Mike's visit to Ricardo's school has reinvigorated him, seeing his friend's passion for the business they both love, and the students he helps train and how they look at wrestling with fresh eyes, ready to take on the world. He may not know exactly where to turn, especially with everyone's focus on Crown Jewel, but anything would be better than sitting still and letting the wrestling world pass him by. So as soon as he arrives at Raw that week, he hits the ground running. Marches right into Adam Pearce's office and stares him down. "I'm The Miz," he informs him, as if anyone needs reminded of that fact.

Pearce stares back at him, quirking an eyebrow before saying, with no limit of exhaustion, "I'm well aware of that face, Miz. What do you want?"

"Time," he says. "Not just interviews I have to fight to keep, legit in-ring time. A match, MizTV, something, anything. I don't care. I deserve that much, Pearce." He waits, and he stares, watching as Pearce stares back, seemingly unimpressed.

"Do you now?" he asks, shrugging. "Well, I suppose we wanted an interview with Gunther after the last few weeks. You want MizTV so bad? You've got it."

Mike has a laundry list of comments he can make to that, but he bites them back, frowning at Pearce. "Thank you," he forces out, before turning to take his leave. The prep time for MizTV is always a little bit of a madhouse. He has to figure out the angle, questions he's going to make, observations he wants to dig in with, always determined to get some sort of a controversial response from his guests, something for people to talk about later.

Yes, sometimes he goes overboard and gets his ass kicked for it, but that's the point, right? Two (or more) people sitting around talking isn't ever that fascinating, so he goes out of his way to needle Imperium, then further insult Gunther once they're sharing the ring together, a flash of inspiration leading to him comparing Gunther with invisible Cena from a couple months back. Which works, gets his ass kicked a little bit, but it's fine. He does get a few strikes in on Gunther before Imperium regroup and force him to roll out of the ring to relative safety, stinging a little from both the words and the strikes, but still on his feet, which he has to consider a win.

He heads up the ramp, wiping at his face, when theme music hits and he glowers, watching DIY come out for their match against Imperium. He catches Ciampa's eye for a moment, the sore feelings from earlier in the year still present, but he doesn't stop for long, continuing on through the curtain.

Well, it had definitely lit a fire in him, leaving him more and more determined to find a new place for himself in the ever changing business. What exactly that looks like, he's not sure, but he'll have time to figure it out while everyone else is distracted by the weekend's events.