Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Maven on The Undertaker, Tough Enough, Theme Music and What's He's Doing Now after WWE

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

Maven Huffman is a former WWE Superstar and the winner of the first season of "Tough Enough" on MTV. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at The Legends of Hamburg Fan Fest in Hamburg, PA to talk about his time in WWE, being a school teacher before he submitted an audition tape for Tough Enough, how he knew he was going to win the show, eliminating The Undertaker from the 2002 Royal Rumble and the chair shot that followed, why he never liked his entrance theme, working as a host for HSN, his run-in with the law, going to rehab, what he's up to now and much more! If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? 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.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm Chris Vanfleet. So good to have you with us for this one. So good to be able to sit down in person with Maven for this conversation. He doesn't know a lot of interviews. So it was such a pleasure to be able to join him and look him in the eye, shake his hand, and talk about his journey from school teacher to tough enough winner,

to WWE superstar, to now life after WWE. and of course everything in between. We did this at the Legends of Hamburg fan fest in Hamburg, Pennsylvania last weekend. It was so awesome to be able to meet and talk with so many of you guys who listen to this show. So thank you for stopping by and saying hello there. And speaking of that,

I'm going to be in Fort Worth, Texas at the Independent Wrestling Expo on August 7th. So if you live in and around the Fort Worth or Dallas area, or if you're able to travel in to the Fort Worth or Dallas, area. It'd be so great to see you there. I've got all the details on my Twitter at Chris Van Vleet. So it's August 7th, the Independent Wrestling Expo. I hope to see you there. It's also been great seeing all these new reviews on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time out of their day to just leave a few words or a few emojis on there, whatever

it happens to be. Trust me. It really, really helps the show and it helps the show to climb the charts and be up there with the likes of Talkas Jericho and Corny. and all of Conrad's incredibly successful shows. So thank you. This one is from Blue Cash 03, who writes, bought my first iPhone. As I was buying my first iPhone, first thing that immediately popped into my mind was,

I have to leave CVV a review. I'm a longtime listener. I really enjoy your interviews. To quote Booker T, my faves are T.J. Wilson, Tomatanga, Kylie, Ray, Kurt Angle, MJF. I listen to your interviews while I work. and I don't have the most glamorous night shift job,

but I'm definitely in better spirits while listening. I've recommended your show to my coworkers, and now we listen to a random episode tonight. Most of them are non-wrestling fans, but they're entertained by the stories. A group of them even had to watch some J. Leithel matches after his interview. Keep up the great work.

P.S., if you ever get the chance, I'd love an interview with Chale Sunnan or Daniel Cormier. Well, thank you so much, Blue Cash-O-3. I'm glad we can hang out together. on those night shifts. Yet, Shale Sunnan is definitely someone who is on my wish list of interviews. So let's see if we can make that happen before the end of the year. If you haven't left a review yet and you happen to be listening on Apple Podcasts, it would be incredible. If you could leave a review and I will read one out on every single episode as my way of saying,

thanks for being on this ride. Okay, let's get this ride going. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome in person. Maven. It's so good to be able to see you in person. My pleasure. No, the pleasure is all mine. Thank you for making this happen. It's my pleasure.

Honestly, I wish I could say I do a lot of interviews. I wish I could say I do a lot of this kind of stuff. I don't. Yeah. But if there's one person that I'm glad to be doing them for, it's you. Oh, my gosh. I'm honored, brother. Please keep going.

Thank you. You only do this for 20 or 30 more minutes. That's very kind. So thank you very much. And I know you don't do a lot of interviews. So when I saw your name here, We're at Legends of Hamburg and Hamburg, Pennsylvania right now.

When I saw your name on the list, I went, oh, I need to reach out to Maven. Okay, now, that doesn't see, why? Why me? Because exactly what you just said. You don't do a lot of interviews. Okay, all right. And I think a lot of people are watching this right now,

we're listening to this going, what has Maven been up to? Huh. Well, we're going to find out. Yeah. I think that a lot of people think that your career was just, you won tough enough, you had the Undertaker spot of the Royal Rumble,

and then that was it. You were in WWE, for almost five years. Yeah, I was. And even after that, when T&A was first starting, I was doing a lot of their house shows. I was doing a lot of shows to get, you know, to get that, that organization up and running. So, you know, I was in the business for a long time. I transitioned out shortly thereafter, but, you know, I'm under no illusion to think of the, I had the career, you know, of one of the top guys. But I think I had a pretty good career, a respectable career, if nothing else. Memorable for sure. I, well, I mean, if you, if you, you. I mean, if you. You know, if you. You know, I mean, if you

you remembered it, then yeah, I guess so. Well, also the fact that you were the first ever Tough Enough winner. I was. That was a huge show on MTV. And it was groundbreaking. And, you know, I'm sweating. It's hot. It's about 8,000 degrees inside this, uh, this bingo ball.

Not even two minutes in. Not even, yeah, we bring it out the sweat round. It's going to be out all the whole damn time. No, if you think about when the show started, the show, you know, tough enough, uh, came out, what was it, two, that? It was pre-9-11. So it was like 2001. We started filming.

They filmed the show. And this was the early days of reality television. Back before, you can make a career out of being a reality star. Literally, going into it, we were promised one thing, and that was a chance to get into the WBE. I'll tell you a secret, too, that I haven't told very many because I kind of feel stupid. When I was interviewing to go on tough enough, the MTV people pulled me aside, and they asked me, they said, do you want to be a wrestler or do you want to be on TV? And they offered me a spot on the upcoming real world or a road rules coming up.

But I was a wrestling fan. I grew up watching wrestling, and that's what I wanted to do. Wow. Did you want to be a wrestler when you were a kid? How do you become an astronaut? Same thing is, how do you become a wrestler? I did, but, you know, who knew how to get into that business? Yeah.

