Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Maven: "Hey Guys, Maven Here!", YouTube Channel, Who Does He Have Heat With?, One More Match, The Undertaker

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Maven (@MavenHuffman) is a retired professional wrestler best known for his time in WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in New Jersey to discuss the success of his YouTube channel, whether he has gotten any heat for his videos, beating The Undertaker to win the Hardcore Championship, whether he still sees himself as a professional wrestler, if one more match could be possible, wrestling Ric Flair, taking the first televised F5 from Brock Lesnar, and more!Quote I'm thinking about: "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." - Theodore RooseveltPlease support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux   SUPERPOWER: Go to https://Superpower.com and use code CVV to get $50 Off your annual Superpower subscription. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod   SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 20% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Fleet. Oh, yes, welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you for hitting play on this episode. And thank you for making Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. Hit a drop kick on that follow button so you don't miss out on any new interviews every Tuesday and Thursday. And, of course, for the real, real ones. Ask CVV every Friday.

Maven is back on the show. Or should I say, hey guys, Maven's here. I just love catching up with him. I love seeing the success that he's having on YouTube. I mean, when we recorded this, he had just hit 700,000 subscribers on YouTube, like just a few days before that.

Now, as I'm recording this, as you're listening to this, he has 735,000 subscribers. his growth on there has been incredible and it couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving guy. Maven and his YouTube partner, Zach, put in so much hard work into every single video. And I just love seeing it pay off. If you don't already subscribe to them, make sure to hit that subscribe button at some point today, or at least check to see if you're subscribed or not.

I mean, I'm sure you've watched at least one of the videos of Maven's channel, if not many of the videos, if not maybe all of the videos in his channel, maybe you didn't realize you haven't subscribed yet. And I will say this. You should definitely be subscribed for the video that's coming tomorrow. We did a little collaboration together, so you'll be seeing me on Maven's channel tomorrow, and I don't want you to miss that one.

But I hope you enjoy this conversation if you do. Snap a screenshot, let us know that you're listening, and tag us. He's at Maven Huffman on Instagram. He's not on X. I think there's a lot of people that have received tweets from an account that looks like it might be Maven's. He's not on X. He's on Instagram.

He's on Facebook. Of course, he's on YouTube. But tag him on Instagram at Maven Huffman. Tag me. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. And let's dive into this one. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this conversation with Maven Huffman. Always so good to see you.

My pleasure, brother. What is this? number four. This is number four. Look how sharply dressed you are. Again, the very first one that you and I did, Hamburg, Pennsylvania, 2021. I showed up in sweats and a t-shirt. And I hate every time I see any of those, those pieces of interview just out there. I love it and I love you for having me, but I just, I didn't show up and look the way I would prefer to look. look at you now. I'm making up for lost time. That was your first interview you had done in years, right? It was. Yeah. Were you even doing wrestling appearances at that time? Hitter miss. I would do them. I had a, not a rule, but a preference. And that was if it was within my house, you know, distance from my house to drive. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll do it. I'll show up. And living in the New York, New Jersey area.

It's just there's always going to be something pretty much every weekend. And I had a, you know, about a two hour limit. And Hamburg was about two hours. So, and obviously, you know, just being able to be able to see you. It was funny. I told someone, I was like, yeah, so I forgive me. I just, I don't keep up with wrestling at that time. And so I told somebody, yeah, I think I'm going to meet with Chris Van Lee.

And they went, what? Like, they couldn't believe you wanted to talk. to me. And they were, and they said, no, he's big. You do his show. And, and rest is history. Glad I did. And at that time, you weren't really on social media at all. Yeah, you had no presence online. You did the poll at the end of it. That's right. We did a, we did an Instagram story. And you were like, I don't know. I've, I'll tell you something. I haven't told anybody else yet, but I reserved the username Maven Huffman on Instagram. I haven't done anything with it, but I at least have the name. Right. So I did a poll and I said, should may even join Instagram. And it was a resounding,

of course. Yes. Like bring him on. And I then you did join. I did. And then you ended up getting like a thousand followers in like a day or something. Well, the biggest thing to me is doing your interview led to the YouTube channel. Really? I know you're not going to take credit for it, but my partner, Zach, you are the, you're the one that. You're the one that put me in his mind. And maybe if he doesn't see the interview with me, he thinks of just someone else. But definitely, I always say it on my channel, out of sight, out of mind. And I think him, you know, seeing me on your, on your channel helped tremendously. He's admitted it to me. Wow. Absolutely.

It's just amazing how the world works. Isn't it? I'm glad I can play one tiny little minuscule part in that whole thing. But what makes your YouTube channel? work is you're just such a great storyteller. Thank you. It's true, like on camera or off camera. You have the best stories. And there's some stories you have told me off camera that we can certainly not repeat here. We've been a part of a few together.

Oh, my goodness. How great was last year. You and I were at the infamous dinner with The Undertaker. And afterwards, when the restaurant was just empty, a few servers walking around. They're putting up the chairs. Yes. And we're still ordering drinks. I tell everyone it was like story time in kindergarten.

When you circle around and sit Indian style and then there's Taker holding court. How cool was that night? That was incredible. There was a moment where I just like paused and looked around. And it was like, Undertaker was a cross for me. Godfather was next to me. And there was you and there was Midian. And there was, it was what, 10 or 12 of us in total.

And I was just like, what is life? You were like, I'm with a maven. This other guy, Mark, but it's made. I'm with the first ever tough enough winner right now. Trust me. I sat and looked at that crew we had that night. And I was just honored because of Takers' best friends, Midian and Papa. Yeah.

Like those are two of his core guys. And just to be included that weekend along with you filming, it was just, yeah, you said it earlier. You never know where life is going to take you. I, when his co-host of the time, Matt Lider reached out to me and said, we'd like to have you as a guest on the show. I'm like, did you message the right person? Like me? You want to have me on the show? Do you really underestimate your value in the wrestling space?

This is the undertaker. There's no way you're that humble. This is the undertaker. He could have anybody on the show. And I was one of his first, I don't know, 20 guests or something. But you're the goat in this space. in the wrestling interview space, past, present, and future. Like, you're the authority.

Like, what we do on our channel, it's totally different than what you do. I couldn't do what you do. I couldn't wrangle all the guests that you wrangle. I couldn't come up with it. I'd be asking the same damn questions every time. You know, what's it like? Your body hurt. But you come up with such engaging questions.

So, of course, he's going to ask you. And again, you had your boy in mind. you because you're the one that gave Matt Light of my number to get me out there that weekend. Well, man. Always thinking. Thank you for saying that. Always thinking. I don't know how true any of that is.

There's lots of people who do lots of great interviews. I'm just at my core. I'm just a curious person. Take a compliment. Take the compliment. Thank you. I think you're too humbled, but I think also deep down, you know. Well, what am I supposed to do?

