Drake Maverick On Not Knowing He Was Going to Be Offered an NXT Contract, Fans Getting Behind Him

Speaking with BT Sport, Drake Maverick talked about being offered an NXT contract after losing in the Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship tournament finals and more. Maverick was the Cinderella story of the past couple of months when, following his being part of the WWE releases in April, he was allowed to compete in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament that he had already been booked for. After releasing an emotional video reacting to his release, he went on to make it into the finals where he ultimately lost to El Hijo del Fantasma. While he didn’t win the title, he was surprised on the ramp as he exited by Triple H who offered him an NXT contract.

Talking about the whole situation, Maverick talked about when momentum began to shift in his favor from just being another body in the tournament and how the fans’ support of him, while it couldn’t be felt in the arena due to the closed set, was felt on social media and elsewhere. He also talked about what was going through his mind up until and when Triple H offered him the contract. Highlights and the full video are below:

Drake Maverick on when he felt the momentum shifting in his favor: “I think personally, after wrestling Kushida I thought, ‘Who, okay. There’s some momentum here. And it’s the fans, there is some momentum here.’ And you can’t — think about this. We have no audience there live, but we captured everybody and we caught them, the lightning in a bottle thing. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if fans were there. But we were in this situation where the audience isn’t there, but you could still register what they were saying and what they wanted, and that they cared.”

On the fans’ support of him: “That was what meant the most to me was, we got them to care. And it’s very simple to just put a wrestling match out there, and ‘Oh, it’s a good match.’ But I’ve never been in a situation where no matter what — how good the match was, all they cared about was me winning. Honestly, it was like watching the Rocky movie. It didn’t matter what happened, as long as Rocky won. People just stuck with the whole 90 minutes, two hours, whatever the film was. They just stuck with it the whole way and hoped to see Rocky win. And that was what registered the most with me, that all they cared about was a guy winning. And like, that’s the beauty of pro wrestling at the same time. So you know, to be that guy, I’m again, just blessed.”

Drake Maverick on not knowing he was about to be offered a contract after the match: “At the end, I just sat there, and like accepted, ‘Ah. There it is, that was my last one. And I looked up, and you can actually see me look up. And that’s when the tears started coming, because my friend Dave passed from cystic fibrosis a few years ago. And you see me actually look up to him, like, ‘I did it Dave, and I wish you were here.’ Because he always pushed me to be a WWE superstar when not a lot of people would…

“When I backed up the ramp and Hunter was there, I honestly just thought he was giving me, you know, a handshake and we were going to have a nice moment where he was like, ‘You did it, you really busted your ass.’ And then when he handed me the folder, I’m like ‘Ahh okay!’ And it was symbolic. I mean, I texted him later on like, ‘Hey, uh, I think I signed under duress, I kind of look upset.’ [laughs] But it was such a great moment. I mean, everyone could look into it like, ‘Well, why didn’t he have his attorney there?’ But it was a really — it’s a really special moment.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit BT Sport with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.