And so I was a school teacher. I was teaching sixth grade. I can't believe people trusted me with their kids, but they did. And you're how old at the time? 22. 22 years old. I was my second year teaching sixth grade. I was a high school baseball coach.

I'm living in Portland, Oregon. And I was at home with a buddy of mine watching Rawl. And Jim Ross came on and was like, you ever wanted to be a wrestler? And I was like, yes, yeah, I had, I do. and things fell into place at that point. I made the dumbest video you could imagine. How dumb were we talking? All right. This is how dumb.

Neoprene shirt, skin tight neoprene shirt, indoor with sunglasses on. I acted like I was reading a newspaper that the person recording the video interrupted. So I put the paper down and then I went into my spiel. Total heel maneuver. It was just complete ridiculousness. Did you go into it going, I'm going, oh, the sweat rag is back. I'm a sweater. It's okay.

I've always been like that. And we're in, we're in a bingo hall. I'm looking at an exhaust fan. Yeah, there is, there's no AC in here. No AC. Yeah. Smells good, though. Did you think that when you audition for the show that you were going to get?

Not a chance. Really? I almost walked out. We went to New York. My first time ever in New York, I flew from Oregon because I got, here's an even better, better one part of that. Me and my buddies, we play jokes on each other. sure you and your friends.

Sure, yeah. So I'm in my classroom and the phone rings. I've got sixth grade, you know, going on. And pick up the phone and the lady on the other end went, Maven, this is Christina from WWF and MTV. I went, yeah, right, tell Kirk very funny. And I hung up. And then I called him later.

I was like, ah, very cute having that person call. And he was like, nah, that wasn't me. He's like, I did not. If that was somebody calling you. So I prayed they called back. They did. and they invited me to New York. I went and it was at Times Square

when WWF New York used to be out there in Times Square. I get there and I see, and like if you want to get into steroids later, I'm one of the wrestlers that admitted, yeah, I took them. I took a lot. I love the reaction that it gave me. Probably not great for my health, but I did it. I'm not going to hide that.

I get there, never taking anything, and I'm seeing all these gigantic, enormous jackdudes And I'm 205. I'm like, what am I doing here? I almost left right then. The only reason I didn't is because I paid for a plane ticket to get there, and I said, I'm going to see this through. Wow.

I was this close to leaving, this close to leaving. And then it was like a two-day process. And by the end of the second day, I was on the show. And at that point, no part of me ever thought I was going to have to quit my teaching job. But I had a plane ride back to Oregon to figure out how I was going to. going to get it done. Did you fly out there going, I am not only going to make it on this show? No.

I'm going to win this show. No. I went out there saying I'm going to go to New York for my first time ever. I'll be back on Monday, class. Wow. That was my mindset. So then when you did get on the show, did you go, all right, this is starting to get a little bit more real?

Well, once I was on it, at that point, who did you look at as your main competition? Chris, Chris Nguinsky. Yeah. And for the mere fact that he had wrestled before. And he was good. He was a big kid. And Vince likes big guys. Yeah.

And Chris was, you know, good two inches taller and I was. Yeah. Probably 30 pounds bigger. Harvard educated. Well, fuck that. And I... Of course, the internet. All right.

I like that. Harvard educated. Yeah, yeah. What about Josh Matthews? That's what I was going to say. Josh was the best wrestler, in-ring technical wrestler in there. But Chris, I just thought. that, like, you know how your mind plays tricks on you?

You know, you start seeing a, or you see a girl, and you're like, I, she can't like me for this, this, and this, and this reason. Well, that's what my mind was doing to me. You know, the WWD's not going to want me because of this, this, and this. And, of course, I thought they're going to want someone like Nguinsky, who's got experience, not going to make them look stupid. And, you know, he was technically good enough and had a decent look. Josh was by far the best wrestler.

Yeah. Josh was doing everything in the ring. And, you know, those two I knew were my, were my competition. But I went in, I was all in. I quit my job. I sold my car. And I pretty much knew that when it was over, if I didn't win, I was moving back home with my mom. So I was all in.

So you picked up your life and moved to where? It's from, I was in Oregon. And if it didn't work out there, I was going to have to move back to Virginia with my mom. Because I was going to be jobless. And then where were they? filming the show? New York. Well, right outside of Stanford, Connecticut. Oh, and then you were going into where they had

basically the PC before it was the PC. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and it's true. We filmed in a place called tracks. It was right off, you know, literally, right, two miles from where the main office is, or was, the Titan Center. And we were

there every day and we lived in a house right, a couple miles away. Yeah. I don't feel like you really had the chance to, like, train as much you probably should have. Never. Every other tough enough winner after you, disappeared for a little while,

went to Developmental. I think they kind of went, this is our first reality show star. We want to show off our bright, shiny, new toy. They did. And I'm gonna tell it. I guarantee you, there's a couple things that I can say

that I know no other wrestler can say. Here's one of them. My first three matches ever. First three matches were on Smackdown. Who else can say that? Like, everybody else they're wrestling, you know, places like this or high school gyms, which is good.

Yeah, well, that's how you get the reps in. Exactly. You need to get, yeah, you need to get the reps in. You need to get, there's some seasoning that has to take place before you know what to do. I literally walked out, and I remember right before my first match with Taz, I'm standing up in guerrilla position, the area right before the curtain. I got Vince McMahon, I got Pat Patterson, I got Jerry Briscoe. I got Taz telling me, oh, kid, it's going to be all right, we'll be fine.

And I've got 30,000 or whatever thousand people out in the arena. I literally, if I would have been given an option and death would have been one of them, I might have taken it. I was that scared. Wow. I was that scared. If you could go back and change anything or tell yourself something before getting on to that flight to New York, what would you tell yourself? Live the ride.

