How Will The Miz's WrestleMania Hosting Style Stack Up Against These Recent Legends?

Today, USA Insider is handing out the hardware!

After it was announced that The Miz will host WrestleMania this year, we immediately wondered how he would fare compared to the hosts who have come before him. Will Miz be a passive host, willing to let the countless WrestleMania moments speak for themselves? Or will he be an active host in the vein of The New Day or The Rock? Naturally, this got our wheels turning, and we’ve found ourselves taking some serious looks at previous WrestleMania hosts and how exactly they managed to perform their duties.

From the most impactful to the most passive, here’s how five recent WrestleMania hosts will be remembered by the WWE Universe!

It would’ve been too easy to give The Rock the superlative of “most electrifying WrestleMania host” — so instead, we’re bestowing him the honor of being the most impactful.

Back in 2011 when The Rock was announced as that year’s WrestleMania host, the WWE Universe was happy — but ultimately its collective expectations were tempered. The concept of WrestleMania needing a host was a foreign concept back then, and fans were generally bummed that The Rock wouldn’t actually be wrestling at the show. Many assumed The Rock would appear in backstage segments, announce the attendance, and call it a night.

The WWE Universe couldn’t have been more wrong.

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Not only did The Rock use his hosting powers to re-start the main event — a WWE Championship match between defending champion The Miz and John Cena — but he actually interfered in the matchup, costing Cena the title and giving The Miz a shocking victory! But The Rock’s momentum stemming from his first hosting gig didn’t end there.

The Rock’s actions set into motion his eventual return to WWE, highlighted by beating then-champ CM Punk for the WWE title and going on to headline back-to-back WrestleManias against John Cena himself. 

If that’s not impactful, we don’t know what is.

If Miz wants to go down in history as the most fan-friendly host of all time, all he needs to do is take a page out of The New Day’s hosting playbook and give the people what they want!

That’s exactly what happened at the 2017 edition of WrestleMania. Just moments before a highly-anticipated RAW Tag Team Titles ladder match, New Day appeared on the stage to announce a last-minute addition to the match. The WWE Universe held its breath with excitement as fans assumed New Day would be inserting themselves into the match — an action that definitely would’ve been fan-friendly.

Instead, we got something even better: The long-awaited return of Matt and Jeff Hardy to WWE! As the Hardy Boyz appeared, the crowd in Orlando would’ve blown the roof off the stadium — if there was a roof to blow off of Camping World Stadium. Of course, Matt and Jeff would go on to win the tag titles that evening en route to kick starting another successful run in WWE.

(We don’t know who was more excited during the announcement: the Hardy Boyz, the WWE Universe, or The New Day themselves, who could barely contain their happiness!)

It should be a telling sign that the most memorable part of Alexa Bliss’ 2019 hosting duties was when she announced on RAW that she would be the WrestleMania host!

Even though the WWE Universe reacted quite positively to the news, we were all ultimately let down by Little Miss Bliss being barely a blip on the WrestleMania radar. We don’t know if plans changed last-minute, but she was barely seen on the show — and you would think a Superstar like Alexa would use the hosting opportunity to make a name for herself in a big way, or perhaps even grab herself her own WrestleMania moment. Sadly, that didn’t happen, and all we’re left with is the memory of a pretty dramatic announcement on Monday Night RAW.

(Come to think of it, her announcement is eerily similar in tone and feel to The Miz’s recent RAW announcement. Let’s hope that’s not a sign of things to come.)

When WWE announced WrestleMania would be taking place over a two-day span in 2020, there was only one logical choice for a host: football superstar Rob Gronkowski. Just ask Gronk himself: He boasted he was the right man for the job because he knew “how to start a party on a Saturday night and end it 30 hours later.”

But Gronk didn’t earn his “most unpredictable” award by simply setting the table for the WWE Universe at the beginning of the show — he made this list because he somehow parlayed his WrestleMania hosting duties into winning the 24/7 Championship! 

Although he was technically retired from the NFL at that time, the WWE Universe really wasn’t expecting Tom Brady’s right-hand man to dive off scaffolding and wipe out about a dozen other wrestlers in the process. Gronk went on to proudly hold the 24/7 title for a few months, until R-Truth managed to wrangle the championship away from one of the most prolific tight ends in NFL history.

Honestly, Gronk had the right idea and used his hosting duties to entertain the WWE Universe in the most Gronk way possible. The fact that he won a title while actively hosting is just the cherry on top of a very memorable WrestleMania weekend.

We hate to say it, but the less said about these two hosting WrestleMania, the better. It’s not that we don’t like Hogan and O’Neil — we love them! Hulk Hogan is arguably the biggest WWE Superstar of all time, and Titus O’Neil gave the WWE Universe one of the most unintentionally funny moments in history a few years ago. But the vibe these two had together while hosting just felt ... off. It felt like your dad and your grandpa hosted WrestleMania — just a random pairing meant to make your relatives happy.

When the best part of your hosting gig is when Bayley interacts with you, you know something's up.

With The Miz at the WrestleMania helm this year, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of host he’ll be! Will he dedicate his time to ensuring the WWE Universe has an unforgettable weekend? Will he actively change the course of WWE history by changing the main event on the fly? Or will he just show up, announce the attendance, and call it a night? 

As we’ve mentioned before, the host has an unchecked amount of power, and some Superstars decide to fully utilize it to the best of their abilities. Knowing Miz, we’re sure he’s got big plans for April 1 and 2 — after all, he’s got to show off not only to the WWE Universe, but to all of Hollywood, too.

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