Sit here and be like, of course the undertaker wants to have it as a guest done as you. show. Yes. Of course this is going to happen. That's a cut. Why wouldn't he want to have me on a show? Honestly, what we do on our channel and what you do, I think it's what the people want. Yeah, of course, they want to see the action in the ring. Yeah, they want to see the storylines. They want to see the Ria Ripley's winning, you know, chasing the title. They want to see Cody, you know, finishing his story. But moreover, I, truly believe they care more behind the scenes they care more about what makes that that wrestler that person they love tick you answer that i think we are in such an era right now like a lot of

people have grown up with social media they don't know anything else they can see right through bs and authenticity shines through yeah and i think that that's what makes your channel so great is like people just know you're authentic and they know you're just shooting straight like you don't avoid any topics it sounds like why yeah why right i mean life is what it is it's going to work out for you sometimes other times it's not why why act like everything's rosy why why act like every meal i eat is french cuisine perfectly plate plate played it in front of me because you know what i have a hot pocket every now and then too why not show all aspects of that have you got heat for any of your videos so one question

we get almost every video we put out, shockingly no. Not at all. I mean, hold up. None that, have we? None I can think of. Seriously, I'm looking at my partner's act over there. When we did the AEW video, we were, you know, obviously backstage and I told anybody we walked up to, you don't have to do anything with us.

And there were a few people that, and, you know, nah, K-fabe, man, K-fave. But it wasn't like heat. It was just I preferred not to do it. And our answer is no problem. Yeah, sure. We'll cut the footage. But as far as hearing from anybody that maybe needs to stop, what he's doing, not one person.

So if we peel back the curtain right now, you just filmed the video yesterday of taking 100 finishers. Well, yeah, yeah, well, 100 was the idea. Okay, what happened? But how are you going to title the video now? Well, that's why I have Zach. That's right.

What's the title of the video now, Zach? It would be I took iconic. We were, I took iconic finishes. Our goal was 100. Just because you know this game, obviously. Mr. Beast, he loves the round numbers. 100 stands out. It just, it's so.

Yeah, because if you took 61 finishers, it's like, well, it's a big number, but still. That's pretty, it was pretty close to what we, really? I think on finishers 65, I popped my shoulder out. and it's the shoulder that that used to come out all the time. And after that, I went to take, I tried to do another one. And like, I rattled. And I couldn't protect myself the way I used to. What was the finish that popped your shoulder out?

AJ Styles. AJ Style Styles Clash. And just when I got, Brian Myers was giving it. And I would trust Brian do any move on me. He's just, he truly is his gimmick. And, but that move. move when you take the bump, if you have shoulder problem, a shoulder that won't stay in its joint because you're falling on your chest and then your arm staying back. And it just, it slid out.

It can't, it went right back in, but yeah, 48 year old me, you can't pop it back in and just go. You're 48? Yeah. You look great. Oh, thank you. You look just like the maven that won tough enough. I don't know about that, but I feel 78 today. What was the most painful move you took? Power bomb. Yeah, the power bomb still hurts. And the choke slam, choke slam still hurts. It's just because those are powerful bumps from a big height, right? Impact. You can't fake. You can't fake gravity. You can't fake the impact. Now, we had some submission, some easy stuff. Oh, what's, what's the Charlotte's move? The figure four, the, what's it go?

Figure eight? Yeah. That hurt. Yo, for real. Brian, because we were trying to knock two out at once, Brian put the figure four on me. And then figure eight. And when he bridged back, it immediate. It was immediate pain.

And I was like, okay, enough. We got it. We got it. How many videos do you have, like, lined up? ready to go. Do you have a brainstorm list that I'm just you know ready to shoot at any point in time? Ready to shoot. We have probably as we stand right now about eight videos that are ready to go. Okay. And currently being edited, you mentioned Matt Leida. We recently sat down with Matt a few weeks ago. That video's two weeks away from coming out. We did the Buff Bagwell video recently.

That was so good. Yeah, which was nuts. Buff reaching out to me saying, I'm going to get my leg amputated. Can you come down and film? My mind's still blown about that. But we, we're trying to do just stuff that's just different with the channel. And here's the best part about what we do, Chris. I'm not afraid to fail.

If we put a video out that just does not, we did a TikTok video. And while we were filming it, I'm literally watching it. And I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know what's trendy these days. And it just did.

It didn't work. So you were doing a dance trend on TikTok. Well, it was wrestling. It was wrestling. Never happened. But there's just some things that I'm not great at reacting to. That was one of them. Yeah.

But we found out. Yeah. And I don't think it's failing then. Like, I think it's not win or lose. It's like winner learn. So I like that. Right. So like the video either does well or it doesn't and you learn from it.

Like, I'm sure you guys have gone to the YouTube analytics and that video is a 10 out of 10. You know, it's the worst one, right? It's ranked. It's ranked 10th of the last 10 videos. And you're like, boy, maybe I could change the thumbnail. Maybe I can change the title. But this one just didn't work. And we'll play with some stuff like that.

We also recently did a reaction video. And it was to one of the AI, it was a wrestling AI video someone put out. People hated it. But they hated it not because of what we did, but they just hated the whole A. They haven't grasped that AI is here to stay. And they just didn't appreciate us doing, you know, reacting to AI slop. Yeah. Again, we learned.

Yeah, yeah. We learned a lesson. So as we sit here right now, you get eight ready to go. But then there's just a list of like, yeah. And do you start with titles? Like, this could be a great title for a video. Every video. Every video starts with a title and the thumbnail.

Everyone. Yeah. And we have eight ready to go. We have four people. in our in our quiver ready to interview. We were planning trips. Yeah, we're going to get through the rest of the rest of 2025 with pretty, pretty easy. This episode is brought to you by Timeline.

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That's Timeline.com slash Insight for 20% off. Your cells will thank you. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinemberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claim, and they want to be on that World Cup roster.

There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henco. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. The Buff Bagwell one was such a touching video. Yeah. And you did a great job of delivering that story with such empathy. And like it was so, it just was, it just felt very sincere.

And I, I was blown away by Buff's attitude. Me too. Towards the whole thing. Me too. Like he, he did it all with a smile in his face. Yes. Still has it. Still is excited.

Incredible. I think for what Buff has went through the last five years and make no mistake about it, Buff Bagwell put himself in that position. But even still, I mean, to go from what he was circa 1990s to the way he is now, I don't think I could go into it with that attitude. I would be in the biggest depression of my life. And he just wasn't. He was excited for new opportunities.

I was honored that he chose us to tell his story. The job was easy for me. The job was lead Buff where we need him to go on our end and get out of the way because Buff's going to tell his story. The thing that's always fascinated me about storytelling and this is, you know, I started my career as a news reporter. You and I could both experience the same thing. We could see a crazy car crash in front of us and then we go back and tell our friends or family about it. Your version of the story is going to be slightly different from my version of the story. The same thing happened.

Yes. But you're going to start with this and end with this and I'm going to start with something slightly different and then with this, I'm just, that idea fascinates me of how stories are told. The through line may be the same, but the way that you deliver it might be different. I don't think that Buff Bagel story could have been delivered any better. Well, thank you. It's because we all see the world differently. And we also get people, you know, when like a Devon comes out with a channel or when anyone comes out, you know, people I ask, Maven, is this competition? No. No, because we all have different stories.