Just enjoy. Enjoy every minute of this because life's fleeting and time and especially youth. Now that I'm getting older, now that, you know, my wrestling days are behind. behind me. Those are the experiences like that, excitement like that, that's what we live for. Yeah. That's what makes life worth living. Yeah. And, you know, just enjoy the uncomfortable moments as much as you do the comfortable moments. Yeah, because that time probably felt like the longest time of your life while you was happening and the shortest time of your life when it was done. Now that it's done. Exactly. And that's the best, that's the best way to describe it.

Getting back to tough enough real quick. Yeah, of course. A lot of people to, I knew I was winning going in to it before. They told you? Well, in so many words. My mom was sick at the time. My mom was battling cancer, and I had to leave the show probably nine weeks show we filmed,

probably at week seven, I had to leave the show. 13 people started tough enough, eight quit, which I couldn't get. You're doing this. Is it going to be easy? No. It's going to hurt. It's going to be, it's going to suck. Yeah. But I'm not going to quit. I only thing it could have made me quit was my mom.

You know, I sit big down and Al Snow down, and I'm like, listen, I don't want to leave, but my mom's sister literally just sent me a message saying, your mom's in the hospital, they don't know if she's going to make it through the weekend. I got to leave. I got to go. I don't want to, but I have to. I'll pick up training on my own when I'm, you know, when I figure out what's up with her. And they told me, they were like, Listen, we'll stop the show right. We'll fly you home, figure it out. And without the cameras there, they were pretty much like, listen, you're our frontrunner right now.

You get home and you get back here. Just don't be a fuck up. And it's pretty much yours. But the fact that they were willing to go, take care of your personal business first. Yeah, no, that's, that's. And I don't know, like, if people's got beef with anybody, the whole time my mom was sick. and she ended up passing in 2004. When she finally did get really, really, really sick at the end,

she was in the hospital for 80 days. The WWE told me, go. You could be with her. You spend this time with her. Checks came every week. Wow. They were like, and they never rushed me back. After she passed, they were like, you take as much time as you need.

Yeah. I can't imagine a corporation being more understandable, more forgiving during that time. Wow. That's a really amazing. No, it's, it's, and I'm still to this day appreciative of that. There's also a lot of guys that go, I know you're telling me I can go, but I'm worried that when I come back, I won't have my spot here. But it's great that you trusted them, they trusted you.

Yeah, and there was no option. Like, of course. Well, it's like, it was my mom. Yeah. And if I would have came back and not had a job, then guess what? I would have done something else. Yeah. I've always looked at life that way, though.

It's, it's, yeah, this didn't work out. Something will come up. Yeah. I'll do something else. Yeah. What are you doing now? You're a good transition. I mean, you teed that up for me.

A good interview will always take it. No, I actually, crazy enough, I work in that weirdest industry you can work in now. I work in finance and city and Wall Street. You work on Wall Street. Yeah, I travel into Wall Street. You're the real-life JBL. No. I travel in and I work for a company, you know, right on John Street.

work with some interesting, you know, interesting cats because I had never in my life worked in finance before. Got this job. Found out a lot of people in this industry are into music. Honestly, never, everybody I work with has a demo coming out, a CD coming out, or a video coming out. Literally. Yeah. So you commute in from where?

I live in Jersey, New Jersey. Yeah. So we're here in Hamburg. You drove here. I drove here about two hour drive. Wow. Yeah. I was looking, you don't have social media, do you?

I don't. Unless you do, if you do, it's like a private thing? I don't. I've never, I never got into it. There was a Twitter that I found that was supposedly yours. Yeah. And the last tweet was like, I'm now in dental sales. Nah.

Never sold, never been in dental sales today in my life. So that's not you. Speaking of New York, I'm sure you know the story. Ariel Hawani saw you outside of a sports bar. You know who that is? Yeah. Saw you outside of a sports bar. working as a bouncer.

I was, yeah. And basically said, like, Maven did not want to be recognized. Like, he was not happy that I recognized him. Not that I didn't want to be recognized. I, oh, is there more than that story? No, that was just basically,

this was like eight years ago, seven years ago. I had an incident, you know, probably back 2012. I was working for the home shopping network. Had a legal incident, had to leave that job, moved to New York,

start everything ground, you know, right, from fresh, from, you know, people say I'm starting from scratch. I literally was starting from scratch. And I knew a guy, a good friend, offered me a job, say he had a bar. So get back up on your feet.

Yeah, put some cash in your pocket. I took it. But I wasn't trying to be recognized. I wasn't trying to be like, hey, I'm out here. The rest, though, wrestlers out here. It wasn't anything like that. It wasn't that I didn't want to be recognized. I didn't expect to be recognized.

So was it, were you almost a little bit embarrassed that you were being recognized? I'd be lying. If I would say, no, I wasn't a little bit. Of course I was a little bit embarrassed. Yeah. I mean, I went from, within a year, I went from being the on-air host for everything sports-related on HSN to I had a life hiccup. Yeah.

And now I'm, you know, I'm standing in, you know, on a street, you know, at three in the morning. Yeah. You know, checking IDs for somebody to come into a bar. Anybody who says that that doesn't embarrass them a little bit, it's lying to. Yeah. I'm telling you, I come to these events and stuff, these signings, and I love them, and I love meeting the fans. It's a lot of fun.

But to do something like this, not the venue I probably would have chosen. I would have rather you come by my office. Okay, I will. We'll do another one. And that's an open invitation. Okay, there it is. Next time I'm in New York City.

Next time, I'm all due to do that. Okay. Done. Done. I like that you refer to this as a life hiccup. Because it's probably one of the worst times of your life. It was. But in hindsight, also probably something

that really helped to turn things around for you. I mean, I'd hate to say that it, I hate to say this, they'd probably save my life. Wow. You know, I mean, and that's just real talk, you know. And it was a life hiccup. It interrupted with what I had going on, but what I had going on wasn't sustainable. So it needed to be, I needed an interruption.

