Maven remembers his Royal Rumble moment with The Undertaker very vividly.
Former Tough Enough winner Maven was a recent guest on That 90’s Wrestling Podcast to discuss his WWE career. When asked about his big Royal Rumble moment with The Undertaker, Maven had a lot to say:
“I was terrified, I think at this point, I had three matches with Taz, and then I wrestled Booker T around Christmas time. But that was the only four times I was on televised programming. I got the call that they were sending me down there and the guys I was living with, I was living with EZ Money at the time, and I told him I was going down there, and he’s like, ‘Ah, they’re probably gonna bring you out in the Rumble and have you eliminated immediately.’ So I jump on a plane from Cincinnati, thinking that’s gonna be my spot, and terrified at that being my spot. I’m going to f*ck the whole Rumble up, and then that’s the end of my wrestling career right there.
“Well, so I get to the arena, and immediately they were like, ‘Go meet Shane (McMahon) down at the ring.’ So I go to see Shane, and he just so happens to be there next to Taker. And I always had a great relationship with Shane. Shane is as cool as anybody you could meet. He’s one of the boys. He’s got the best of all worlds because he’s obviously up here when it comes to — I mean, it’s his company technically, but he can also be one of the boys, and you can go out and have a good time with Shane. But at this day at this point in time, we were busy.
“So he brings me into the ring and just so happens to be with Taker. He’s like, ‘Yeah, so we thought we would have you come out and walk into the ring with you and Taker and figure it out somehow but have you hit him with that dropkick and eliminate Taker.’ At that moment, Taker went, ‘Excuse the hell out of me?’ and looked at me, shot me a look, and I’m just like, Oh, Jesus, he’s gonna kill me! But he’s completely ribbing me. I had no clue he was in on it. But then he looked down and winked at me.
“I know last year we were celebrating Taker’s run and his career in the WWE. What to me makes him an all-time great was the fact that he can take the status that he had, the fact that he could take a nobody [like] me, and put me over like that. It did nothing for him. But what it did for me was it gave me an essence, a career, and it did a lot for the WWE.
“And you know people say well how? Well, he immediately makes Tough Enough relevant, so you can have more episodes and more seasons after that. It also just enhances because when we’re watching wrestling, you want to be able to think that anything can happen at any time. That one dropkick proved it, and so Taker being able to do business like that. To me, that’s why he has not just the fact that he helped me, but he has my respect and will always have it because first and foremost, he can do business, and he can do what’s best for the product that he’s representing. That doesn’t stop the fact I was terrified though (laughing).”
Maven recently returned to the ring for ISPW in New Jersey; he also spoke about having talks with WWE to return as a commentator prior to COVID-19 impacting the United States. Read more about his talks with the company at this link.
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Do you recall Maven’s big Royal Rumble moment with The Undertaker? Did it shock you when it happened? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