And like you said, we could all have the same event, but we're just different point of views. We're going to tell the story differently. There's enough space for all of us. Devon gave you so much credit when I had him on the show. He should have. Chris, he should still be sitting here, given, like, you should be like, Guy, Devon, we got to wrap this shit up.

He should still be. I should still be sitting in his house in Florida. It's mutual. Although he could just keep telling stories about saving you. Unfortunately, that one was 100% true. That was a true story. Yeah, I was out of it that morning. I don't remember if he brushed my teeth.

But I don't remember. I can't say he didn't. I can't say he did. He literally saved me that morning. Which is amazing because he didn't have to stick his neck out for a rookie. No, he didn't. But I think the more you get to know, Dee, that's just who he is. Dee's got one of the kindest hearts.

he's one of the ones that could have taken me and did at the very beginning of my career. He hated me. I literally could come back through guerrilla. I'm standing at the monitor. They just tore the, him and Bubba tore the house down. And I looked at Dee, and I was like, hey, Dee, great match. And he went and just walked on. I'm like, oh, God, he hates me.

But he gave me a chance. And a few months later, we were riding together. And for guy turning it from going from a fan into a wrestler, that was knowledge that you can't pay for sitting in a car with Yvonne. Just everything he's seen, he was passing on to me. I owe him. He could start 10 channels and I still owe him. I saw his first, I think it was thumbnail and tile on.

I went, oh, he gets it. He knows what he's doing. The thumbnails are so crisp. I actually thought for a second that maybe it was you guys working together, like you and Zach, like, uh, that helps their guys out. Oh, yeah. Well, there it is. The very first time, I think it was probably like their second or third video, they got demonetized.

And in this space, the moment you get demonetized, it's soul crushing. And I'm going to guess they use some B-roll or too much B-roll. Bingo. Yeah. Bingo. Yeah. Well, the first person they reached out to was that. And Zach looked at it and walked them through how.

getting that strike, oh, not strike, but that lifted. And it worked. So, yeah, use us. I'm going to have. Do you think you might make a video one day about our dinner with The Undertaker? I would love to. I would love to. We could talk for four hours about that.

Like the stories he told, we just frankly could not tell. Like, I'll pull the curtain back on stuff. I won't disrespect anyone. Of course. And that would be. He told some stories. That was such a fun night. It was such a...

And you talk about my ability to be a storyteller. Yeah. Like, how great is Taker's ability? Unreal. Who would have guessed? And that's the thing. He was The Undertaker for 30 years. Yeah.

And then when he retired and we got to learn who Mark Calloway was, we're like, man, I like this guy even more now. Like, he's one of the greatest of all time. And he can talk and tell stories like this. When we were... When we were sitting with Matt, Lida, Taker's former partner for six feet under. I told him, I was like, you did the world a big, gigantic favor, introducing us to

Mark Calloway. Yeah, because exactly, who would have guessed that that guy has more charisma than, you know, the guy, the dead man we've been rooting for for 30 years. Yeah. He's, he's so funny. He's engaging. And you could tell he enjoys sitting and doing exactly what he did that night. You could tell he was in his in his happy place.

Yeah. Yeah. People will remember you eliminating Undertaker from the Royal Rumble, but you have another you think. You have another huge moment with Undertaker when you beat him for the hardcore title. Right. So people remember the rumble elimination and of course that chair shot. But you beating him for the hardcore title, that's a big moment.

It's big and it's big for me because it was, you know, the rock. you know, I'm literally, you know, he's got me in the dragon sleeper. And you can physically see my eyes looking up the ramp because I knew that was the spot when the rock was coming out with the chair. And it's just, it's crazy. Again, how life works out. A year and a half prior to that, I'm a sixth grade school teacher with a rock, the rock says bulletin board in my classroom.

And just a year and a half later, I'm in a match where he's hitting the undertaker. with his finish to allow me to beat him. How does life work out that way? How loud was that pop when the rock came back? Insane. And you've been to shows. Tell me if this is incorrect or correct. I remember, because I used to go and listen underneath the ramp,

back when they would elevate the entrance and the stage, I would go under there and listen to everybody's entrance. The Rock and Austin, theirs was different. The moment you would hear that, the place would come. It was just a little bit different. And then, even from that, that glass break, just pandemonium. It's funny how it's like there's a difference between cheering and like a roar.

Like, and you feel that. Shear excitement. Yeah. I'm seeing this person that I've, I've had this on my calendar for three months. I've known I'm coming to this show for three months. And I'm finally seeing it. Yes. And it's just, you feel that energy.

Yeah, and it's almost like a, it's like a childlike excitement. It is. Because I remember being a kid and like we had a trip to like the theme park. Canada's Wonderland. I would circle it on my calendar. It's 47 days away. Yeah. It's 46 days away.

And I feel like we don't do that enough as adults. No. Like we don't look forward to things. Kind of correct me if I'm wrong, but how many times does it happen where you're like, oh, damn, that thing's tomorrow. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay.

All the time. I got yelled at yesterday because I had booked a trip to go on to do some filming in a show. And I told my girl, yeah, I'm going to be. She's like, I'm going to be gone. She's like, no, you're not. And I completely forgot. She was going to be out of town. So, yeah, I should physically do put stuff on my calendar a little bit more.

But we get to a place, you know, at some point where, and I. I've said it. Canceled plans to me are almost better than plans that come. Sometimes we look to take more off of our plate and we somehow lose that childhood wonder, that excitement of it's 47 days away because I did the exact same thing, the exact same thing. Being a father now has reminded me of how much wonder there is in the world because my daughter's a little over two years old, my son's seven months and they're seeing things for the very first time. And it reminds me of like, oh, actually there is like beauty in the world all the time. And we're so used to it that we're jaded to it.

So jaded. Yeah. And you're getting to relive stuff like Christmas and the Easter bunny and birthdays and all these firsts. And you're getting to see it, you know, through sheer unadulterated excitement. It's got to make you feel great. I'll come home from like the gym. I'll be gone for an hour and a half. And I'll open up the door and she'll go, Daddy's home.

And I'm like, oh. It's melt your heart. It's the best. Yeah. It's the absolute best. And I love how that has reminded me of how many great things there are in the world. Yeah, absolutely. It's a really cool thing.

When I woke up this morning, yeah, my body hurt. Yeah, I probably was feeling away. I would prefer not. But I remember I'm doing it. And I'm lucky. Like, I'm doing it for a YouTube channel. Like a YouTube channel. That's just crazy to me.

So I know you're, you're very big on just what, what you appreciate in this world. And me too. I'm grateful every day. I would much rather focus on what I have than being angry and upset about what I don't have. That's the key to life. Yeah. That's the key. We learn eventually.

and sometimes the hard way, a la Buff Bagwell, we lose everything in this world. Eventually, everything you lose. So appreciate what you have while you have it. Appreciate daddy's home. Appreciate wrapping those gifts for them from Santa Claus in the middle of the night, probably when you're tired because you know when they come down and they see that tree and Santa visited and you see their smile.

