Maven Says CM Punk Had Heat In WWE Before He Even Signed With The Company

Maven reflects on wrestling CM Punk in one of Punk’s first televised matches in WWE.

In terms of legacy, CM Punk and Maven could not be more far apart. The same can be said for the different paths that both men took to get into WWE. However, in April 2005, Maven and Punk’s paths crossed in a tag team match on WWE Sunday Night Heat. 

Maven teamed with Simon Dean (aka Nova in ECW) against CM Punk and Russell Simpson on the episode of WWE Heat that aired on April 17, 2005. In his latest YouTube video, Maven reflected on working with the future WWE Champion and recalls Nova taking extra care of Punk and going against an order to pin Punk to end the match. 

“Honestly, I didn’t know who Punk was. I did know that he had carved out a pretty good niche for himself on the independent wrestling scene and he had somewhat of a name. So, I knew going into it that he was going to be a good worker,” he said. “This is pro wrestling and you’re always going to adhere to the veteran. In this case, the veteran was, by far, Simon Dean. Now, Simon Dean wrestled in ECW as Nova, he had years in the business over all of us in the ring.

“90% of this match was put together by Simon backstage. Punk was all ears. He was easy. He was easygoing he was willing to do whatever was needed for the match. To be honest with you, all of us were listening to Simon, and Simon actually was the one who had the idea moving forward to protect Punk,” Maven revealed. 

Maven then went on to explain how the former Nova directed traffic in order to allow them to disobey a direct order to defeat CM Punk in the bout. 

“One thing management wanted, they wanted us to get the pinfall victory on CM Punk. For whatever reason, I have no clue. I mean, he wasn’t even a signed talent at the time, but he already had heat in the company. There were already feathers he had ruffled. I don’t know how and I don’t know whose. Nova saw it differently. Nova wanted to give the guy a chance,” he said. 

“Simon was always a good gauge of talent. He also might have known that Punk, for whatever reason, had heat backstage. And he was just doing everything in his power to protect him knowing that if there was any trouble to be had it was going to fall on us and by us, I mean Simon,” he adds. “So the question remains, how do we then not get in trouble for disobeying direct orders? Therein lies the genius within Simon Dean. Simon knowing they wanted the pinfall to be on Punk, also knew that during this time, we were going to have time cues to hit.

“So by telling Punk, ‘When I hit you, roll to the floor, rather than standing up on the apron so you can be tagged back in.’ If you’re on the floor, we’re going to have to go with the flow. We’re going to have to finish the match. Thus, being able to get the slam and finish on Russell Simpson protecting us once we got backstage because we could look at them and say, ‘Hey, we had 30 seconds. We knew we had to go home. Russell was right there we had to get the 1-2-3 on him because Punk was on the floor.’ So to management, it looks like a miscommunication and improvisation by us when in reality, it was all thought about ahead of time by the creator of the Simon System,” Maven recalled

CM Punk is now back in WWE and in his return promo, he called the WWE his home. Punk says he’s still spiritually living in that moment. Read more here. 

At this link, fans can read by Maven has ruled out his own return to WWE here. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the source mentioned above as well as Fightful by linking back to this transcription.

Nova has previously talked about his time working with Maven. Read more here.