Maven On The Undertaker Making His WWE Career, Their Interaction At The 2002 Royal Rumble

In a recent interview on the Two Man Power of Trip of Wrestling Podcast, Maven discussed working with The Undertaker in WWE, their interaction in the 2002 Royal Rumble, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Maven on working with The Undertaker in WWE: “He gave me my career. Hands down. Would I have had the run, would I have had the career that I had without him? Absolutely not. The guy knew how to do business. The guy, if you walked into that locker room in 2002 or 2001, there are two people, two people that immediately intimidate you. That’s Vince McMahon and The Undertaker. Other guys, yeah, they’re intimidating and they’re big, you got The Rock, the coolest guy on television. But Undertaker is just like – he’s walking around and it’s almost like, literally, like a God walking there. And then Vince is Vince. I always tell people, they’re like, ‘What’s Vince McMahon like?’ And I’m like, ‘He’s a businessman. He signs the front of the checks, I sign the back.’ But, Taker, the fact that he was able to – because he didn’t have to do what he did. That fact that he had the foresight to put me over by letting me eliminate him, that just gave me a career. I could have very well been lost in HWA or in OVW in the developmental for years. With him, I wasn’t. I immediately had clout. I immediately had a little bit of, ‘This guy is meant to be here.’ And he did that all on his own with doing what he did for me.”

On their interaction in the 2002 Royal Rumble: “What you see, I don’t know if you remember, but they – I eliminated him, then he sells and gets up, turns and looks at me. And the camera panned back on my face in the ring after I did my jumping celebration. And then you see fear on my face. Most people, most people are like, ‘That’s some great acting there.’ I wasn’t acting. I was legitimately terrified at that moment. Like legitimately, like for a work, not even a work. I was shoot terrified because I didn’t know if I kicked him too hard. I just remember when we were going over during the day, with his back to me, he told me, he’s like, ‘When you give me the dropkick,’ he’s like, ‘I can’t sell it if I don’t feel it. Lay it in.’ So I didn’t know if I kicked him too hard. It just goes to show how great he was because the look he was giving me for real scared me. And then we get backstage and after I went through the popcorn machine and everything, he’s just telling me, ‘Great job, kid’. And I was on cloud nine.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Two Man Power of Trip of Wrestling Podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.