It's going to make it all worthwhile. It's the best. It's the best. With what you're doing now, what percentage of your life is YouTube and what percentage is your, you still have a real job? I do. I go a lot less. Although we're sitting here on a Thursday morning and you're not there. I went in Monday and then I was like, I won't be in the rest of the week.

What kind of job is this? Well, fortunately, I'm kind of more of a mascot now these days. Is you Mr. Matt? I'm not, no, I don't wear the big head. It's, the business, it's funny. I was talking to Zach about this yesterday because he was asking. The business that we're in, it's a competitive field. Sometimes it helps to, yeah, we'll have our, we'll have our guy,

maybe, you know, give you a call. Hold up, Maven, the rest of it? Yeah. And that just might be what it takes to just inch. someone. But you work in finance. Yes. Okay. Yeah. But we work in finance. We work in capital lending. And in capital lending, where my office is, there's a hundred other offices within an eight, eight block radius that do exactly what we do. It was not a not another, not another hundred mavens. A bingo. Yeah. No, seriously. Yeah. And it's just if we want someone's business,

we want to keep their business. Where we make our money is in once we lend money out, We need them to come back to us the second time. So do you call them up and go, hey, guys, Maven here. I don't, you know what? I actually find myself now. I have to not text people. Like I was texting Mr. Kennedy, Ken Anderson. And I literally text, hey, Ken, Maven here.

And I was like, no, I can't do that. It's your catchphrase. It took how long for me to get a catchphrase. But you talk about it, authenticity. It came organically. Like, I got a catchphrase, but it truly came organically. We're making our first t-shirts for the channel, courtesy of Matt Lida's company nine line, and our very first shirt, Hey, Guys, Maven here. I'm buying one.

You promise? I promise. One sold. As soon as they come out. One sold. As soon as they come out, I'm getting a Hey Guys made. We've been a shirt. We originally wanted to do Hey, Guys, and then somebody could get like Chris here or whatever, but it just wasn't.

reasonable. I mean, they, they go through a process with printing these shirts. And he was like, that's not doable. You did a video a month or two ago and you just said, hey, Maven here. And people said, this isn't the real movie. They got mad. This isn't the real maiden. I don't know whose video this is. He didn't do his intro. Who is this guy? Who is this bald fraud? I love it. I love it. I love that it gives something. I love that it gives people something to just get behind, not really look forward to, but I guess they do look forward because they give me a hard time when I don't stay. We're going to do a super cut of, Hey, Guys, Maven here in a clip right here. Right, right here. I can't wait to see it. Give us one right now. I go, hey, guys, Maven here.

And it's funny. Why is that so funny? It's funny because, you know, obviously we start all our videos that way. But I noticed that my very first Hey Guys Maven here when we start filming, it's not what the one we always land on. I got to get two or three of them out before. Am I wrong? Zach's like, no. It's almost like I got to get in the, I don't know if the character, but get in the, like where I'm feeling. Yeah. Yeah. So what is the percentage right now, YouTube versus the real job? 7030 on YouTube. by far.

YouTube 70%? By far. When is it going to get? Well, think about this. Two weeks ago, I was gone for 10 days, you know, filming in Atlanta with Buff, then in Savannah with Matt, and then we drove down to Orlando and filmed for another week. I don't think you have a real job. Again, I'm a mascot.

I'm the mascot. Who says, yeah, take 10 days. I'm the mascot. Fortunately, my team there, they have been. as supportive as anyone from since day one. Yeah, they're happy with me. Do you think, though, that it'll come to a point? Like, you just hit 700,000 subscribers and congrats. It's incredible. Do you think it'll come to a point at a million or two million or five million subscribers when you go, the job is great, but I don't need to go in? I will always hold a little bit of just loyalty.

And I might, yeah, I might get to that point where I'm not, yeah, you're not going to see. me anymore, but if you need me, I'll be there. Like a few weeks ago, we had every year in New York, they have what's called the broker fare. That's, that one, the owner called me up. And he's like, hey, he's like, listen, he's like, I need you. I need you to represent. And 100%. What does your business card say? Shoot, I wish I had it. It's, what's my title? It's a made up title. But it's something, gosh, it's something like. It's something like. It's something like. like something manager, like project manager or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. I have my own, somehow some way I have to have my own office. Do you keep that job because like, I don't know, there's a certain idea that I have of like maybe this is fleeting, right? Maybe YouTube could go away at any point in time. If the algorithm changes or if the way that AdSense changes,

it can all go away. But finance is always going to be there. It does scare me. I'm not going to lie. It does scare me. me. I just know, again, we lose everything eventually. And they were loyal to me. And I just believe if someone's loyal to you, you give it back. They've always been good to me. They've always been understanding. Even before we were doing the channel, if I needed to fly out somewhere for a show

or whatever, there wasn't how long you're going to be or do you really have to get? I'm like, okay, when you're coming back? I think when you meet good people in life, Keep them by your side. Don't get rid of them. And especially don't get rid of them just because you think you've made it beyond them. Because life has a funny way of humbling us, very funny way. And I'd rather have more people that help and want to see my growth than are waiting for my downfall. What was the original goal when you started the YouTube channel with Zach?

$5,000 a month. I said to myself, if I said to myself, if I, I can somehow bring $5,000 to extra dollars a month in, it will change my world. That's a big goal. Because I think for a lot of people, it's like, can I make $1? Yeah. Could I, I think AdSense has a threshold. If you hit $100, you get paid out.

Right. $5,000. Did you set a time limit for that? I thought if we can do, if I can be making, remember, we're splitting everything, 50-50. Yeah. And I, so 5,000 met we're making $10,000 on the channel. That's a good living. Yeah.

And just where I was at, $5,000 extra a month would have just changed my world. And we were doing that month two. Month two. But we surpassed it. How long did it take you to get to 100,000 subscribers? What was that? 100,000. It was a few months.

Because the first, the last time you, no, no, the second interview you and I had. Yeah. That was when we were, I think, around like 50. 6,000 subscribers. The channel it just began, but it was starting to pick up traction. Our videos were doing better as far as the number of views it got and the click-through rate. It advanced before our subscribers went up.

And, you know, once you start getting subscribers up, more come. And I mean, now, you know, with the buff video, I think we did like 4,000 subscribers. new subscribers in a day. Wow. And you've said it, and it's accurate. It's hard to get someone to subscribe to YouTube. It's not easy. And it's a crazy thing because I say this all the time,

but people watch YouTube like there's a finite number of subscriptions that they can have. Yeah. Like they hold these like, I can only subscribe to three channels this month. My precious. Right. You can subscribe to literally every channel. And it's this, it costs you nothing.

Right. but it helps the creator so, so much. And it's amazing how many people will watch this video and never subscribe. They won't even check to see if they're subscribed. They'll just go, I don't pop up in my algorithm. I'm good. I was returning something at Best Buy yesterday. And as I'm in line returning it, two people.

Two people came up and, yo, love the videos. You know, happy to see you. Do you live around here? Yeah, five minutes up the street. No way. And then I'm like, so you like the video? And they said, oh, yeah, like what you did with Buff. And I'm like, are you a subscribe?

