Former WWE star Maven was a guest on today’s edition of The Bump to discuss his stint with the company back in the early 2000s, which included his epic elimination of the Undertake from the 2002 Royal Rumble. Highlights are below.
On finding out that he’d be eliminating the Undertaker in the Rumble:
I got the call literally the day before. The day before, they called and said, ‘You’re going to Atlanta.’ That’s where the Rumble was. I flew out the next day, no clue what was going to happen. At that point, I’m not an idiot, I knew I was probably in the Rumble, but I knew I would probably come out, get a quick pop Tough Enough was going to get and then I would be thrown out and got rid of as soon as possible. When I got there and they called me to the ring, there was Shane and ‘Taker. They called me to the ring and at the time, I’m terrified. I’m the rookie, young, in my 20s and here I was with Shane McMahon and with Undertaker, scared to death. Then he tells me, ‘Maven, you’re going to go out there and eliminate [Undertaker].’ I thought he was completely joking. I thought it was the rib of the century. Well then, ‘Taker turns, looks at me and says, ‘Are you effing kidding me?’ At that point, I wanted to run. I just wanted to leave. ‘Taker had his hands with what was going on that day. He helped my career more than anyone on that single day.
How he and the Undertaker formed a bond afterwards:
He was happy. From that day on, me and him kind of had a bond. He always gave me a smile, that little, ‘Hey kid’’ look and let me know what I did, he was satisfied.
Check out the full edition of The Bump below. (H/T and transcribed by Fightful)