And I've always believed that I can always reinvent myself, you know, with a job. I can always reinvent myself with what I'm doing. Yeah. And I have not landed a grander. great job like that since. However, I'm still here. I'm still able to do stuff like this. You still look great. God bless you. Thank you. It's true. Thank you.

Was it because of wrestling that you were addicted to pills? I mean, that was that where it started? Absolutely. Okay. And it's, I mean, it wasn't, you know, wrestling didn't do it. I did it. But sure. I would have never, and this just sound crazy.

I wouldn't even take Tylenol for a headache back before then. Bro, I remember the first pill I ever took, I was like, yeah, I'm on to something here. So, is that wrestling doing it? But were you in pain? At the time I was. I mean, I just had hand surgery, so. Yeah, yeah.

But then, you know, it's just, that's life, man. Man, is it, is it the crazy, slippery slope that everyone talks about? It is. It is. One pill turns into two, turns into two, turns into 30 to turns into, I was at that, when, when that happened, to me, I was taking close to 40 to 50 a day. My goodness. Wow.

But here's what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. I could function on them. I could do it and go and do two hours. You probably couldn't function if you weren't on them. Yeah, but I'm saying, yeah, you're right. Yeah. I could do them and go do two hours on HSN.

Wow. Yeah. And sell the hell out of some football merchandise. But as you're taking a fistful of these, are you going, this is not sustainable. What am I doing? I wish my brain would have thought that. Of course, deep downs in the corners.

Yeah, I knew that. Yeah. This ends bad. That's what I knew. This ends bad, just not today. Yeah. It isn't the next day. This ends bad, just not today.

Wow. And you just put that off long enough, and the next thing you know, you're three, four years later. Still telling yourself the same thing. This is bad, not today. Did you think you were going to get caught? Get caught?

Yeah. No. Hell no. Well, because what I was doing, I didn't really view it as illegal. I mean, I wasn't buying them illegally. I wasn't selling a single one of them. I was just going to see too many doctors. Which in Florida is not okay.

Well, everywhere is not okay. But it was just, it was your stupidity. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I literally, the guy shows up and I'm like, what are you doing here? Really? That's bad. I was like, that's a bad thing? Oh, no.

And I was like, I'm not selling them. And he was like, oh, I know. He's like, you just got a problem. And I did. And I did. And I did. So. And then, in a way, like, I'm serious, man. I saved my life.

Yeah. And then did you reach out to WWE or did they reach out to you? They reached out to me. They reached out to me. It was on, it went out, it hit the news waves probably a day or two later. Yeah. It was on TMZ. Yeah.

And later on that day, that day, Johnny Ace reached out. Devon, a couple other boys reached out to me. And, like, because, like, no one knew I had a problem, you know? because I could maintain, I could hide it. Yeah. And, you know, and I did tell them, I was like, it's not a problem to me. I love it, you know. But obviously, it wasn't sustainable.

Yeah. You know, I needed that. And, you know, it hit me financially pretty difficult. But, you know, it's just life, you know. And at life, you're going to have a few times where you get kicked down. Yeah. You know, and it's not about falling down. It's about hopefully falling forward.

Yeah. Yeah. Did rehab help to get you back to where you wanted? to be. How, that's, that's a weird question because rehab's going to fail. Because I went to rehab once before that, actually, and it didn't work. Rehab only works if you're ready for it. Sure.

And that's just true talk. Yeah. And, you know, they tell you when you get there too, and it's true, you can't quit for your kids, your parents, you can't quit for a spouse. You have to be ready to quit for you or you will fail. And that's true. It took me losing what I had for me to be like, all right, enough.

That's enough. 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 Clemenberg. 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. U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Henco, follow and listen on your favorite platform. You had a really good run after WWE. And we'll get into the WWE stuff here in a minute, but you had a great hosting career,

a great reality TV show career. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was, yeah, it was, it's hard to believe. It's hard to think back that I worked for BET and HSN and I did the surreal life and stuff. A lot of, I was able to do a lot of cool stuff that just looking back is just like, I'm a country boy, man. I grew up in Virginia in a small town.

Literally, my high school had 400 kids in it. And, you know, I've been able to see all the things I've been able to see. So I consider myself, I count myself fortunate each and every day. Do you still have dreams, aspirations to continue to work in show business? Of course. Okay. Yeah, those will never die. Yeah, I mean, you still look the same age.

Like, you seriously have not aged. Maybe it's because you have the same haircut that you had back then. That's never. And, you know, it's weird. If I do grow my hair out, I mean, it's a little grayer. It shows a little bit more wear its hair. Sure. But if I shave, it does.

It allows me to try to look a little. Yeah. Thank you, Chris. It's true. Thank you, bro. It's damn true, and you're still in great shape, too. Thank you, bro. Yeah.

I feel like everybody that was walking up to you here was talking to you about the Undertaker Spot of the Royal Rumble. Everyone. Like, that's one of the big highlights of your WWE career. Made my wrestling career. I am curious. Were you supposed to go through the second rope? No.

No. Because then it turned into a storyline where you got a title shot the next day against Chris Jericho. But so who messed that up? Oh, take her fuck that up. Big time. I mean, of course he did. And I told him, I was like, listen, when you throw me out, throw me out. It was honestly, it was something that just no one thought about.

It wasn't a fuck up at the time. It wasn't a, it was just something that, like, the spot was kicking him. then the spot was him coming in and me cowering and no, I didn't mean to do it. Yeah, yeah. And after that was just the chair shot, which I still will say was probably one of the hardest chair shots ever. And then the whole popcorn machine. No one, myself, Taker, I don't think anyone even thought about the whole going through the rope scenario. And then it blew up on the internet.

