Maven Recalls Drinking With The Undertaker Before Royal Rumble Moment

Maven has given some details about what it was like on the day when he eliminated The Undertaker from the Royal Rumble.

When it comes to Royal Rumble moments, any fan who watched the 2002 Royal Rumble will remember when the rookie Maven dropkicked The Undertaker in the back to send “Big Evil” over the top to the floor.

It is important to note that The Hardys did weaken The Undertaker and distracted him before Maven had that moment, but it was still Maven who eliminated The Undertaker. It was the same Maven that was legitimately a WWE rookie after winning the first season of Tough Enough in 2001.

After the elimination, The Undertaker beat up the rookie superstar with punches along with a brutal chair shot and bloodied Maven as well.

Maven was recently a guest on Chris Van Vliet’s YouTube show where he spoke about drinking with The Undertaker before the Royal Rumble match.

“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 Taker. So I was a little buzzed by the time we did it.”

This led to Maven speaking about how The Undertaker gave him some Jack Daniels whiskey to drink.

“Yeah, he told me he was like, kid, I’m gonna be giving you some color. And he’s like, why don’t you want to take some aspirin in your blood 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 airplane bottles of Jack.”

“And I’m like luckily for me he bought it. Jack Daniels is like how most people drink beer for taste. Yeah, that’s me with Jack.”

Maven details what it was like taking a brutal chair shot from The Undertaker

After Maven eliminated The Undertaker, the Deadman stared down the rookie and kicked his ass, which included a brutal chair shot to the head.

“It wasn’t a butterfly kiss, I can tell you that. Listen, at that point. I was so 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 chair shot, 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.”

Thanks to the Chris Van Vliet YouTube channel for sending us those comments.