The Miz On Why It's Hard To Assess Big E's Singles Push, Why He's Still Skeptical About Otis

Whether as a singles wrestler or part of a tag team, The Miz has been one of the best heels in WWE over the past dozen years. He's stepped into the ring with just about every performer over that span and has recently locked up with Big E in both singles contests and in tag matches.

Big E is in the early stages of his first singles push with fellow New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods injured. It comes as a weird time with no fans to gauge the support of him, but Miz discussed why Big E's push is warranted in an interview with Bleacher Report.

"Honestly, I'm as interested as every fan out there because?especially in this time, in this era?right now we don't have an audience. We're used to 20,000 people in the WWE Universe, and you can gauge a person by the audience's reaction to them," said Miz. "We don't get that reaction anymore. Our reactions are through Twitter, through hearsay here and there, so you kind of can't get a gauge. But, honestly, I think Big E's singles run has been a long time coming, and I think people want to see him succeed.

"How he will do, if it's up to me I think he's going to do very, very well. Obviously, he beat me and he beat John Morrison in singles competition, but he has a good head on his shoulders, he knows this product, he loves this product, and New Day is a hot team. I'd love to see what happened with Kofi [winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania] happen the same with Big E. Obviously it's gotta be different because I feel like Kofi's was very fan-driven, very big in the audience reaction of it. You can't hear the audience reaction for Big E, but if there's someone who can figure that out, definitely Big E can."

Another Superstar who Miz has worked extensively with recently is Otis in tag matches between Heavy Machinery vs. he and John Morrison. Like Miz once did, Otis holds the Money in the Bank briefcase and he talked about what that opportunity meant for his career.

"As far as Otis is concerned, whenever you have the Money in the Bank briefcase, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. This is something that changes your career and I speak from experience. I had the Money in the Bank contract and I was the one everyone said was going to lose," stated Miz. "I was gonna be the first person to lose the Money in the Bank contract, and I wasn't, I didn't. I cashed in, I won the WWE Championship, and it changed my career. It changed the trajectory. I've been able to have bragging rights ever since I've done that. It's been 10 years since I've won the Money in the Bank contract and I'm still talking about it to this day. That's the kind of impact that this can have."

While Miz is highly optimistic of Big E cashing in the opportunity he has in front of him, he admits that the jury is still out in regards to Otis' future.

"Now Otis, nothing against him, but he's very new. He's very new to SmackDown, he's been here for what, one to two years? You need to go through the battles and the wars to become a WWE or Universal Champion," said Miz. "He's got a big, big workload to fill. There's a lot of work that's involved, a lot of things that... the fans don't understand, that only a Superstar that is in that moment understands. So, there's a lot of pressure that's involved.

"Can he do it? Absolutely. Do I hope he does it? Yes. But will he do it? I don't know."