Haven's not eliminated, to which they fixed it with the type of shot. the next day. Jericho. Yeah. When they approached you, you're going to have a spot at the Royal Rumble. Not only are you going to have

a spot at the Royal Rumble with Undertaker, but you're going to eliminate Undertaker. I dare to say the spot. Because if you ask anybody to mention anything from the 2002 Royal Rumble.

Oh, yeah. What are they going to say? A lot of people might not even remember who won the Royal Rumble. I don't. But they will remember. I don't. I got no clue.

That's amazing. I have honestly no clue. But they will remember how the Understack $10 million here for me to remember. I could, I couldn't even guess. I could not even venture a guess. I'm dead serious.

Everyone in the comments is going, come on. Yeah, I know. There's a bunch of, there's so many people out there right now that know the order, which everybody went out. Yeah. I have no close. When they approached you with you at, were you like, are you, wow, are you serious? All right.

So at the time, I was finally training and I was in, uh, HWA. I was in Cincinnati. So they flew me up and then, and all they told me in Cincinnati is, yeah, they're flying to Atlanta. You're probably going to have a spot in the Rumble. Okay. They'll have me come out. I'll get to, you know, come out.

But I'd wrestle a couple times. I think I'd wrestle Tazzo's three times. I'd also wrestled Booker on Smackdown. So I had had a little bit more TV experience by this time. Yeah. I'm walking to the ring. I get to the arena. I'm walking to the ring.

Shane and Taker come up and see me. And they're like, hey, we want to tell you what we got going on tonight. And already, like, why is Shane? Why does he care? And definitely why is Taker here. Yeah. I thought it would be one of the agents coming up to me.

I thought it would be Briscoe or Arne or somebody. Hey, you're coming out, you know, 17th. You're going out 18th, you know. And then they tell me, they're like, yeah, so Taker's going to shit can't everybody out, the Hardy's leader. And then you're going to come out. It's going to be you and him.

And he's going to do something. And then you're going to hit him with that drop kick and eliminate. And I'm like, And take her, no lie. Turns down, looks at Shane and he goes, are you fucking kidding me? And I didn't know, I thought he was like being told this information at the time too. And I'm just like, Jesus, I'm dead.

And I'm like, oh, God, please just die right now. And he turns down and looks and winks at me. That's what goes to show the professional he was. He was willing to put me over. Yeah. And to do me that favor, but to do the business. It wasn't just for me. It was for just the wrestling business, you know, for the tough enough franchise for, you know, if that doesn't happen, do six more tough enoughs or however many

more tough enough to happen. Who knows? Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Um, and from that, you know, I'll spend the rest of my life, no matter if that's today or 100 years from now, answering questions about that and I'm perfectly fine with it. I love it. He gave me a career. Yeah. He gave me a career. He did. He did. Yeah. And it's that one moment that, again, everybody will always, yeah. People forget the stuff you did with evolution. Yeah.

You were in WWE for almost five years. I was. Yeah. I got to do a lot of cool stuff. I mean, how many people can say they have a pinfall victory against evolution? I mean, against Batista. Yeah. How many people can say that they have a pinfall victory against Undertaker?

Yeah, it's, yeah. I also thought that you had one of the best entrance themes at the time. Everybody, like, oh. It's so good. Good. Everybody. It's, I don't love it. Really? No, and it's the saddest thing because it's more, all right, if people bring up the Undertaker thing first, they bring up my music second most. And that's no joke. Everyone loves it but me. And I feel bad because the band, the band is great. It's a good song. Here's what it is. It's a good song. It's just not the song I would have picked for me to come out.

What would you have picked? When I was growing up and thinking of myself, late at night coming out. That's not the entrance theme I had in my mind. Yeah. Oh, God. You know about heart. Listen to it. I do.

It just wasn't me. It just, what would I have picked? At the time, you know, I mean, I was probably into a little bit more hip-hop music at the time. Sure. You know, or to this day, I mean, if I'm like, if I need something to get really, like, just, just, just pumped to, I mean, I'll go back to old, like, kickstart my heart. Heart, you know, Motley Crew and stuff like that. You know, old Metallica,

stuff like that. Ah, remember, what is it? Stranglehold, Ted Nugent. To me, that's the best music. That's the best opening music ever. That should have been Maven's entrance thing. I'd be playing it over to the loudspeaker right now if that was it. But it's just, and I, you know, the song,

another thing, I love the song because of what, how much the fans love it. Yeah. Did you think that you ever had a chance in WWA where you, You were on, like, right there about to do something big and it was just taken away from you? Yeah. I mean, was it taken away from me? I don't know if it was taken away from me, but, do I don't think they used me. Like, I could have been a lot better.

I could have been a lot better on the mic. Yeah. Than a lot of the guys, I think that they had that were getting mic time. I think they could have done more with me. Yeah, I definitely think they could have, you know, exposed, you know, just more of my, you know, personality. And because trust me, when I left and I started doing stuff with T&A, I'm a hell of a heel. Like, I'm a damn good bad guy. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, damn good bad guy. So when you did get released, were you kind of like, yeah, you know, they weren't really doing anything with me at the time? No, just next step. What's next? Yeah. Keep moving. You fall.

But did you expect it to happen? The release? Yeah. No, it caught me off guard. It caught me off guard. I was totally surprised. What was the reason that they gave you? Just a lot.

lack of storyline, you know, and I was doing stuff with Simon Dean, I was tagging. And usually when you're in singles and they relegate you to tag, you know, that's, that's never good. Yeah. So, I mean, it didn't completely catch me off guard, but, you know, I was probably in denial. Yeah. That something's going to come. They're going to, they're going to, you know, figure out.

