The Miz has been bullying Daniel Bryan since 2010. Bryan has loathed The Miz for that same eight year period.

That’s a long time in modern wrestling.

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Like Ric Flair hating Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat hating Flair, or Sting and Flair never seeing eye to eye (okay, there are more never-ending old school feuds than just those involving The Nature Boy in the NWA and WCW – so let’s throw in the Rock n’ Roll Express vs. Midnight Express for diversity and good measure!), pro wrestling angles in the past have often involved the two rivals carrying on their mutual hatred for years on end.

The Miz and Daniel Bryan have been going at it for nearly a decade, since Bryan’s early WWE/NXT “mentorship,” to The Miz later goading Bryan for being unable to compete in the ring in his legendary “Talking Smack” promo.

There’s a degree of reality to this feud that is often absent in many modern rivalries, and its length adds to its believability.

But that wasn’t the only old school aspect to their highly-anticipated match at SummerSlam on Sunday.

Foreign Objects!

Is there anything more old school than a wrestling villain using a foreign object to cheat?

Yes – being handed it by your wife and/or manager.

Especially in the hands of someone as heelish as The Miz.

Before the finish – after an intense and grueling bout – The Miz curiously found himself at ringside next to his wife Maryse, who was in the front row (with a baby stroller, no less). It appeared that Maryse slipped something to her husband, which The Miz clinched in his fist as he punched Bryan.

Bryan went down for the count. Bryan appeared devastated afterward and told wife Brie Bella he needed some alone time so he could punch a few walls.

Whether it was JJ Dillon tossing his shoe to any of the Four Horsemen to whack their opponent with, Bobby Heenan slipping something to any heel in his stable, Jim Cornette “lending” his tennis racket, – or any wrestler at any time in any company or territory pulling something mysterious out of their tights – the use of the “foreign object” is a trick as old as the business itself.

As a kid, I always wondered what the foreign object actually was. To the degree that it was visible, it looked to me like what holds the toilet paper on your bathroom dispenser. A slender and oblong white weapon of some sort.

Whatever it was – it was always lethal.

Is this what The Miz was handed Sunday? You can’t exactly tell, but Maryse was certainly up to no good:

This did not go unnoticed by some old school fans:

One even got mad about it, which is hilarious:

Whatever Maryse was up to, and though she is an accomplished wrestler in her own right (not to mention, thankfully women’s wrestling is taken far more seriously today), the “Mrs.” joined a long line of wives-girlfriends-valets-managers who have done the same in the past – Sherri Martel, Sunny, Woman, Marlena, Debra McMichael, Baby Doll, etc.

Or maybe it was baby Monroe Sky who slipped the weapon to mommy first? Being heel could be hereditary.

Regardless, expect SummerSlam to be only the first (or latest?) chapter in this current, yet unending feud.

And expect Daniel Bryan to get even more angry – and The Miz, even more dastardly.

YES!