AJ's words stick with Mike, haunt him. He had known that going to her was a mistake almost as soon as he'd started walking, but no man had ever proven wise when it came to the girl, her hold on him beginning way back last summer with a simple stare and building steadily since then. This leaves him in a funk the rest of Monday, all of Tuesday and well into Wednesday. So when it's time to sit at the commentary desk at Main Event with Josh and Ricardo, he's tired of being stuck in his own head, and beyond impatient, snapping at every little thing. Fumbling over the simplest wrestling term, his jaw clenches as Ricardo supplies it for him to Josh's unending amusement, urging the ring announcer to speak up more, get involved. Thrown off further by the sudden reversal in their positions compared to the week prior, Mike takes it out on the younger man. Taunts him when he slips into Spanish, and even prods at Josh for asking Ricardo questions when a former WWE champion is sitting next to him.
It's not until the show is over and Ricardo barely looks at either of them, mumbling a quick farewell before making his way up the ramp and backstage, that it registers with Miz. He'd begun this commentary thing to bolster Ricardo's confidence just to become one of the many who'd worked against him. He feels once more like the man who'd bullied him a couple of years ago first with the food, then as a distraction against R-Truth, and it disgusts him. "What's with him?" Josh asks from his side, watching Ricardo's retreating form with a frown of his own.
"I think I know," Mike mutters, clapping him on the arm briskly before going after the ring announcer, needing to try to make this right. Except that, when he makes it past the gorilla position, only Alex is waiting there, a confused look on his tanned face. "Hey, where did Ricardo go?" he asks, though he thinks he already knows.
Alex swallows and shakes his head. "Del Rio was waiting for him and led him out of the building as soon as he came back here, didn't even let him go change." He stares at his former pro for a long moment before sighing. "Mike-"
He holds a hand up. "I know, I know. I went really too far out there. I don't- I don't know, I just want to make it right. Come on, Alex." He claps a hand between the man's shoulderblades and leads him out to the car. "I think I know where they went."
He drives around, his former protege waiting patiently as they keep an eye out for a nearby sushi place that Ricardo had mentioned he'd convinced Del Rio to try out with him after the show. It's pretty obvious when they find it, Del Rio's priceless car blatant along all of the ordinary vehicles, and Mike breathes out in relief as he goes to park close to it, turning to look at the building to psych himself up for the crow he's going to have to eat- with Del Rio present, it'll be doubly mortifying, but considering how cold he'd been towards the ring announcer, he knows he deserves all of the discomfort that's to come. "Come on, kid," he tells Alex with a sigh, getting out of the car and smiling a little at the reassurance of his friend following him in.
The place is quiet, a little after 8 PM not a rush time for many restaurants, soft instrumental music underscoring the few conversations that are being held there, and it doesn't take long for Mike to find the two men sitting at a table in the far corner, away from prying eyes. Even from this distance, Miz can see the glum slump to Ricardo's shoulders, his back to the door, and he takes a deep breath, heading that way as Alex follows him. Del Rio notices them when they're still tables away and he shifts, moving to stand, when Ricardo looks around to see what has his employer's ire, spotting Mike as well. "Oh," he mumbles, turning to face the table once more. "What do you want, Mike?" he asks dully, fingers tense against his utensils like he expects a continuation of the slights from the commentary table.
Alberto looks like he's close to grabbing Miz and forcefully kicking him out of the establishment himself, when Ricardo holds a hand out to him, trying to quell his temper, not wanting him to make a scene that would anger WWE at two of their top superstars brawling in public, risk another suspension or worse. He freezes anyway when the first words out of Mike's mouth are, "I'm sorry, Ricardo." All eyes on him, Alberto and Ricardo's surprised, Alex's steadfast and patient, he swallows. "I... I'm an idiot, ok? I speak before I think, a lot of times, and I know that doesn't make what happened out there right, far from it. But I didn't mean to insult you, or hurt your feelings. I can't promise that I won't ever say stupid, thoughtless things again, but all I can really say is, I'll try to be better about it."