I always ask, are you a subscriber? And you'd be surprised how honest they are. They're like, nah, man, you just pop up on my feed. And you're right. Hit the button. Yeah, I know. So I've turned it into like a fun thing, especially on the podcast and the audio version. I'll be like, hit a superplex on that follow button.

Hit a drop kick on that follow button. So right now, Maven says the most. devastating, most painful move is a power bomb. So hit a power bomb on that subscribe button right now. Please. Love it. I love it. I try to shy away from asking for that just to be different. Because I know everyone does it. And I know how tempting it is to say that. But I so rarely do it on YouTube. Yeah. I just, I never wanted to be that guy that's hit and click like and subscribe. Like, like, on some ground. I just never wanted to.

Like, I just never wanted. Is that the white guy voice again? Yeah, yeah, that's it. I'm not doing a radio voice against you. Oh, that was so good. That last I realized, I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, Chris's radio voice is literally perfect. We could do an entire hour.

Yeah, we could. 719 in the morning. Yeah. I used to work at a radio station. You can tell. You can tell. Hey, it's bumper to bumper traffic out there. It looks like mattresses on the high.

highway, 45 minutes to the past the hour, 15 to the top of the hour. Brando music from Taylor Swift on the way and your chance to win tickets to see her in concert coming up the next 17 minutes. Hey, Chris, did you get a chance to take your daughter that Taylor Swift concert? I know the tickets were hard to get. It's crazy how good you are. It's insane. It does not sound, I didn't actually talk like that on the radio. I made fun of the people who talk like that on the radio.

You know what? And you got me thinking about just my job. Do you know I sent when I was looking for work, when I was at my lowest, I sent my resume out 200 times minimum, and I could not get anyone to. And I just knew, I was like, if somebody can just get me in the office, if I can just sit down with anyone, I'll win them over. I knew that. But how do you stand out?

I had a good entertainment resume. You know, these people look and, oh, he's worked for all these entertainment companies. But when you're in your early 40s and you're trying to break into the business world, man, it's tough. It is tough. You didn't have a job at all at that point? At all. Yeah. And I...

What were you doing to get by? Yeah. And it's crazy because my girl, she was mad at me because I refused. I utterly refused to sign up for unemployment. I refused. And she's like, listen, it'll help us. And she's not wrong, but I'm like, I can work. I never want to be a drain on anyone or any system. I can work. I physically can work. I was like, just give, let me give it another week. You know, so I would just send my resume out. Finally, P. Gas, P. Gas, who was pretty high up in W.B. Mason, said, hooked me up. He was like, go meet with these guys. I was with the W.B. Mason crew in New York. City. They offered me a job on the spot. On the spot. And they offered me a salary I was not getting. I countered for 10,000 more. They accepted. Literally. They accepted. And then my, they did my background check. And when they found my arrest from 2012, they pulled it. And it was at that point that my

best friend from college, who's a vice president at the New York Mets, he, I never, I never, wanted to use him. I never wanted to be, you know, have him hooked me up, but he stepped in and he was like, he's working for the nets. He's like, I'll, uh, he's like, I'll, I'll get you, get you on with us here. It's going to be entry level. And I'm like, no problem. And again, he brought me in. I met the people. They offered me a job on the spot. And that was how I finally got into. Wow. Because it was tough. Like, again, how do you stand out on a resume when you're 40 years old? I think you put first ever WWF tough enough winner. And people wouldn't care.

I put WWF on my resume. And no one, I got nothing to respond. Because these people, you worked for the World Wildlife Fund? They probably thought that. These people were looking for business experience. And I just had none. So you're asked about why I still stay and why I stay loyal. And it's because when I needed, when I really, really needed, when money was

tight, they stepped up and they gave me a chance. So is this why there was that story years ago that your, there was a storage locker with the tough enough trophy that got sold? That was your storage locker? 100%. Wow. What happened? When I moved from, when I moved from Virginia to Florida, I didn't take everything with me.

So I put all my stuff in my house in a storage unit and, you know, furniture and everything. And I think that was in, one, two thousand and, 10. And I'm in Florida paying the locker every, you know, every month. And in 2012, after my arrest, I ate through with lawyer fees and paying the state of Florida the fine. I mean, I ate through pretty much all my savings in about eight months. And we had to leave Florida come to New York. And I think it was a year later. I just couldn't afford it anymore. It was, I mean, I was like 160 bucks that I just did not have. Wow.

And how many months of not paying it did they say you're out a lot? They were pretty quick about it. I think it was like five or six months. And yeah, but then again, I'm looking at, all right, this is stuff that I haven't had. I didn't remember everything that was in it. But, you know, this was stuff that I hadn't had in my possession in, you know, around five years, three to five years. So I'm like, do I really need anything in there?

not thinking that the tough enough trophy was in there someone sold your wwee contract on ebay oh yeah and i um two years ago i was at a dinner and the guy who has the tough enough trophy was there and he came up to me he was like i'm the one that bought your tough enough trophy i was like oh that's cool he's like yeah you you want want to buy it back from me i'm like nah keep it really he wanted it he wanted 600 bucks for it i'm like you keep it and then i'm thinking, I'm like, what am I going to do with it? And I tell Zach that. He's like, what?

Well, I now first see a YouTube title where you're going to hunt down your YouTube or your, you're tough enough trope. You know what I would do with it? I don't have kids. So there's no one to leave it to. If I did that, I would do something to where I made a video about hunting it down, getting it. And then I would figure out a way to give it to a fan.

Do you not think, though, that the moment of. getting it back is going to bring this rush of emotions from 20 plus years ago of like the place you were at in your life at that point in time? If it does, it'll bring it back for a few seconds and then they'll be gone. Chris, we lose everything. Eventually we lose everything. Seems to be the theme here. I don't, I'm not Matt Cardona. I'm not Devon who has this huge collection. Stuff like that doesn't matter to me. Again, if you walk in my house, there's nothing that says I'm a professional wrestler at all. The closest thing is the tough, I mean, the YouTube plaque. That stays up.

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No, I still, in a grocery store a few months back. And normally, you know, if somebody comes up to me, yo, yo, you're that old wrestler, you won tough enough. Yeah, yeah. I had somebody come up to me. me and say, you're that guy that talks about wrestling and answers questions on YouTube, aren't you? And I was like, I suppose I am.

I suppose I am. But I'm fine with that. Like, I'm okay with aging. I'm okay with, I just can't do what I used to do. And I'm okay with advancing into just the next parts of my life. You know, I've watched these guys now. They're so much more athletic than I was and obviously am now. Yeah, I'm perfectly fine with not being a wrestler anymore.

Would you have another match? Yeah, I mean, if the situation was right, of course. And last night, taking 70 bumps, prove that physically I could at least get through it. I mean, I don't think if, you know, somebody said, hey, we got a three-year storyline. We want you to, I don't know if I could do that. But I definitely would keep it open as far as, man, in this business, you know, never say never. What a run you had. Like when you look at some of the people that you were in the ring with during the time that you were in WWE, it's crazy.

