Maven: "Hey Guys, Maven Here!", YouTube Channel, Who Does He Have Heat With?, One More Match, The Undertaker
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 Roosevelt
On starting his YouTube channel:
"The biggest thing to me is doing your interview led to the YouTube channel. I know you're not going to take credit for it, but my partner, Zach, 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 I always say it on my channel, out of sight, out of mind, and I think him seeing me on your channel helped tremendously. He's admitted it to me."
On whether there has been any heat from his videos:
"So one question we get almost every video we put out, shockingly, no. None I can think of. I'm looking at my partner, Zach over there. We did the AEW video, we were 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 were nah, kayfabe. But it wasn't like heat, it was just I preferred not to do it, and our answer is no problem, we'll cut the footage. But as far as hearing from anybody that Maven needs to stop what he's doing, no, not one person."
On the most painful move he took in his recent video:
"Power Bomb, the Power Bomb still hurts, and the choke slam. You can't fake gravity. You can't fake the impact. Now, we had some submissions, some easy stuff. What's Charlotte's move? Figure eight? That hurt. Because, you know, we're trying to knock two out at once. Brian [Myers] put the figure four on me, and then figure eight, and when he bridged back, it was immediate pain and I was like, Okay, enough. We got it."
On the Buff Bagwell video:
"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 is going to tell his story."
On beating The Undertaker to win the Hardcore title:
"It's big for me because it was The Rock. He's [Undertaker] 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. It's just crazy again, how life works out. A year and a half prior to that, I'm a sixth-grade school teacher with a ‘The Rock says…’ bulletin board in my classroom, and they 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?
"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 [unglued], it was a little bit different. And then even from that, that glass break, just pandemonium."
On possibly taking YouTube full-time:
"I will always hold a little bit of just loyalty, and I might get to that point where I go, yeah, you're not gonna see me anymore, but if you need me, I'll be there. Like a few weeks ago, every year in New York they have what's called the Broker Fair. 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?
"It's something like something manager, like, project manager, or whatever. Somehow I have my own office."
On what happened to the Tough Enough trophy:
"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 want to buy it back from me?' I'm like, Nah, keep it. He wanted 600 bucks for it. I'm like, You keep it. And then I'm thinking, I'm like, What am I gonna do with it? I tell Zach that and he’s like what?! 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 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."
On whether he still sees himself as a wrestler:
"No. In a grocery store a few months back, and normally somebody comes up to me [and says], 'You’re that guy who won Tough Enough.' Yeah, yeah. I had somebody come up to 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. But I'm fine with that. I'm okay with ageing. 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. 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?
"I mean, if the situation was right, of course. And last night, taking 70 bumps proved that physically, I could at least get through it. I don't think if somebody said, Hey, we got a three-year storyline, I don't know if I could do that, but I definitely would keep it open. As far as in this business, you know, never say never."
On a previous issue with Shawn Michaels:
"I don't know if it was an issue. As far as obviously, I was never going to be on Shawn’s level. You're Shawn freaking Michaels. 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, if I'm doing a philosophy seminar and I got Aristotle beside me, I'm gonna want to ask him afterwards, did I get anything wrong? Tell me. How can I be better? So I'm like that with Shawn, and he would 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, then it was subconscious. I think it's we idolize people, so we then emulate people. I wouldn't mean him to, but yeah, he shook my hand because he had to, not because he wanted to."
On the promo with Ric Flair where he said ‘I’ve had more championships than you’ve had women’:
"What was it, 16? He'd be wrong, but it was a great line. And Ric was so good at just riffing, even in the ring. I remember wrestling Ric, because he would always do the punches, and we didn't go over this earlier in the night, but we're in the ring and 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 would tell me, one two, that means I'm gonna punch you. You punch me back. And just knowing this man's probably done a the one two 1000s of times, against countless 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."
On breaking Snitsky’s orbital bone:
"Yeah, I was amped, 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 were like, this is your spot to shine in this main event match. 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, I still remember hitting him and feeling the crunch and being like, Oh God. Vince jumped my ass backstage for that too. Soon as I came back through, Vince meets me, 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!' I'm sitting there bleeding, just got took a chair shot. You know, I'm fine. Vince, thanks."
On taking the first televised F5 from Brock Lesnar:
"There was no telling me how I’m gonna take it. It's 'I'm gonna grab you, put you up on my shoulders.' 'What do you need from me Brock?' 'Nothing, just lay flat.' He's like, 'I'll do the rest.' And he did. I even asked him while we were working on it during the day. I was like, 'Do you need me to 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 realized I'm a child to him. Literally, the way you probably run and grab and pick your two-year-old up, that's how he was with me."
What is Maven grateful for?
"Loyalty, hope and opportunity."
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