How was The Miz able to take down Roman Reigns? That's a question a lot of WWE fans are probably asking themselves after last night's WWE Raw. Coming out of Sunday's No Mercy pay-per-view, Reigns was riding high, having vanquished John Cena clean in a match that was billed as being WrestleMania main event quality. After beating Cena, one assumes that Reigns felt like he had truly become "the guy" in WWE. The Miz, however, had different ideas.
Raw kicked off with a contentious Miz TV interview segment with Reigns as the guest, who seemed like he would rather have been anywhere else. As Reigns made clear, he doesn't respect The Miz, and sees him as nothing more than a coward and a cheater who hides behind his Miztourage lackeys. Miz shot back by reminding Reigns that he initially dominated the WWE as part of popular three-member faction The Shield, alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. This didn't seem to phase Reigns much, unsurprisingly.
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Eventually, Reigns got sick of listening to Miz's tirade, and challenged the Intercontinental Champion to a fight. In usual Miz fashion, the self-proclaimed A-lister backed off, coming up with multiple excuses why he wasn't fit to compete at the moment. Raw GM Kurt Angle disagreed, booking Reigns and Miz in a singles match later in the show. Miz was not pleased, but hey, who is he to argue with an Olympic gold medalist?
Despite Miz's protests, the former WWE Champion demonstrated why he was such a big name in the company, engaging in a fairly even match with the often dominant Reigns, albeit with the usual help from his associates Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. Interference aside, Reigns still managed to pull out the win, spearing Miz into next week and getting the three-count. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the end of Reigns' night.
Following the end of the match, Miz, Axel, and Dallas ganged up on "The Big Dog", laying quite the beatdown on him. Reigns seemed like he was regaining the upper hand a few times, but once the Miz's goons acquired steel chairs, things went south fast. Reigns was destroyed with chair shots from all three men, then Miz added a cherry on top of the beating via a Skull-Crushing Finale onto a chair. Reigns and Miz are now set to face off again next week, with Miz's title now on the line. One assumes the Miztourage will just get involved a second time. In that case, Reigns might need to think about making a long overdue phone call to his former teammates.