Maven Huffman (@mavenhuffman) is a professional wrestler known for his time in WWE and for winning Season 1 of Tough Enough. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet for an in-person interview in New York City to talk about the success of his new YouTube channel and getting 100k subscribers in less than 2 months, why he hates his theme song, wrestling Tazz in his debut match, taking shots of Jack Daniels before eliminating The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble in 2002, the vicious chair shot from The Undertaker, his picture-perfect dropkick, why he felt he needed to take steroids in WWE, what his current job is on Wall Street and much more!
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Quote I’m thinking about:
I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened. – Mark Twain
On the success of his YouTube channel:
“No one’s more shocked than I am. Literally, you met the guy who runs it with me [Zack]. When he came to me with the idea, I tried to talk him out of it. I was like, listen, I was like, There’s bigger names out there. And he explained to me and he was right about one thing. He said wrestlers use YouTube wrong and it’s an underutilised platform. And basically, here’s the simple, simple process that we do. Most wrestlers make wrestling videos and put them to YouTube and then wonder why they don’t do well. Obviously, if you’re Steve Austin, your podcast is going to do great numbers. But for the most part, there are so many podcasts and stuff out there. He told me, we’re gonna make YouTube videos that deal with wrestling. And at that moment, that was our first Zoom, the light went off.”
On telling evergreen stories on his YouTube channel:
“That’s what that’s what the goal is. I told him I didn’t want to bury anybody. There are so many if you want to see some site or a video where somebody just buries other pages, there’s plenty of that stuff out there. That wasn’t my goal. And I wanted to put out content that dealt with my time, my experiences, my life. I can’t speak to other people’s experiences. I can only say how it affected me. And that’s what we’re trying to do. And I try to put that disclaimer in almost every video that listen, this is how it was for me, it might have been different for somebody else. And they’re probably doing it differently now. But this is what it was for me.”
On breaking 100,000 YouTube subscribers:
“Yeah, I don’t know, I get literally nervous about checking it during the day. Because here’s the great and here’s the beauty about this. And I tried to say it in interviews and everything. It’s not like there’s a bag of money that I’m trying to get all of it. My success can only help your success, which can only help Stevie Richards’ success, which can only help Matt Cardona’s success and vice versa. If your video does, well, who knows the recommended video under it might be mine. So let’s get as many people doing using this platform using this, you know, model if you will.”
On eliminating The Undertaker from the Royal Rumble:
“I think it was just one of the things that at the time, everyone was just I don’t want to say in awe of, but just happy that the dropkick spot went as well as it did. Because think of it this way. What if I flopped the drop kick? What if I miss him? What if I don’t hit him hard enough to knock him over? Then what? It’s just me and him. It’s not like we’re gonna start a wrestling match. I mean, where’s that gonna go? And he still has to be eliminated for the next person to come in. So there was a lot riding on that spot. And I didn’t practice the drop kick at all throughout the day. And I was getting color that night. I’m allergic to aspirin. So I had taken a couple of shots at Jack backstage with tape. So I was a little buzzed by the time we did it.”
On The Undertaker coming up with the idea to drink:
“Yeah, he told me he was like, kid, I’m gonna be giving you getting you some colour. And he’s like, why don’t you take some aspirin in your blood out so it comes out? And I told him I’m like, I’m allergic. And he’s like, I got you. And he had some like aeroplane bottles of Jack. And I’m like luckily for me I bought Jack Daniels. It is like how most people drink beer for taste. Yeah, that’s me with Jack.”
On the chair shot:
“It wasn’t a butterfly kiss, I can tell you that. Listen, at that point, I was just elated. My night was over at that point, hitting the drop kick. At that point, everything else was just gravy. And the chair shot I knew I was just gonna have to just, you see it in slow motion you see me like clench up to take it. But I was so concerned that the entire day, I was concerned with just my life revolved around hitting that one drop kick. And you know what? The following pay-per-view. I was on the next pay-per-view, WrestleMania. I was wrestling Goldust he was holding the gold trash can and I missed it. So if I would have missed that drop kick [on Undertaker], I don’t think I have a career. But the chair shot. It stung more than it hurt. But honestly, I was on top of the world just knowing because after I did the type of chair shot Yeah, I think Taker goes and he throws the camera guy down and they stayed on that shot. Normally they’ll change shot, but they stayed on that on purpose. He had to get the gig out to give me color. And he came over. And he told me great job, kid. And at that point, I just knew my night was all I had to do was sell and then get thrown into a popcorn machine.”
On The Undertaker:
“There is nothing bad to say. Let me tell you my opinion. Here’s why. Because he’ll do business look what he did with me. The only way you can create stars, the only way you can actually put yourself over is by putting other people over. He knows that he is willing to do that Rock is the same way. Rock will do business. And I think that’s why that’s why Taker is just so beloved in that locker room.”
On the origin of the Maven name:
“Do you know what Maven means? It was when I was a school teacher. It was lesson number one every year that I would send my kids home with, I’d be like, my name is Maven. Tell me what it means tomorrow. And then they would all come in Mr. Huffman, it means an expert. I don’t know about that. But it sucked growing up with it. And here’s why. No one ever could get it right. Marvin, Melvin, Mavis. I was literally playing sports one time and the announcer called me, Megan Hoffman. And I was like, usually when I get it wrong, it’s a guy’s name. Yeah. So but it did work for for wrestling.”
Would Maven change anything from his WWE run?
“It would probably be, wow, that’s a great question. Yeah, I do. It would probably be when they moved me when they did the draft and they split. And they moved me from SmackDown to Raw, that was when I felt like my training wheels were off. And like I just said, I wish I would have just stopped playing wrestler and let more of my personality come out. Because I really didn’t. I was just always terrified. I was scared, not to mess up everybody messes up. But I was just terrified, terrified to turn the volume up too much. If I could go back and when I debuted on Raw after my broken leg. I should have come out literally and had them pulling me back. I was cutting promos with the words they gave me and I wish I would have done what Rocky does what you know, other great talkers do taking bullet points. Just put them in my words.”
What is Maven’s day job?
“Well, often people ask about the suit. Actually, we’re in Midtown right now in the 50s I work downtown I work on Wall Street I walk by all the iconic buildings that you see I walk it’s a 10-minute walk I have from the train every day. I work for a capital firm down there. We provide capital to needy businesses. It’s funny, I’ve been told that you’re just the mascot for them, which is probably a little bit accurate But I help us get I help us get capital so we can then in turn help others who can’t get bank funding.”
On being honest on his YouTube videos:
“If somebody likes me, outstanding, if they hate me, that’s fine. But they’re gonna be able to say, Maven is at least honest, and he’s not hiding anything. And I mean, what am I going to [say]? I mean, if you look at a picture of me in 2002, and then a picture of me 18 months later, it’s a drastic change. And it’s pretty obvious of what that change was. So why not just be open and frank about it? It’s not something I was the least bit upset about. I’m not ashamed of it. Yeah, I was in a career and that’s what it took to be at the next level. [Did you feel like you had to do steroids?] Had to in the form of forced by someone? No. Had to in the form of I wanted to be on TV? Absolutely.”
What is Maven grateful for?
“New opportunity, old friends and hope.”
