It’s unfortunate when it happens, but from time to time WWE stars get released due to various reasons. Maven first arrived on the scene in 2001 when he became a contestant on Tough Enough, and he ended up earning a contract with WWE. He was a member of the WWE roster until 2005 when the company released him from his contract.
Recently Maven reflected on his released during an appearance on The False Finish and he explained why his in-ring skills didn’t really improve during his time with the company.
“I didn’t really learn to wrestle until after my release. When you’re in the WWE, you’re wrestling to a time limit. You’re getting six minutes and that six minutes can very easily be cut down to five by the time you get out there.
When you go out, every move, ‘Okay, I gotta take two punches, shoot off, duck a clothesline’ because you know they’re gonna go to a Chef Borardyee ad if I don’t finish this match. Every match was to a time limit.”
Maven went on to note that he really started to figure things out when he would work independent shows with guys like Billy Gunn and Rhino who helped him learn how to get through a match without calling things backstage.
I would work with Billy and he’d avoid me. I’d be like, ‘Billy, what are we doing?’ He’d be like, ‘Man, we’ll figure it out out there, listen to what they’re popping for.’ Once you learn how to do that, it’s so free. Every crowd is going to be different. You might have something planned and if the crowd is not popping for it, you better be able to turn it around and do something else. Once I was able to learn how to listen and how to do that, wrestling got so much easier.”
H/T Fightful