They're going to, you know, figure something out to use me with and to give me a good push with. Yeah, and then it just never came Just never came. Just never came. And then, but TNA came around, like not long after that. Oh, I was, and guys like Devon and, you know, guys that I was working with, Bob, you know, Billy Gunn, you know, Jeff Jarrett,

they were, you know, doing all these shows and making, you know, decent money on the side and they were to, you know, just have fun matches. Yeah. And they called, and I went. I had some of my most fun times wrestling doing that, just on the weekends doing those shows. Yeah.

Yeah. How did you decide that wrestling was going to be behind you? Because it was not long after TNA that you retired. It wasn't that? Retired? Heck, I did a show a couple weeks ago. So, okay. Yeah, I mean.

But as far as making all my money and wrestling, retired, fair enough. Just other stuff came, you know. I mean, I started doing the home shopping network, and that was the best job. You know, it was. Fun. I went into it as a joke thinking, yeah, I'm going to sell shit on HSN.

And it turned out to be the best place to work, and it was just, I was good at it. So basically you're saying that other stuff just started eclipsing wrestling. Exactly. Surreal World came around. Yeah. And then you had all these hosting gigs. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Other opportunities came. Yeah. And, you know, when I got on HSN, and I'm able to, you know, stand up there for 30 minutes and sell NFL jackets. No one's hit me with a chair. and they're paying really well. Yeah. It's like who's, it's, who's not going to stay there?

What, what, what do you see yourself as? Do you see yourself as a former wrestler? As a former TV host, as a reality show star, as a Wall Street guy? Definitely, not, not the last two. That's for not.

Okay. I'm definitely not a Wall Street guy. And I'm not a reality star because the reality stars are people, you know, those guys that are actually making a career, a living out of it. to this day, and that's not me. Yeah.

Probably former wrestler. Yeah. Entertainer. I don't know. Just... Think of how different your career would have been. If Twitter and Instagram were a thing when you won tough enough.

I would have been all over. You'd have a million followers instantly. I'd be all over. I would have been all over. Yeah. Probably that day. Yeah. Yeah.

It would have been different. It's just a different time, though. It is. It's a different time. People value different things now. And I've... I probably was missed that by five or ten years. Yeah, because you won tough enough in 01.

Oh, one. Twitter was like 0, 809. Yeah. Yeah, if it would have been maybe 10 years earlier, I would have been, and I would have been all over that. Because I used to have a MySpace page. I didn't have a MySpace page. But with that said,

the show wouldn't have been as big on MTV if it was in 2009. You're right. People weren't watching MTV at the time. Well, and people watch TV and people take in information different now. People were still watching TV back then. Exactly. And that's what it is. You know, and I might not have had a chance then. The way we bring in information now is just different.

And so I probably wouldn't have had a show owner then. I probably wouldn't have had an opportunity. Yeah. Because realistically, would I have left a job teaching and that security to go and explore a chance at a wrestling school? Probably not. Yeah. Probably not. I did it because it was on TV.

Right. And I did it because I knew it was a fast track to the WWF. Yeah, yeah. You know, so, yeah, probably not. Yeah. A story came out not that long ago where you lost the tough enough trophy in a storage locker auction. Yeah. Funny story.

I never had it. What do you mean? I never had the thing. So that wasn't your storage locker? No, no. It was. Okay. I got the trophy, gave it to a buddy of mine who, because I won at New York, and I was staying up in

Connecticut for a couple days, went back home with it. It never came to my house. It was in his house for probably 10 years. And then when I moved, I put my stuff in the storage locker, and that was the one that it was in. So that person said that when they won the storage locker auction, they reached out to you to see if you wanted it. No, never, never reached out to me. That is part of the story. Never reached out to me. Do you want it? I mean, what I like to have, of course, I'd like to have it. Is my, I mean, do I want it, want it? I've lost zero sleepover.

Because someone watching this right now, either is the person who owns it or knows the person who owns it? Here's the thing. The people that got it also got, they got photo albums that of my childhood, like my parents and stuff. I did get those. Okay. But I don't remember, they didn't offer me the tough enough trophy.

They never offered that. So if they would have offered it, I would have said, yeah, I'll take it. So if someone watching this. right now reached out to you and said, hey, I've got it. Do you want it back? I would take it back, but I mean, it's also if they wanted to keep it, I would probably even sign it for him. Oh, okay. It's not, it's not something I would put up. Really? Ever. No. Really? No. It's so funny. It stayed in, I'm serious. It stayed in a bag in my buddies for 10 years in his closet. Is it that you're not proud of it? Is it that it's kind of ugly?

No, it's not... TMZ called it ugly. It was. It's just, I don't need stuff like that. Hmm. Like, I don't need stuff like that to... That's interesting. Okay.

Yeah, I don't know. I find that... I'm in my college's Hall of Fame for baseball, and I've got a plaque somewhere that says that. That's not hanging up. I don't even know where it is. So if we go to your house right now, you'll see nothing of me.

Really? You'll see one thing of me up. Not one. Not a still of you drop kicking the Undertaker? Not one. Wow. The... action figures I have are all on the side stacked up on top of each other.

My pictures from signings like this are on top of those. You won't see one thing of my career or anything I've ever done up. Wow, that's really interesting. Not one. I've never put stuff like that up. When was the last time you talked to Nidia? Probably when she was still in WW. When we were both still in WWW.

It's been years. Yeah. It's just so, what's funny about wrestling in general is that you spend four or five years in WWE. Right. And you could go live to be 104 years old. Right.

For the rest of your life, no matter what you accomplish, you will always be a former WWE superstar. Always. And I take pride in that. Of course you do. I take pride in that.

But you've also done so many other things since. I get more excited off of knowing there's an urban dictionary with my name in it. That's the kind of stuff that I think's cool.

