The Miz just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the night he absolutely lost it on Daniel Bryan — a WWE moment that fans still haven’t stopped talking about.
On August 23, 2026, Miz took to Twitter to look back at his unforgettable Talking Smack confrontation with Bryan from exactly 10 years earlier. Naturally, Miz remembered himself as being much calmer than the footage suggests. Miz then pointed out the obvious: a decade later, the promo is still being talked about.
“10 years ago today I calmly and rationally explained my feelings to Daniel Bryan. At least that’s how I remember it. 😂”
“10 years later, people are still talking about it. Talking Smack. Literally.”
The original segment took place on August 23, 2016, with Bryan serving as SmackDown General Manager after being forced to retire from in-ring competition earlier that year. Miz was the Intercontinental Champion, and things went off the rails once Bryan started ripping apart his wrestling style. Bryan didn’t sugarcoat it.
“There’s no gentle way to say it. To me, you wrestle like a coward.”
Bryan went even further, saying Miz wrestled like somebody afraid to get hit and comparing him to the old “soft WWE style.” That was all Miz needed to hear. Miz immediately snapped back, arguing that his style was exactly why he had been able to show up and wrestle consistently for more than a decade without spending huge stretches on the shelf.
“Let’s talk about cowards for one second. The reason I wrestle the way I wrestle is because I can do it day in and day out, all the time, for ten-plus years. I have never, never in my career ever been injured. I don’t get injured six months to a year. I am here each and every week, but you sit there and call me a coward!”
Then Miz went straight for Bryan’s biggest weakness at the time. Bryan had been forced away from wrestling because of his health and had previously promised fans he wanted to return. Miz threw that right back in his face.
“Let me tell you about a coward. Let me tell you about a guy who tells his WWE fans, people that he loves, that he would be back. He promises them, ‘I promise you, I will be back in one year’s time to claim this title.’ But you didn’t, Daniel, did you?”
Bryan immediately fired back that the decision wasn’t his.
“If they would let me come back, I would come back.”
That only made Miz go harder. If Bryan loved wrestling so much and WWE wouldn’t clear him, Miz challenged him to leave the company and go wrestle somewhere else.
“Oh, you would? You love that WWE ring. You love wrestling. You love being right in that wrestling ring and you love wrestling, right? Well, why don’t you quit? Why don’t you quit and go to the bingo halls with your indie friends, Daniel?”
Renee Young tried to calm things down, but Miz wasn’t interested. He kept going at Bryan until the SmackDown GM finally got out of his chair and walked off the set. Miz wasn’t done.
“No! Don’t you walk away from me, Daniel. Don’t you walk away! I’m the one that loves the fans. I’m the one who loves everyone and everything. You’re the one that gets up and walks away every single time! You’re the coward!”
With Bryan gone, Miz turned his anger toward the camera and made sure everyone watching understood exactly how he felt about being dismissed while holding the Intercontinental Championship.
“I am not a coward. I am your Intercontinental Champion, and there’s a reason I have the title!”
The confrontation became one of the defining promos of Miz’s entire WWE career because it blurred the line perfectly. Bryan’s criticism hit Miz where it hurt, while Miz fired back using Bryan’s forced retirement and desire to wrestle again as ammunition. Bryan eventually returned to the ring in 2018, and the years of tension between the two finally turned into an actual WWE rivalry.
Now, 10 years after Miz turned Talking Smack into his own personal war zone, he’s having a laugh about how “calmly and rationally” he handled the whole thing. The footage tells a very different story, and that’s exactly why people are still talking about it.
Where does The Miz’s Talking Smack explosion on Daniel Bryan rank among the greatest WWE promos of all time? Let us know what you think in the comments.