Yeah. Like the match you had, it's you and Goldberg and Sean Michaels against Rick Flair, Triple H, and Randy Orton. Crazy. And at that time, Randy and I were riding together. So, you know, we're wrestling each other technically. And then we're chopping it up in the car afterwards. I'm in there with obviously HBK, one of the goats of the business. And then Goldberg, who at the time did not have a good relationship with a lot of the boys

just because of ego, jealousy. You know, he came in, was making a lot of money, working a limited schedule. Guys were mad. But the fact that I'm in there with these superstars, it just blows my mind. What was the issue you had with Sean Michaels? I don't know if it was an issue as far as, obviously, I was never going to be on Sean's level. Sure. Who is?

Yeah, you're Sean, you're Sean fricking Michaels. Yeah. But every time I would go out and do anything. And mostly it was when he and I were tagging together. We would get backstage and obviously, you know, if I'm, if I'm doing a philosophy seminar and I got Aristotle beside me, I'm going to want to ask him afterwards. Did I get anything wrong? Tell me, how can I be better? I'm like that with Sean.

And he would like berate me backstage. Man, you can't be like the rock. Everything you try to do looks like you're trying to be like the rock. And if it was, it was subconscious. I think it's, you know, we idolize people. So we then emulate people. I wouldn't mean into, but yeah, he, uh, yeah. He shook my hand because he had to, not because he wanted to.

The promo that Rick Flair cut on you backstage. Oh, yeah. It's great because you're toe-to-to-to-to with him, right? And then he cuts, he says a line at the end that is so good. I've had more championships than you've had women. Women, yeah. Yeah, he'd be wrong about that. He'd be wrong once he had 16.

He'd be wrong, but it was a great line. And Rick was so good at just riffing, just on the, even in the ring. I remember wrestling Rick and him, you know, because he would always do the punches. And we didn't go over this earlier in the night. But we're in the ring. He's got me in the corner. And he says, one two, one two, which means he hits me and then I hit him back. And I was just listening to him.

And he'd be like, one. And he would tell me, one, two. That means I'm going to punch you, you punch me back. And just knowing this man's probably done the one two thousands of time, thousands of times against countless of opponents for 30 years. And now he's doing it with me. It's just that's the stuff I hold on to. That's the memories, Chris, that to me bring a smile to my face.

How crazy is it when you're in the ring with an absolute legend and they're selling for you? It's nuts. Like that's the thing that must be so mind. blowing of like, you're so good and you're going to make it look like I'm good. I'm going to explain to you how I throw my drop kick and what I need from you. So it doesn't hurt where it looks like I kick your head off. Like I'm literally having to explain it. There's two guys that have taken a million drop kicks.

So what do you need from someone on a drop kick? Feed me your chest. Feed me your chest. Like if you were coming at me. Feed me that big chest right there. I'll jump and I will plant off your chest. and as I kick you in the chest, which hit hard and safe place, it ain't going to hurt.

I won't hit your face at all. Man, that was the secret. You got up on those drop kicks. I could always jump. Not anymore, but I could jump back in the door. I'm sure you got another drop kick in you. I don't think so. That was one of those things where it's like,

especially during the tough enough days when we saw you do a drop kick. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was day one when we were, on day one of working on that move, I think I threw three and Al went, that's your move. It was just, it's just came natural. Yeah. Yeah.

I had Snitsky on the show recently. I'm sorry. Goodness gracious. It wasn't, it wasn't his fault. Right. How great is Gene? What a good dude. He was nicest guy and still looks like.

Oh, he is jet. He is, yeah, he's still, he looks almost in better shape now. Agreed. Yeah, then back in the day. And when he shakes your hand. Oh, you feel it. Feel like he's going to break it off. Have you ever shook Rick Steiner's hand?

Yes, I have. Rick Steiner has rocks for hands. It is. Yeah. And obviously, Billy Gunn. Billy likes to pull you in. Oh, my gosh, yes. But it was your fault.

It was my fault. With your orbital. You broke his orbital bone. Yeah. I was amped, you know, because we're coming in and pay-per-view. I've been in the back selling. And they told me before I went out, they was like, this is your spot.

This is your spot to shine. In this main event match, we need you. And they told me, they were like, we need you to be a house of fire. And man, I just overdid it.

I had thrown endless number of flying forearms. And that one, you know, and I remember, I still remember hitting him and feeling the crunch. And being like,

oh, God. I got, Vince jumped my ass backstage for that too. Soon as I came back through, Vince meets me. right he jumps up from the monitor meets me at gorilla just yelling at me for being dangerous and he's like you better go check on snitsky now and i'm sitting there bleeding just got took a chair shot you know

i'm fine mince thanks did you know that receipt was coming for you yeah the moment i hit him like was that chair shot part of the match it was part of the match okay so but he just laid it in a little extra the moment i hit him and broke his orbital bone i knew i was like god this is gonna it's gonna suck a little bit more now. But at that point, it's over. That's why the receipt system's so great in wrestling. Receit system. It's so great. Yeah, now it's over. What's the most painful thing you ever did in the ring? The night I broke my elbow wrestling Matt Hardy. It was just a high cross body. He ducks under. I land. But when I landed, I landed on my elbow and it shattered. and it was it hurts so bad like literally so bad but i'll give you two that didn't that that put me

on the shelf and i had to get surgery for yeah two that didn't put me on the shelf when jericho put me in the walls when i was wrestling and again life goes full circle the first wrestling match ever went to richmond coliseum 1986 rick flare was main of inning and then i wrestled jericho in 2002 2002 for the undisputed heavyweight championship in the Richmond Coliseum. Like, how crazy is that? Wow. Yeah. So I'm wrestling Jericho.

He kicks me in the solar plexus. Every bit of air left my body. And we take breathing for granted. The moment you can't breathe, that's the only thing on your mind. It's the scariest thing ever. Obviously, my breath came back. Then he puts me in the walls. And he did it.

He sits back. And we had it. He was like, you know, I'm going to sit down, be reaching for the ropes, you know, sell because you're going to be this close. And when he sat back, he then took it back a couple extra inches. And when he went those extra inches, just was the tough enough kid. He had to do it. It was, I saw the bottom of my shoes from a position and an angle that I've never seen him for while they're on my feet. I'm like, well, that's what the soul.

Yeah, that's what the souls of these wrestling boots look like. And it hurt. Like, you literally see me give up on life. I just, I wanted to be out of it so bad. And I know he did it on purpose because I wrested him a couple years later. And same finish, walls, me tap. And he just, he put it in and didn't go back that extra, extra bit. So that was one.

What was the other one? The, um, oh, shoot. the high cross body or the money splash that the money shot that valvina's through there was one and i took countless time but there was one he threw and i think it was on sunday night heat and he landed on me and the moment he landed on me like because i'm leaning up to absorb the impact and he hits me and the back of my head hit the back of the mat and it was a concussion. I saw stars. And I mean, I was loopy for probably 30 minutes after where. Ref had to help me out of the ring for the money shot, for the money shot, you know,

something you don't even, again, you'd be taken for granted. You don't even think about it. Frog splash. It's a frog splash. Yeah. Yeah. All these years later, do you feel like you have residual effects from what you did? Oh, yeah. Like what? My body hurts daily. I just had an MRI done. My body hurts daily. I just had an MRI done about a month ago. And I have, so I have, three herniated discs in the bottom. And I have a new one that the MRI, if I just found. And my doctor's like, yeah, it's a new herniation. But again, it's a cost of doing business.

