Maven: I Wish I Would’ve Gotten To The Level Of John Cena Where I Could Speak Up About My Creative

Maven comments on whether or not there was a direct rule against speaking your mind as a WWE Superstar during his time as a performer. 

During Maven’s tenure as a WWE Superstar, he was never consistently a main eventer, but he did have the good fortune of being in the promotion during a time when names like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, and Triple H were still very involved in the industry. Maven was also around for the rise of names such as John Cena, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar. 

As such, the inaugural winner of WWE Tough Enough was able to see firsthand the difference in talent at his level speaking up against creative decisions that they didn’t necessarily agree with as opposed to a talent at the level of Randy Orton or John Cena. 

“You had to be in the right place to speak your mind and I never was,” he said during a recent YouTube video where he talked about a list of “rules” for WWE Superstars. “If they wanted me to do something that I didn’t think I could pull off, I would speak my mind. If they maybe wanted me to do a move that I didn’t think I could do safely for myself or my competitor, then I would definitely speak my mind, but if I thought my character, if I thought just what I was doing for the night wasn’t best for me, I wasn’t saying a word. Now. That was me. Take a John Cena. take a Randy Orton. were they speaking their mind? Absolutely, they most definitely were. When you’re one of the top guys in the company, you earned your position and you earned the right because they’re making money off you, but most of all, you’re making money for yourself, I wish I would have got to that place just never did.” 

While Maven never got to the level of John Cena, he does say that there were talks of giving him the WWE Intercontinental Championship. However, he felt he wasn’t ready for that responsibility. Learn more here. 

Learn more about Maven’s run as a main eventer in 2004, including a World Championship match against Triple H on WWE Raw, at this link. 

If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Maven’s YouTube channel in addition to linking back to this article and giving Fightful credit for transcription.