Maven, best known as the winner of WWE’s inaugural Tough Enough season, has revealed that his backstage experiences teaming with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels were often less than pleasant.
Speaking on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Maven described how post-match interactions with “The Heartbreak Kid” would frequently turn into harsh critiques. While teaming with Michaels provided a major learning opportunity, Maven admitted that the respect shown to him didn’t always feel sincere.
“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,” Maven explained. “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.’”
Maven added that if he was mimicking The Rock’s mannerisms, it was entirely unintentional. “And if it was, then it was subconscious. I think it’s we idolize people, so we then emulate people,” he said.
Despite Michaels routinely offering him a post-match handshake, Maven felt it was often out of obligation rather than genuine respect. “I wouldn’t mean him to, but yeah, he shook my hand because he had to, not because he wanted to.”
Now retired from in-ring competition, Maven has become a successful YouTube content creator, sharing stories from his time in WWE with a new generation of fans.
You can hear Maven’s full interview on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet below.