It's a price of admission. What will that end up becoming down the line? Eventually surgery. But, I mean, I'm just trying to ride it out. I know you only have a certain number of those surgeries in you. I mean, there's but so much digging a doctor can do once they go in. I see a YouTube video where you go do some DDPY. You're not.

Yeah, I've actually talked to Dallas about Dallas is the best. I thought you were going to say I see a YouTube video, are you going under the knife? And trust me, someone wants that video so bad. He's dying for me to have surgery. I don't want you to have surgery. I want you to go see Dallas so that this gets prolonged as long as possible. I actually would love to. And because what Dallas has been able to do with helping so many people.

I mean, look at Scotty Riggs. How much better he looks like. And to think of where he was mentally, it's just, it's amazing. And look, if it's not for Diamond Dallas Page, Jake the Snake Roberts isn't with us anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Look at what he did for Scott Hall. May you rest in peace.

Yeah. Like, DDP is an angel on earth. Like the world is a better place because DDP is. Absolutely. And what you see, that's Dallas. Yes. He's just, he's that, he's not putting on the front. And with Buff, man, he tried everything with Buff.

He tried so hard to get Buff sober, so hard. And you just have to respect someone that, you know, gives up their home, gives up their time, gives up their knowledge for the betterment of others. Yeah, DDP's so welcoming. Like, the nicest guy. Anytime I mention that I'm going to be anywhere in Georgia, like, I'll just stay with me, bro. Stay with me. I already have a hotel.

Stay with me. It's cancel it. Stay with me. I've got a voicemail on my thing. And he's like, Maven, what's up, brother? It's D.

And he's just, he's somehow, it's still the coolest dude. You know? He'll leave voicemails for me and they'll go, CVV, DDP. Tommy, brother.

All right. Talk to see. CVV. DDP. And it's so good. And it's the coolest thing. I would love to see what he could do with putting me back together because I, back in 2017, I had just a horrible week where my back just was so bad.

I was physically immobile. And I got into a stretching routine. And I've done it religiously ever since then. And if I fly into a new town, I will stretch that night. I stretch every day. And a lot of what I did was Dallas inspired, but then I would love to hear it from the man who knows, oh, you're doing that wrong, brother. Or do more of that or target this.

If you commit to it, he'll be on board with you. Oh, I know he's not the one to, you know, if you make a commitment, he's not going to be the one to, that breaks it. That's for sure. Yeah. But if you're willing to put in the time and the effort, he'll meet you halfway. For where I'm at with my body, I think every wrestler that gets to be 48 feels like this. Some a little worse, some a little better. I mean, I look at like Shelton and Bobby Lashley, these guys, A, still look like a million

bucks, and B can still go. Like, Shelton's just a freak of nature. They just don't make human beings like that that often. I can't believe that you put out that video about Shelton Benjamin talking about his penis. Why? I was going to be a little more subtle. Oh, you were going to say cop, Vic? Which one were you going to use?

Chris. I love that I'm embarrassing you. I was going to say how gifted he was. Shelton, you're welcome, Shelton. Like, I did him a favor. Yeah, here's what's funny. And when we were filming our video with Shelton, he confirmed this. I'm not going to say who.

I'll tell you. Me and used to, we used to in the shower, like Corner Shelton and be like, y'all, dude, man, just work it up a little bit. What are you talking about? And he'd be like, man, you guys are weird. And leave. Are we going to have to edit this out? Probably. Yeah, probably.

But we would always, it's a lock, wrestling lock. I remember busting, busting chops. Shelton is the only guy I've ever asked. I was like, dude, man, have you ever went to be with a girl and her turn you down because it's just too big? And he went, yeah, three. And I was like, man, I was actually kidding. I mean, I did him a favor. Yeah.

You're welcome, Shelton. That's not really. Did you know you were the first person to take a televised F5? Yes. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy. What a debut for Brock Lesnar.

Like, he came out and just destroyed everything inside. Those power bones. Spike got the worst of that. It was like Spike O to Money. I thought, and being able to watch that front row. And another one, Spike's another one who I saw recently, and he gets along. I'm so happy that he feels the way he does. Spike should feel so much worse than he does.

Spike should be in a wheel wheel. chair. Yeah. He looks great. It's unreal. It's a long great. Yeah. You know, he, and Spike knew that once he got out of wrestling, he was going to transition back into society. And he did it. Not many people can do that. So, but a lot of people, it's tough. Once you have people cheering for you, once you hear your name, you see your name against the other, it's hard to go back to being the real world. So when Brock's telling you, I've got this move, he's never done. in WWE before. How does he tell you to take it? There wasn't no telling me how he's going to take it. It's, I'm going to grab you, put you up on my shoulders. What do you need for me, bro?

Nothing. He just lay flat. He's like, I'll do the rest. And he did. I even asked him why we were working on it during the day. I was like, do you need me to like hoist myself up? You need me to boost? He laughed at me. He said, no, I got you. And then once he grabbed me, I realize I'm a child to him. Like, I'm literally, the way you probably run and grab and pick your two-year-old up, that's how he was with me. It was, yeah. Brock Lezzer throwing you around like you're a little kid. It was, I was nothing. I was a sack of potato to him.

I was enough. You know, there's tomahawk steaks eats. That's what I was to him. Yeah. One of the strongest men ever. Man. I say it. A wrestling locker room, it's high school all over again.

Only difference. Everyone was the prom king and the prom queen, everyone in that locker room. And it's the truth. Think about everyone back there is the big deal from where they come from. It's amazing. I could have you on the show every few months and we'd still have an hour or so of stuff to talk about. It's amazing. How long we've been going like 10 minutes?

We've been going for an hour and one minutes. Holy cow. I've got to get me one of those cool little times. You don't need one of those. This is the record. That's the recorder. That's the Zoom H4N. Let's get real nerdy here. Zach, you've got much better. Zoom H. We just. You had the road go to, right? Yeah, yeah. We just transitioned. We're getting real nerdy there with the talking about microphones. I know nothing about any of this. We just transitioned to HD cameras. Like, we just changed. 4K, you mean?

Yeah. Everything was shot in HD for many years. I'm going to be giggling. We just transitioned to what? 4K. 4K. And we did it while we were doing the buff video. What did we? The thing about 4K.

The battery, that overheat. And also the files are massive, massive files. So then you're bringing them into your editing software. And the rendering time is huge, right? So we did one or two videos in 4K, but like between for my episodes, the trailer getting edited, the clips getting edited, the shorts, and then the full interview, the rendering time was just insane. So for now, just 1080P on the Sony A74. Sure. Honestly, if he wasn't around, what's a render? I wouldn't have a clue how to get a video

onto YouTube if he wasn't around. Like, I'd tell him all the time. If anything happens to him, well, it deals a good run. I wouldn't have a clue how to even upload a video. I would not know how to put anything to YouTube. I'm dead serious. I love it. You know what I'd be doing? I'd be calling you. Hey man, can you upload this for me?

