Maven, the winner of the inaugural season of WWE’s Tough Enough, recently opened up about his backstage relationship with Shawn Michaels, revealing that the WWE Hall of Famer would “berate” him after their tag team matches.
During his time in WWE, Maven had the opportunity to team with several top stars, including Shawn Michaels. While the experience of working with “The Heartbreak Kid” was a valuable learning opportunity, Maven explained that the post-match critiques were often harsh and that he felt the respect shown to him was not always genuine.
Speaking on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Maven was asked about a previous issue he had with Michaels. He detailed the difficult post-match interactions he would have with the legendary performer, who repeatedly accused him of trying to emulate The Rock.
“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. 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.’ And if it was, then it was subconscious. I think it’s we idolize people, so we then emulate people.”
Maven went on to say that while Michaels would shake his hand after their matches, he always felt it was a reluctant gesture born out of professional 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.”
Maven is now a successful YouTube content creator, sharing stories from his wrestling career with a new generation of fans. You can hear his full interview on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
