake that no one minded until he found himself being yelled at like he had never been before. The Miz was ordered to Wrestlers' Court where he was told he would be banned from using the live event locker rooms, but could still use the TV locker rooms. Then, later on, he was told that he was banned from all locker rooms. This punishment lasted six months.
Talking to Chris Jericho on the Talk is Jericho podcast, The Miz explained the situation he found himself in:
"Yeah, I did get kicked out of the locker room. It was a stupid thing by me. So I'm in the locker room, there's nowhere to really go, you know, there's nowhere to put your stuff down. You would think as a WWE superstar and in the biggest traveling company that we would have amazing, immaculate locker rooms... that couldn't be further from the truth. All of the locker rooms are like cubby holes, so we all have to squeeze in there and it was one of those small locker rooms. I sat down and started eating some chicken. As I'm eating the chicken, someone [Benoit] goes, 'Hey, you're spilling chicken all over my bag!'
Now in my mind, I wasn't spilling anything because I still was in that mode of I have to respect everyone, make sure you don't get anything on anything. And then it kind of escalated to, 'It got all over everyone's bags!' I thought everyone was joking, I thought it was a joke. So I walked out, I start watching my match back because that's what you do when you're brand new, you watch your match back, you try to figure out what you did wrong and how good you are, when all of a sudden I heard [Benoit's aggressive screaming] and I got literally yelled at worse than I've ever been yelled at in my entire life. I couldn't believe it. I was like, 'Oh my god!' I mean, veins were popping out of his neck, he was so angry, I was like, 'Oh man, I am sorry, I didn't mean it.' I was stuttering, I had no idea what to do. I just got up in the WWE. I tried to be as respectful as possible, and you know me, I'm a loudmouth and I like to talk, but when I first came up, I wasn't a talker, but everyone assumed that I was the character that I was playing on the show [The Real World] and it was one of those bad situations and I got kicked out of the locker room as a result.
The next day, he [Benoit] goes, 'Hey Miz, you're not going to be kicked out of the locker room, but you just know what you did was terrible!' I was like, 'Okay. Yes, sir.'
The next day comes by and he was like, 'You know what, you're kicked out of the locker room. Get your stuff out of the locker room, but you're only kicked out on live event days, not on TV days.' So I was like, 'Okay, great.'
So the next day I come to TV, I put my stuff in the locker room. [Benoit said] 'Miz, let me talk to you. People have been talking, rumblings and that, and that everyone thinks you should be kicked out of the locker room for TV as well as live events.'
So I was kicked out of the locker room for like six months and it was terrible. It was awful. I would find ways, like you know how Matt Striker got kicked out of the locker room and he would do it right in front of people? He would change right in front of people... Me, I said, 'Screw that!' No one's gonna know that I'm kicked out of the locker room, I'm gonna hide and find out my own little locker room, my own little personal locker room. The problem is finding a bathroom backstage that isn't in a locker room is very, very difficult. I remember one time I had to go out into the audience in order to go to the bathroom and I'm using the restroom and there's a little kid going, 'I think The Miz is in there!' I'm like this is the lowest of the lows of my career right now."
Humble beginnings for The Miz. Thankfully, a lot has changed since then.
Matt Striker had a very similar backstage experience and he paints a completely different picture of Benoit.
From the same article:
"Everyone was down at the bar and [Chris Benoit] was very close to me, reading me the riot act in front of everyone, I mean, ****ing screaming at me and I'm just standing there going, 'Holy ****.' There was a gift shop that stayed open and Chris went to the gift shop and he said, 'Come with me.'
It was just me and him. I'm thinking, '****, Chris Benoit - he's gonna eat my face!' But then all of a sudden he closed the door and he said, 'Listen, I've got to make an example out of you. Since I think it's great that you left teaching to come here, it shows passion for this business but I need to make an example out of you for all of them, so when we're in front of everybody I'm gonna lay into you, but I promise you, I'm going to help you.'
I thought, 'Okay, tough love. I get it.'
What most people saw was Chris being hard on me. What they didn't see was that he would call and text me all the time asking if I wanted to work out or that he would watch my matches but would only pull me aside when it was just him and I because I had to be the example.
And I'll also never forget that Chris said to me, 'Listen, I need to set an example, you have to earn your way into the locker room, that's what we're really trying to do here, okay? So for right now, you can't change in the locker room.'"
Bend_The_Knee
honestly believes race doesn't matter in this world.
green rhino123
someone better add