I'll do what I can, man. The thing is like when I started in TV, I did everything. Really? Yeah, I wrote, shot, edited, and I was on camera. I was at a tiny station in Peterborough, Ontario. That's where Bobby Rood is from. Yeah. Checks TV and you're a one-man band.

You do it all. So you go out, you're shooting the story. you're setting up the tripod, you're focusing, you're white balancing, you're asking the questions. Then you got to do all that, set it up for yourself. So you're like, oh, as you can see behind me here, like you're doing the whole thing. Then you get back and you're ingesting the footage and you're editing. I did it all. So wearing all of those hats early in my career gave me such an appreciation for how all

of this works now. I was going to ask how much of that knowledge transitions to what you do now. All of it. Because it gives me such an appreciation. for like, all right, maybe this shot should be framed as a medium instead of a long shot or a wide shot. Yeah. I think about those things all the time.

Yeah. And like I will now watch something with a critical eye, like watching behind the scenes of like, oh, look what they're shooting on there. Oh, that's interesting. Now that I do. I still watch other YouTubers and out of the wrestling space. And I watch somebody and I'll be like, ooh, I send him stuff all the time. And I'm like, I like what they did here.

Can we do something like this? I'm so inspired by stuff that is outside of the wrestling space. I feel like if I can bring little bits of that stuff, that's all we've done into the wrestling space. That's all we've done. That's literally all we've done. When we started, he told me, he's like, listen, wrestlers do it wrong. When they're doing Zoom calls with each other, it's just not visually appealing. Nothing bothers me more than like massive headroom or like terrible audio because if it looks like crap, the perception.

is reality. It looks like crap, people are going to think it's crap. But if it sounds like crap, they just outright won't watch. Absolutely. They won't put up with bad audio that much I know. And how and like when people misuse space, when they have like these two tiny heads and then all these like graphics going on around them and everything or or open space. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I see things differently now. When there's 17 things on the screen during an interview. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Advertisements. Or. Or just like colors and everything. The name of the show, the name of the guest, an advertisement, the episode number here.

No, keep it simple, stupid. You know the best compliment that my partner can give me while we're filming is when he goes, ooh, you're starting to think like a creator. Because that means I gave a bit of advice that he appreciates. And I'm thinking like in the world of being a creator now. That's what I am. that's what I am. Well, I can't wait to see what you guys do for a million.

Do you have a date in mind for when you want to hit a million subscribers? I mean, what, want to? Tomorrow, like, will probably, what do you think? You're 300-ish away. 300ish away, yeah. I think less than a year. Probably maybe next summer. Yeah, next Memorial Day.

Here's what we've noticed. Just made that up. Here's what we've noticed. And tell me if you, we know. We notice after all these big pay-per-views, our channel hits a lull. And I think that's everybody in the wrestling space. I contacted Stevie and asked him one time because we had two years where we were riding high and then they just went down a little bit.

And I asked Stevie, I was like, are you noticing a decline? And he said yes. So I think we ride the train with wrestling. I think there's no better time of the year than right before WrestleMania for our videos. And, you know, and then right around football season, too, people's minds are elsewhere. Our, you know, videos go down a little bit. So that's why we're trying different ideas. Maybe it's by WrestleMania next year.

Brother, I hope your lips, God's ears. I hope the goodness gracious. Well, hopefully some people watching right now hit a power bomb on that subscribe button for your channel. We are stole one of your ideas, too. And that would be the clips channel. We even we even highlighted it and put the logo exactly like your CVV clips channel. Yeah. That channel has, it blew me away the growth that channel got.

We have, and I'm so excited because our editor, Zach's brother, he's not full time. He's full time with another job and he's just quit his job and he's going to be full time with us shortly. So I'm so excited. I'm hoping that we can get the clips channel up and running and get that out and have, you know, just like you, two successful channels because your clips channel is massive. It's insane. It just passed two billion views. That's insane.

That's nuts. Yeah. That is insane. Congratulations. Thank you. Well deserved. But what you just said is the best part about what we do is bringing other people into this. Other creative people who want to be able to do this.

Yeah. By you and I having a YouTube channel, we're able to allow them to be able to do what they want to do for a living too. Yeah. That is the coolest part about being a creator. Here's what I love. It's that for my wrestling career, the only thing I was going to be known for was the Undertaker Spot and Rumble. I'm a realist. I know that.

I didn't have this stellar, you know, 15-year, three-time champion career. I just didn't have that. I know now that I'm going to leave my mark in the YouTube space, and I'm fine with that. I'm so content with that. When I talk to other wrestlers and they ask me questions about how to do what we're doing, man, that humbles me. And it actually, I look at it as almost a service I need to provide.

And I love helping others. I love, again, just like you. I'm gracious with what we have. I'm grateful for what we have. And I want others to experience the same thing. So on that note, I will ask you the question that I ask everybody, I've asked it to you many times.

Again, thank you for making this happen. Brother, always such a pleasure to be able to catch up with you. Sorry, I was 12 minutes late in maven time. That's, trust me, if I,

if I asked my girl that, you know, I'll be 12 minutes late from here on out for the rest of our lives. Will you sign up for that? She'd sign on that dotted line tomorrow. It's 12 minutes late, it's early for you. Golden, that's gold.

Well, thank you for making this happen. I was good to be able to catch up with you on camera, off camera. I love it. What are three things you're grateful for, Maven? You know what? We talked about it earlier. Loyalty.

I'm grateful for just the people in my life who have stood by me at my lowest and always been loyal to help me, you know, reach where I'm at now because they saw something in me even when I didn't. Obviously, I'd say it every time, but it's still, if you don't have this in life, it's hard to get up in the morning. Hope. Hope to me is everything. Like, you talk about a million, I hope to get there and it drives me. It keeps me going. And just opportunity. I look at what we're doing. I look at where we're doing. I look at where we're hoping to go. We sent an interesting email out yesterday, which might be a new opportunity.

And I embrace new opportunities. And I'm just looking forward to what the future holds. I love it, brother. Yeah. Thank you. I love you, man. Love you, brother. Thank you. Look forward to number five. Want to do it in two weeks? See you then. Okay. There we go. What a guy. Love hanging out with Maven. I feel like we should have him on the show every few months and we would never run out of things to talk about. I love it. Check out Maven's channel right now just for his latest videos and make sure to keep an eye on it tomorrow as I will be doing a collaboration with him and I can't wait for you to see it. Also, why did it take us so long to get the Maven t-shirt? The Hey guys, Maven here, T-shirt. I will be buying several of those.

Can't wait for them to come out. Again, congrats to Maven and Zach on all of the success they're having on YouTube and it's just a matter of time, like less than a year for sure, but just a matter of time until they hit a million subscribers on there. You'll love to see it. I'll wrap this up with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt. It is hard to fail, but it is worse, never to have tried to succeed. Be great and be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. We've got Ask CVV number 99. tomorrow. I'll see you right back here for that one. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary.

Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them?

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