Ricardo looks uncertainly at his employer before facing Mike once more, taking a breath. "Alright," he says quietly, "I believe you. I remember what you said last week, and I know you didn't mean to..." He sighs, still a little glum. "If it happens again, I- I'll try to keep this, right now, in mind."
Alberto looks far from pleased at Ricardo's forgiving him so easily and Mike thinks he's still thisclose to attacking him, which Mike doesn't blame him: If someone had talked so rudely to Alex or John, he'd have some massive problems with that person too... "Ok, well. Again, Ricardo, I'm so sorry. We'll leave you two to your meal." He turns, snagging Alex's sleeve, about to retreat, when-
"Wait, Mike- a moment," Ricardo breathes, standing up. "If- if you'd like, you both could... stay..." He loses nerve halfway through it, glancing towards Alberto, but the Mexican aristocrat says nothing, sitting back down with his arms crossed over his shoulders as he stares broodingly at the Most Must See Superstar.
Mike hesitates, wanting to sit down, talk more with the younger man, but also not push him, make things worse between them. "I don't know..."
Ricardo blinks a couple of times, sighing. "Please?"
One more glance towards Del Rio and Miz sighs. "What do you think, Alex? Wanna hang around for a little bit?"
"Sure, I guess." It's awkward, Alberto merely staring at them as Mike and Alex order, then talk quietly amongst themselves and with Ricardo about everything but what had happened on Main Event, all of them wanting to forget it, but no bloodshed or yelling happens and Mike thinks it's progress.
Alex leaves before the week's Smackdown to check out NXT again, Mike glad he's finding somewhat regular competition somewhere, so he's hanging out alone at the arena, preparing for the edition of MizTV that will start off the show. To his relief, AJ nor Big E are around, keeping a low profile apparently while they wait for Dolph Ziggler to return. He'd had some time to think after Wednesday and, realizing that he was only taking himself further down a bad road with AJ, decides to ignore her from then on. Easier said than done, he knows, but what he'd done to Ricardo on commentary as a result can't happen again, the girl causing him to be off-balanced and just bitter and angry, even to his friends.
But it doesn't keep him from wanting to cause controversy on his own show, get people talking, so once he has Orton, Bryan and Kane in the ring, he does all he can to pick at them, expose their issues. Kane being the voice of reason, just to ultimately leave, is the last thing he expects, but it happens, Daniel and Orton left to argue with each other. Even weirder than that is when Teddy Long makes a tag team match with Orton and Daniel vs The Shield for later in the evening, Mike left to wonder along with many others how that would go, when Daniel can barely get along with himself, much less anyone else, and Orton is, well... Orton.
He's scheduled for commentary later in the night, since Barrett had taken himself out of the equation to go to Japan, leaving Mike only with Fandango to focus on, so he wanders the building quietly, watching bits and pieces of the show as he goes. When Del Rio and Ricardo make their way to the ring for the Mexican aristocrat's match against, of all people, Heath Slater, he sits on a trunk in position of a nearby monitor to watch, smiling vaguely as he remembers that it'd been a MizTV with 3MB last December that had led to Del Rio defending Ricardo and a six man match that night and the next, beginning Miz's own friendship with the ring announcer. He sighs, shaking his head as he stares at his hands, still feeling badly for what he'd said on Wednesday.
Of course, 3MB takes advantage of the number game, Heath cornering Ricardo as Drew and Jinder attack his employer, and Mike leaps to his feet, considering going out to even things out some when Alberto fights them off, locking the armbar on Heath as Ricardo slips out of the ring, watching from the outside while Slater taps desperately, rolling to safety as soon as Alberto frees him. But Drew and Jinder return, cornering the older Mexican and Mike heads once more for the gorilla position when Ricardo rushes in and leaps onto Drew, distracting him as Alberto once more tosses Jinder away, turning in time to see his best friend get tossed off of Drew. Ducking, he sends McIntyre over the top rope and looks like he's about to take a running splash through the ropes to finish both men, when he and Mike both look up, confused at Ricardo climbing hesitantly onto the turnbuckle.
