Maven Recalls Being Bitter For Years After WWE Release, How He Got Over It

Maven acknowledges that it took him years to get over being bitter about his WWE release. The inaugural Tough Enough winner joined WWE after he won the reality competition series and was there until his release in 2005. He appeared recently on Ken Anderson’s Mic Check and talked about how he was unable to get over his release for years.

Maven recalled how it took watching a match he had with Triple H and realizing that he wasn’t ready for WWE at the time. You can see the highlights from that part of the conversation below:

On Being In a Positive Space Now:

“It took me years to get [there]. I’m not a overnight product. I was bitter for years. After I got fired in ‘ 05, It took the better part of 10 to 15 years before I wanted anything to do with wrestling. I blamed my lack of success on everyone other than me. And then once I finally sat down and realized, ‘You know what? You didn’t make it because of you.'”

On What Changed His Perspective:

“And you know what it was? I’m watching — and you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m watching a match I had with Hunter. And during this match… we’re both coming up off of a double down. And he goes to punch and he tells me, ‘block.’ I block, I give him one. And I stand there, and you can see me waiting for him to tell me what to do. And I’m thinking, ‘I wasn’t ready.’ Because now I know, ‘Stay on it.’ He’ll cut me off, he’ll get me to where he needs to be.

“But at the time I didn’t know that. You can’t handspoon feed people through every aspect of a match. And at the time, I’m thinking, ‘Ah, they just they’re not giving me the the the run I need.’ But I wasn’t ready. Now I know what to do. Stay on him, let him rake me in the eyes, let him kick me, let him do something. But at the time, I didn’t. So in fact, when they let me go? Probably the only thing they had to do.”

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