5 Seasons: Battle of the Seasons (Win), The Gauntlet (Final), The Inferno (Final), Battle of the Sexes 2, Inferno II (Win)

29 Challenge Wins

2–0 Elimination Record

Daily Challenges: 8/10

Eliminations: 9/10

Finals: 9/10

Politics: 9/10

Everyone knows The Miz now for being a famous WWE wrestler, and he was clearly the face of The Challenge in its early years, but I don’t know if he gets proper credit as a player.

The Miz was one of the best combinations of competition and character the game has ever seen. His dynamic personality made him a leader of every team he was on, and he had the athletic chops to back up his bark.

Mike first appeared on Battle of the Seasons with his Real World castmate Coral, and the duo stayed in the inner circle the entire season. Mike and Coral finished second in the final Real World rankings (behind Sean and Elka) and helped win the finals over Road Rules.

After his first victory, Mike became a bit snake-bitten (no pun intended, Coral). He defeated Abram in the first real heavyweight elimination of all-time on The Gauntlet, but Coral’s snake bite in the finals prevented the Real World team from winning. Mike went into the Gauntlet after not performing up to his own standards, volunteering to go in and prove himself.

The Miz again reached the finals on The Inferno and was the second-best guy on the Real World team behind CT, picking up an elimination win over Jeremy along the way. But again, the Real World team fell short to Road Rules in the final.

An early disqualification on Battle of the Sexes II caused Mike to go home early, as his alliance with Mark, Eric, Dan and Theo couldn’t save him because he had the lowest amount of points for the guys.

But he was able to ride off into the sunset after Inferno II, as his last season was arguably his best. Despite being thrown in by the Bad Asses three times, Mike won two lifesavers and was saved by Landon once to reach the finals. The Good Guys beat the bickering Bad Asses in the final, allowing the Miz to retire with his second victory.

The Miz didn’t play a subtle political game — he was too brash of a personality for that — but he was always friends with the top dogs and made it to the end all but one time.

Mike is another guy who’s really tough to rank. He was clearly one of the best competitors of his era, but politically he’s tough to judge because he only really played in one season where politics was a big factor (The Gauntlet).

Had he continued doing the show, there’s not much doubt in my mind that he would have remained one of the top alpha males, both politically and competitively, and be one of the top players of all time.

Rankings

25. Nelson Thomas

24. Paulie Calafiore

23. Leroy Garrett

22. Frank Sweeney

21. Jamie Murray

20. Tyler Duckworth

19. Hunter Barfield

18. Timmy Beggy

17. Dan Setzler

16. Zach Nichols

15. Abram Boise

14. Mike Mizanin

13. Theo Vonkurnatowski

12. Brad Fiorenza

11. Alton Williams

10. Wes Bergmann

9. Darrell Taylor

8. Derrick Kosinski

7. Kenny Santucci

6. Mark Long

5. Jordan Wiseley

4. Evan Starkman

3. Landon Lueck

2. CT Tamburello

1. Johnny Devenanzio