Or that there's a Wikipedia page with me. that I didn't make. Yeah. And that's the kind of stuff that I'm like, that's cool. All right, that's cool. Or I'm in a video game.

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's stuff. All really cool. That's what I love. I guess. Or the occasional time when I'm walking down the street and someone will stop me.

It doesn't happen much anymore. Yeah. You used to happen all the time, not much anymore. But just saying the joy on their face that my dumb ass can make their day, that's cool.

Yeah. That's cool. It just occurred to me now that this is the 20-year anniversary. It is. Of you winning Tough Enough. That's crazy. That's insane. We're like a couple months away from that.

Yeah. Yeah. Something like, I feel like somebody needs to do something for this. You know what? I agree. Yeah. In the grand scheme of tough enough contestants, who do you think's number one? Who's been the most successful?

Okay. That one, I would have to say. They probably, it's a close fight between Ms. and Morrison. I mean, you've got two guys that, yeah, yeah. Amazing in ring. Absolutely, both of them. Ms. HappyW.E champion. Champions.

And probably a little bit of more success outside of the ring. Yeah. You know, Morrison's done, he's had his success outside of the ring too. He's also stayed in WWE the entire time. Right. Morrison has had a very successful career in impact, Looch Underground. Exactly. And now he's back in WW.

Well, and he's doing some, he's a, he's day. He's got his fingers wet in Hollywood. Oh, yeah. He's a great filmmaker. Yeah, he is. He is. He is, I remember seeing him because they would bring us out for those tough enough when they were training. And I looked at him and I just knew.

I was like, there's something special about this kid. And this was back when he, before he had long hair, when he had short hair. Yeah. You could just see something in it. And it makes me, you know, just happy that these guys followed him my footsteps. That's amazing. That's just crazy for me to think that, you know? It may be hard for you to answer this, but where are you on that list?

Oh, that's not hard to answer. I'm relatively, you know, you're perfectly capable of being humble about where I, probably, I would say maybe, maybe like sixth or something like that, maybe. That's probably pretty fair. Yeah. Because I would think Ryback might be up there. Yeah, too. Well, I saw a guy with a Ryback shirt on, so he immediately comes to my mind. Yeah.

You know, and a couple of the girls. Of course. Jackie Gator had a hell of a career. And, you know, there's just... Mandy, yeah. It's been a lot. Yeah, I mean, the only reason I would think I even put myself in the top ten is because I was the first male. And, you know, it's a lot of...

I would have been, you know, third season male winner and I had the career I had. Yeah. But first season male and then you actually did stuff. There's a lot of people who won tough enough. They did nothing with. Yeah, I never saw them again. Agreed. Yeah.

Yeah. So you actually did something. And you said that's hard to answer? That's not hard for me to accept. I did. No, no. And I meant maybe it's just hard to put yourself in that perspective. Not at all.

You were very humble about all of this. It's true. I can't look at myself and be honest with myself about what I'm good at or my faults, my shortcomings or things that I don't meet up to others' expectations. Then I'm only lying to me. Yeah. And I'm not a lie to myself. I don't get you nowhere.

I loved it right before we started this. You said, yeah, man, I'm, well, it's talking about anything. Nothing's off limits. Nothing's off limits. Which I really respect about you. Yeah, nothing's off limits. Because there's been some hiccups in your life. Absolutely.

That you're probably not that proud of. I'm definitely not proud of. And you don't want to probably relive those moments. That was Gene Sitsky just walked by everybody. Yeah. If we would, uh, yelled his name, he would have came over. He has a giant beard. That's too far down.

And he loves a camera. You mentioned the steroids earlier. How did that path begin for you? Was it just, I didn't think I was big enough? It's, I was told, now I won't say who, but I was told that, by others, that you're in a business now, you weigh two or five. We need you up. We need you to get a little bit bigger. Oh, wow.

And I listened to that advice. I would have sought that out regardless. Just to keep up. just to look good. But does somebody... My God. If you look at pictures of when I started and then when I look like a couple years later,

it's just night and day. And that's addictive. The looking like that, that's the addictive part of it. What about the feeling like that? Because testosterone is... I've never taken it, but that's a hell of a drug from what I understand.

Well, it's just, you just feel great. You just feel that hardness and that just feels good. Yeah. It's not like an euphoric type of goodness feel. It's just, you just feel and you look good. Doesn't it give you a lot of energy too? No?

Not necessarily a ton of energy. That's youth. But it's just, and it also becomes a psychological edge too. Because I would go to the gym and if I was on stuff, I was like, all right, I got to get my money's worth out of this. And then when I wasn't on stuff, I'd be in the gym. I'd be like, what am I doing here anyway? I'm not on anything. We don't have to name names here.

but when you're starting to go down that path, does someone go, all right, Maven, you're going to need this much test, this much trend, this much Winnie? Actually, I had a doctor that was telling me. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

I did. Man. And I was getting good stuff from good pharmacies that was being shipped to my house. Completely legal. Because it's being prescribed. Being prescribed. Yeah. That's scary.

It is. And if I was to run you through how easy it was, I've bought vehicles that were harder. Well, that does not exist anymore. It does not. It does not. Maybe it exists somewhere else, but. Yeah, no, not. And that was one of the things that I guess had to change in the business.

I mean, you look at guys now, and they just look different than we did. Yeah. Not even me. My guy, some of the guys I worked with were just physical specimens. Yeah. And it's just, it's a different business now. Yeah. And it's probably good for guys' health.

Yeah. And, you know, because guys during my days were dropping like flies. It's true. Like, literally, I can name countless guys that I've wrestled with and then they're gone now. Yeah. It's sad. It is very sad. It really is.

