Maryse Recalls Miz's Reaction To Her WWE Diva Search Audition

Ahead of her in-ring return at this Saturday's Royal Rumble event, Maryse sat down for a conversation with Sportsnet. Among the topics discussed, she looked back at the last time she was in the ring – WrestleMania 33 – and the challenge of returning 4 years later.

"I am back actually with the live crowds. As you know, I had two babies. I was back in the ring at WrestleMania 33 in our match against, you know, John Cena and Nikki Bella. It was really my last match. Then, I had Monroe and I had Madison. It's crazy, I never really thought that I would really be back, you know like I am right now. Because I would get the question all the time, 'Do you think you'll ever be back?' And I kept saying, 'No, you know, you never really know with WWE. That's the beautiful thing about what we do, you never really know what to expect'.

"But, I am back. I am back actually in front of live crowds in the stadium, in the dome in St. Louis. It's going to be insane because, like you said, we've all been living through this whole pandemic these past two years. And what do we do? We feed off the crowd, we feed off people and their energy and it's going to be absolutely insane. We're super excited, we can't wait."

Maryse first started her WWE career as a contestant on the 2006 WWE Divas Search, which was ultimately won by Layla that year. She would make such an impression on WWE and her future husband, The Miz, that she still became a part of the company despite the loss.

"When I got to my WWE audition in Los Angeles for the Diva Search, guess who was one of the judges? The Miz. I remember getting to my audition, everyone from WWE, it was a huge production, they were all standing there. And then they said, 'Hi, what's your name?' I said, 'Hi, my name is Maryse'. At the time, Ouellet. I started to speak and The Miz stopped me and said, 'No, we don't want to have a beauty answer, a beauty pageant answer, we want to have a real answer'.

"Then he caught me off guard because I learned just on the plane, and I had nothing else to say in English. So he said, and they were all kind of looking at each other, he said, 'How about you cut a promo in French?' And I got down in his face and to this day he said, 'I don't know if I was scared or turned on'. And then we got married."

If you use any quotes from this interview, please credit Sportsnet with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.