Maven Reflects On Eliminating The Undertaker From The Royal Rumble, Thought It Was A Rib At First
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Maven appeared on the newest episode of WWE’s The Bump, where he reflected on his WWE career. He also looked back on his legendary WWE Royal Rumble moment with The Undertaker. Here are some highlights:
On being in the the Royal Rumble match and eliminating The Undertaker:
Maven: “I was in developmental, I was in Cincinnati, Ohio, at HWA, Heartland Wrestling, you know, with a lot of guys that became just WWE staples, like Jamie Noble, Three Minute Warning was there.”
“I got the call literally the day before saying, you know, because Tough Enough had just ended. I think I’d been on programming probably a handful of times, maybe two or three times, I wrestled Tazz a could of times, I wrestled Booker [T] on SmackDown once. And the day before, they called and they were like, ‘You’re going to Atlanta,’ which is where the Rumble was. I flew out the next day, no clue what was gonna, at that point, you know, I’m not an idiot. I knew I’d probably be in the Rumble.”
“But I knew I would probably come out, get a quick, you know, whatever pop Tough Enough was gonna give. And then I would be thrown out and gotten rid of as soon as possible. When I got there and they called me to the ring, and it was Shane [McMahon] and ‘Taker. At the time, I’m terrified, you know, I mean I’m the rookie, I’m young, I’m in my mid-20s, and I’m standing there with Shane McMahon and The Undertaker. Scared to death. And then he tells me, he’s like, ‘Maven, you’re gonna come in and eliminate him.’ And I thought he was completely joking. I thought it was the rib of the century.”
“Well, then ‘Taker turns looks at me and says, he goes are you f’n kidding me? And at that point, I wanted to run. I wanted to just leave. But come to find out it was, I think, ‘Taker had his hands on that, and what was going down for that day, so he helped my career more than anyone on that single day.”
“From that day on, me and him had kind of a bond, I guess you would say. He always gave me that smile, that little, ‘Hey, kid’ look. And that me know that what I did, he was satisfied with it.”
On getting beat up by The Undertaker:
Maven: “It was one of those things where, no lie, at that point, probably a year and a half earlier, I was that person in the crowd, I was that person going to the shows. And even though I got hit with a chair, got thrown over the barricade, got the hell beat out of me up through the stands, all the way up to that popcorn machine, you know, lying there on the floor, you know, with ‘Taker eating popcorn off of my stomach, it was one of those moments where I finally realized that I was living my dream.”
Maven talks about his legendary DROPKICK. You know, the one that eliminated @undertaker from the 2002 Royal Rumble!
Does Maven has the greatest dropkick of all time?!#WWETheBump pic.twitter.com/DGZRq2BTwo
— WWE’s The Bump (@WWETheBump) November 4, 2020