The Miz talks about how The Real World helped him out

“I was just a young kid from Parma, Ohio and I went to college at Miami University of Ohio. I remember watching The Real World 9, New Orleans, and I remember seeing a commercial come up that goes, ‘Do you want to be in The Real World?A and in my head I go ‘YES!’ ‘Well go try out,’ and I’m like ‘Yes.’ So I tried out for The Real World and I actually made it, and The Real World back then was one of the only reality shows out there. Now every place has some sort of reality show but that was the one, and 60,000 people used to try out for The Real World, and people would line up, and I remember people saying ‘you’re not going to make it, what’s going to stand you out from 60,000 people?’ And I was like, ‘I’m still going to try out and I’m going to make it.’ The Real World made me realize I could do anything that I wanted with my life. I remember going back to my Dad’s house in my bedroom that I grew up in, and looking in a mirror and asking myself what I wanted to do with my life. I’ll never forget looking at an action figure of The Rock that my Real World cast mates got me, and thinking ‘I’m going to be a WWE Superstar.'”

source: Foxnews.com