The Miz Praises OVW Alumni Success On Cody Rhodes’ Podcast

The Miz used a recent appearance on Cody Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast to reflect on the enduring legacy of Ohio Valley Wrestling, the promotion where he first began learning the trade before reaching WWE’s main roster. Miz said it’s “awesome” to see so many performers who came through OVW still active in the business today, many of them occupying spots at the very top of the industry.

The comments came during a wider conversation in which Rhodes, serving as host, pushed back on critics who have long argued that Miz isn’t a genuinely skilled in-ring performer. Rhodes used his platform to defend Miz’s standing in the business, a notable gesture given that the two have crossed paths — and occasionally crossed swords creatively — throughout their overlapping careers in WWE.

OVW’s role in shaping the last two decades of mainstream pro wrestling is hard to overstate. Long before it became a stand-alone independent promotion, OVW operated as one of WWE’s primary developmental territories, churning out names like John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista and Brock Lesnar. The Miz was very much a product of that same pipeline, arriving with a reality-TV background rather than a traditional wrestling pedigree and using his OVW seasoning to transform into one of the most durable and decorated performers of his generation.

That durability is really the crux of what makes Miz’s comments resonate. Nearly two decades removed from his OVW days, he remains a fixture on WWE television, still capable of headlining segments, drawing heat as a heel, and working program after program even as the roster around him has turned over multiple times. For someone whose in-ring credibility was questioned early and often, simply lasting — let alone thriving — at this level is its own rebuttal to the doubters, which appears to be exactly the point Rhodes was making in Miz’s defense.

It’s also a reminder of how much cross-generational respect exists beneath the surface of WWE’s current product. Rhodes, now one of the promotion’s biggest stars as “The American Nightmare,” taking time on his own podcast to champion Miz’s legacy speaks to the kind of institutional memory that keeps wrestling’s history alive even as the business modernizes. Miz, for his part, seems just as invested in celebrating the pipeline that built him, framing OVW’s continued influence as something worth being proud of rather than a footnote from a bygone developmental era.

Expect Miz to keep leaning into that veteran-statesman role in the months ahead, both in WWE storylines and in media appearances like this one, as he continues bridging the gap between wrestling’s developmental past and its present.