I mean, you know, I mean, you remember Tess, one of my best friends, I moved, when I moved to Florida in 08 for the HSS, first guy I hung out with and just, I mean, you know, and to think a couple months later, he's gone, you know? Wow. Just needless, needless depth. Yeah. There's a rumor out there that you are somehow related to Conan. Is this actually true? It's not true. No.

No. I've heard it too. Yeah. I mean, unless I don't know about it. I feel like you would know about it. I figured I would know about it. I just felt like I had to, I just had to ask. Maybe someone can clear that up on the Wikipedia.

Hold on, is it on Wikipedia? Yes. I said I had a Wikipedia. I haven't even read it. Oh, I think it's been so long since I read it. I think it's on the Wikipedia. I'll have to check it. I'll have to check it out. Just a few more questions because I want to be very respectful of your time

and also I want to be respectful of everyone else here. When you were, when you won the contract, you're basically thrown to the wolves. What was the best piece of advice that someone gave you when you were about to make your WWE debut? All right. It wasn't a debut. Here's a good story, though. WrestleMania 18, Toronto.

I was there, by the way. Get out of here. I'm from Toronto. I was sitting there 26th row, mainly for Rock Hogan, but you also won the hardcore championship there. I went in the hardcore and left the hardcore champion. Yes, right. And you bring his name up, so I'll finish the story with him.

Best advice I ever got, and it would, it calmed me down. So, Restimate 18, Toronto, I'm backstage, again, scared to death. I mean, there's 70-some thousand people out there. Yep. Brock sees this. Dave, come here. I'm like, yeah, go up to him. I'm thinking, here comes.

I'm going to get words of advice from the best. He goes, hey, no one's. really expecting much out of you. So just do the best you can. And he turns around and walks away. And I'm like, what the fuck was that? And he turns and winks at me. And that calmed me down. You know, that just, just, just, that one little joke. Yeah. Like, yeah, fuck, just go out there and have fun. And now, if I see somebody to this day that is nervous or they, you know, what can you tell me? I'll say the exact same thing. Just do the best you can. No one's expecting much out of you. Wow.

Just calm them down. Try to calm them down a little bit. It worked for me. Where were you watching Rock Hogan? Actually, we had got a... At that point, I was done. I was third match. No.

Where was I for that? I want to say I was backstage because I had either done, just got done filming my spot with Christian where I rolled him up and acted like I drove away in the cab or I was about to do it. I think we had already done it,

but I was watching with everyone else back. You've been backstage. Have you seen how they have the cameras? The television monitors set up, I was back there watching with the rest of the boys. I'm sure everybody was around. Everybody was gathered around. Yeah, I mean, it's my favorite match of all time.

I mean, it's two legends, you know. Yeah, so good. Because besides being a restaurant, I'm a fan, number one. I'm a fan first. Yeah, what's up? Yeah. I want to thank you for this. This has been great.

And I feel like we could talk for four more hours. But it's been my pleasure. This has been great. I end every interview with the same question, so I will ask this of you. I start and end every day with gratitude. I say out loud three things that I'm grateful for, and it really sets my tone for the day. So what are three things in your life?

You do that every day? Every day. Really? Every day. Because it's so easy to get caught up in what I don't have. But if you're focused on what you do have, it's so much easier to be grateful. So what are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now?

Huh. Three things that I'm grateful. Okay, obviously. health, first and foremost. Because if you don't have health, you have nothing. And I think what we've learned the last, what, 18 months? Jeez. It's health to everything.

Yeah. What do they say? A healthy man has a million problems. A sick man has one. Exactly. Yeah. I like that. Two, opportunity.

Because, you know, I mean, I'm still, you know, can be able to do stuff like this. Yeah. We didn't go into it, but right before the pandemic, I actually went down and I interviewed with WWE about maybe getting back in for announcing. Stuff like this can only help. Wow. And the fact that I have my job, the fact that a small company took a chance on me to do finance, I've never done it before.

That was an opportunity. So thankful for opportunities. And the third is family. And I mean, the people that, and that I'll put my friends in it too, people that you lean on when you're having bad days. Yeah. So does this mean we might see you back in WWE? Waring a fancy suit?

If you do, you won't be wearing this, and I won't be sweating all over the place, I promise you that. So this is maybe a possibility? It was a possibility. I'm hoping once everything gets back up and running, that that can be looked into a gift. Who knows? But if it's not, I'm happy doing what I'm doing.

I hope the community to learn and just get better at that. And I promise the next time you see me, you'll see me with a smile, regardless. Either way. You're always smiling. You have this huge energy. This amazing charisma that is so magnetic. Oh, thank you, bro. Likewise. It's true. Likewise. Well, I just feed off of yours. That must be it. Thank you so much, brother. I love this. My pleasure, brother. Oh, man. What a guy. What a conversation. I'm so glad we were able to do that one in person. It just made so much better. Thank you to Maven for taking the time to have this conversation at the

Legends of Hamburg fan fest. Also, a huge thank you to the We Like Wrestling podcast for bringing me in for the fan fest. I had such a great time hanging out those guys at their table. And I was recently a guest on their show, so you can search for We Like Wrestling wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And as you heard during the interview, Maven doesn't have social media. But I'm confident that there's someone out there who wants to hear this interview and they're a big fan of his work.

So take a screenshot so you can share it with them and tag me at Chris Vanfleet so I can retweet it or I can share it on Instagram. I'm thinking that if you're a loyal listener to the podcast like you are right now and you're listening all the way until the end, you're probably already a loyal subscriber as well. But if you aren't, please make sure to hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. Speaking of social media, I tweeted this out last week. It's a quote that I love and will end with it today. It's from Michael Jordan who says, Some people want it to happen.

Some people wish it would happen. Others make it happen. So go out there and make it happen this week. Be great. Be grateful. We'll see you on the next one for some more insight. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?

Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket man job, but get up in here.

The Jim Rome Show podcast. What should be? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.