Alberto is visibly asking him what he's doing, but Ricardo remains steadfast on staying there, shifting his stance from one foot to the other before diving down onto both men on the outside, taking them out and winding himself. Del Rio is there immediately, collecting his best friend and, after checking on him, rolling him back into the ring, probably keeping track of both Slater still lurking around, and the other two men at their feet. Their moment, however, is short-lived when Dolph Ziggler interrupts, talking about how he'll return on Monday, and Miz breathes in as he hopes that that keeps AJ busy, distracted from him or his friends for awhile, though he doubts he'll be that lucky, considering how she'd claimed she could multitask. He sneers and turns to walk to the gorilla for real this time, wait around for his time on the commentary table.
Ricardo and Alberto have just made it through the curtain when he arrives, all three of them pausing as they stare at each other, Del Rio's joy quickly disappearing from his face as he stares warningly at Mike. "Hey, man," he greets the ring announcer. "That was pretty cool. You alright?"
He's still breathing a little heavily but nods, smiling slightly. "Si, Mike, I'm fine. Gracias."
Alberto is still glaring at him when he nudges his best friend. "Come, mi amigo. Let's go get out of here."
Mike watches them leave, the ring announcer nodding at whatever his employer is saying, sighing. Guess I deserved that one...
With Monday comes the news that, during his Smackdown match against Zack Ryder, Fandango had suffered a concussion. For a brief while, Mike thinks this means that he'll have a one-on-one match against Barrett, be able to redeem himself for the night following Wrestlemania, but this is proven wrong when Paul Heyman comes out after he's defeated Cody Rhodes, announcing that the as of yet undefeated Curtis Axel will be the third man. Wade looks about as thrilled about the announcement as Miz feels, and they glower at each other before Wade leaves ringside, Mike slowly limping up the ramp a couple of minutes later. He'd tweaked his knee during the match, and it had hurt him almost as much as it had Cody to apply the figure four, but he had withstood it and fought through it until the other man had tapped.
Mike is still in the trainer's office, Alex by his side while an ice pack melts on his knee, when Alberto and Ricardo run out during Jericho vs Big E, attacking Dolph and ensuring Jericho victory without any further outside interference from the current World Champion. When the Mexicans leave the ringside area, mocking Dolph the whole way, Mike sighs and closes his eyes, resting back against the cot. He hadn't seen Ricardo all night, he and Alex, upon arriving at the arena, having overheard a tech saying that Alberto had gone so far as to ensure that they were assigned the other locker room just to avoid Mike. Feeling Alex's eyes on him, he sighs. "I know, I messed up. Big time."
Alex pats his arm and smiles slightly. "It's ok, Mike. We're all used to it by now." When his former pro mock laughs at him, Alex settles in next to him, just barely fitting on the side of the cot, and shrugs. "Del Rio'll come around. It'll just take some time. Ricardo at least doesn't seem too mad anymore."
"Yeah, I guess." He stares at the ceiling. "I do understand where Del Rio's coming from. If it had been you or John and someone talked so... callously to you on national TV, after claiming to be your friend and only having your best interest in mind, well... I probably would've tried to convince you to distance yourself too." He laughs bitterly. "Hell, I told him I wanted to help him be more self-confident. Then barely a week later, I just became yet another person talking down to or about him. I'm an idiot."
Alex clearly has no idea what to say and they just lay there side by side silently until Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox come to collect them to act as lumberjacks during the Ryback and John Cena face to face. Kicking the slushy ice pack away, Mike makes it to his feet and holds a hand out to his former protege. "Come on, kid. Let's go out there."
Alex smiles halfheartedly, gripping his hand and rolling off of the cot, feeling stiff and a little achy from how he'd scrunched himself up just to fit and not completely fall off of the side of the padded surface. It goes about as they'd all expected, Mike trying to hold first Ryback, then Cena, back as the two men fight to get at each other, a number of them struggling alongside him to keep control of the situation until the show ends and Cena holds his hands up, finally agreeing to leave even as he glares up at Ryback, who is sneering down at him. Mike and the others quickly leave the ring, not wanting to be anywhere near the monster, and he shakes his head, wondering what else this week- the pay per view, all of it- could possibly bring to them. It already feels like it's been five years long.