In an interview with The Mirror, The Miz spoke about his time as a Real World cast member and how it affects the WWE fans’ perception of him. Here are highlights:

On his time on the Real World: “I will never get the respect I deserve, because I was on a reality show. Whenever you’re on a reality show, you’re the scum of the earth. You have no talent, you’re a nothing and you deserve nothing. That’s the way I’ve been brought up and how I feel people look at reality [television]. Do I look at it that way? Absolutely not; I thank my lucky stars I was on a show like The Real World on MTV and I thank them for putting me on that show because it gave me the ability to say ‘I can do anything I want with my life.'”

On his show Miz and Mrs: “So I have always had that chip on my shoulder and always will. Do I think I’ll ever get the respect I deserve? No. But especially now I’m on my own reality show, and I really don’t like to call it a reality show, I like to call it a docu-series because it documents when it’s like to be first-time parents in the entertainment industry. I like to think it’s a different type of show, but now that I have that, it puts even more ammo against me. But, maybe now, people will look at me and say ‘this guy can lead a show.'”

On getting more respect from his fans and peers: “If people start switching and start respecting me, I’ll find a new drive and a new fire, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Are my peers starting to respect me? I think they’re starting to see my value and that they see I work hard. How many other people are doing this media interview for the UK? Probably not many. And I’ve problem spoken to you all. It’s just the thing that I am always doing media, always working and always going non stop, because I believe that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard enough.”