This is one of the last things I expected to be writing about this week.

I’ve always been aware of the one-sided heat between The Miz & CM Punk since I watched the Punk DVD. Miz appeared on it and was happy to put Punk over as a solid pro wrestler, but Punk absolutely buried Miz while complaining about his lack of push at the time that Miz was actually being pushed as a top guy. It was made clear to anybody that watched that particular feature that CM Punk did not care for The Miz at all.

Then Miz appeared on WWE Backstage this week and used one of Punk’s lines upon his return to get himself over. It was clever. Miz is an intelligent man. He knew it would strike a nerve. And boy did it.

For those that missed that CM Punk tweet before it was deleted pic.twitter.com/3pM4HV52MR

— Sliced Wrestling (@SlicedWrestling) January 8, 2020

Miz knows that CM Punk hates him. Most of us know who hates us, and we’re pretty happy to stick it to them when we get a chance because they will do something stupid. Like Punk did, proving that he should do what he advised Seth Rollins to do…stay off social media.

For one thing, Miz wasn’t even on the most recent Saudi show. I think he got the same advice that John Cena did, or he talked to his good friend Daniel Bryan. Either way, insulting Miz for taking that Saudi blood money at one point is kinda silly when most people in the company that Fox is paying you to talk about have. Punk needs to talk to his good friend Cesaro, who put over Saudi Arabia’s favorite wrestler on the most recent show.

He probably won’t. Because he hates The Miz. Why? Oh, I’ve got some reasons why. Not 13, but 5…

5. Miz has more hair

CM Punk used to be a man with long hair that was happy to show it off. He isn’t now. Miz has always had that short hair life, and he’s always pulled it off pretty well. As a man that’s follicly challenged, I can see where Punk is coming from. Us bald people are always jealous of people with hair.

4. Punk doesn’t know what a Miz is

It’s a fair question. Most people in the history of wrestling that had “The” in front of their name had an actual word after it. We all know about The Rock, whether it was Dwayne Johnson or Don Muraco. The Nature Boy made sense, as did The Hitman, or The Snake.

What the hell is a Miz?

I’m still not really sure after all these years. Many people hate what they don’t know, and I can see Punk hating a Miz because he doesn’t know what a Miz is. I mean, he claims to be a progressive, but what kind of progressive tweets what he tweeted? Come on now.

3. The Real World killed MTV

There are still people out there that refuse to give The Miz any credit for his WWE accomplishments for one simple reason: He started out as a reality TV show star. I will grant you the notion that we shouldn’t be looking toward reality TV shows to find future public officials, but at this point I find it really hard to be negative about Miz just because he was on The Real World back in the day. I think there’s a little more to it than that in Punk’s eyes.

Punk, like most of us, is a fan of music. There’s nothing we loved more as kids than rushing home, turning on the MTV and rocking out to some fantastic music videos. Whether it was getting introduced to new bands whose music we became familiar with, or watching videos featuring attractive singers that got us to become more familiar with certain parts of ourselves, music videos served as a tremendous form of entertainment for kids of my generation & prior.

That is, until The Real World debuted. Once Real World got over with a large audience, MTV realized that they didn’t need to play music videos to draw a rating. In fact, they could program whole blocks for days at a time with nothing but Real World episodes that were pretty cheap to make. Plus, they wouldn’t have to deal with annoying musicians nearly as much. This inspired MTV to create even more low-cost reality TV franchises that spawned stars that they could use on other shows. Now, the only time you see music videos on MTV is during the Video Music Awards.

Miz was one of the first reality TV stars created by MTV. Hence, in the eyes of CM Punk and people like him, Miz killed MTV.

2. MJ vs. LeBron

Speaking of how cable TV networks have evolved, there was a time where ESPN spent most of the day showing sports. It took a shockingly long time for ESPN to figure out that sports fans would gladly tune in to watch other people who theoretically were experts on sports, debate each other in a studio. There is an endless amount of topics regarding sports that ESPN can never run into the ground, because people will never stop talking about them.

One of them: who is the Greatest of All Time? We do it for every sport, but no sport’s fans are as focused in on that debate as basketball. To many, the idea that anybody other than Michael Jordan could be considered the GOAT is absolute poppycock, and will always be absolute poppycock no matter who comes along.

Full disclosure: I am one of those people.

However, an argument can be made for LeBron James. Sure, he’s lost some Finals, and he’s rubbed some people the wrong way with his Decisions, but the dude is an absolute beast and it’s tough to say when that’s going to stop. Every NBA off-season features the ongoing debate on whether or not LeBron has passed Michael & become the GOAT.

Miz is an unabashed Cleveland homer, so there’s no doubt in my mind he’s on the LeBron train. We all know Punk’s a Chicago guy, and even if basketball isn’t a focus of his, he’s gotta be all about Jordan. People on both sides of this debate are as rabid as Democrats & Republicans, so you know if that conversation was had with these two it wouldn’t end well. I suspect it has, as there’s a lot of downtime in a WWE locker room.

1. Maryse

We all know that CM Punk has a certain reputation concerning his relations with ladies of the wrestling business. It’s no secret that he has a notch on his bedpost for nearly every female that was on a show with him. The CM stands for Chick Magnet, y’all. I’m not hating, and I’m not judging anybody involved in all of that. There’s no shaming going on here. Y’all know most of the names, and if not you can ask other people for them.

Everybody knows I’m a fan of the ladies of pro wrestling. I can’t hide that fact at this point. If you read me back in the day, you know that I was a huge fan of Maryse. Who wouldn’t be? If we’re being perfectly honest, she’s one of the most physically attractive women to enter the squared circle. I’m sure some of you will disagree, and that’s okay because everybody has the right to be wrong.

One name I have never seen attached to CM Punk is that of Maryse. You don’t think that sticks in his craw a little bit? The fact that one of the most attractive women in the history of wrestling chose The Miz over CM Punk has to just completely disgust the Punker. I can’t even imagine how distraught & just downright disgusted Punk had to be. The man was a king to all the ladies of the wrestling business, but the prettiest one had to go for Miz? That had to suck.

It probably still sucks. Punk has never seemed like somebody that lets grudges die easy. He might forgive some things, but something like getting rejected by Maryse? Yeah, that’s probably a tough cross to bear.