Maven Huffman

Austin welcomes on a much anticipated guest and new friend of the show, WWE Superstar & Tough Enough Season 1 Winner Maven Huffman! Maven was the first ever of the WWE's Tough Enough series, he's known for his infamous Royal Rumble debut in 2002 pulling off the biggest upset in the matches history with eliminating The Undertaker. He talks about that, meeting back up with The Deadman on his podcast, and talks about cutting his teeth in the wrestling business under Al Snow. Maven has also become one of the more well known wrestling content creators on YouTube, be sure to check out all of his insightful videos on his page ‪@MavenKHuffman‬

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Everybody. That's the American Nightmare CodyRosen and you are listening to the baby
Faces on iHeartRadio. Hey guys,this is ww Superstar timpty Stroun and you're
listening to the baby Faces on iHeartRadio. What's going on, y'all? Is
WWE Superstar Kobe Kinston. You're listeningto the Babyfaces on iHeart Radio. Babyaby,

(00:30):
that's right, you hear that musicthat means we are back. But
it's just only me piloting the episodetoday. This is the baby Faces Podcast,
only on iHeartRadio and your free Iheartradiotpowered by ninety seven to five WAMZ,
Kentuckyana's number one four country. I'myour host Austin on air, we're

(00:50):
missing our guy Billy the Kid today. He's really busy during the week,
so we are able to get aspecial guest on this week. And Billy's
a little hard to get ahold of, especially and he's doing all the music
creating and he's taking care of likethirty different stations right now. Plus he
is also a high school football coachtoo, so as we're creeping up on
that season, Billy's a little bithard to get hold of here. On

(01:11):
the weekday. But I hit himup earlier this morning and he said,
Austin, you can do this.You could do this yourself. You've done
this before, buddy, And he'sleft me back in the saddle, and
we're back with another special guest,one that I've been looking for for a
long time. This is former WWEsuperstar in the first ever Tough Enough Winner.

(01:32):
That's right, Mavin Huffman, Welcometo the show, my man.
How you doing, Austin? Ihave all the faith in the world in
you, and I think Billy,I don't think Billy would have left you
in the driver's seat if you weren'table to pilot this ship. Sure,
so, I believe in you,and I'll be perfectly honest with you.

(01:53):
I'm glad he's not here. I'mglad I'm here with the wrestling fan now,
Billy, when I meet you ata later date, I'll say the
exact opposite. I'll be like,of course, I didn't think Austin would
ever leave, but I'm happy thatit's just me and you, my friend.
I'm great. How are you today, dude. I'm hanging out here
Louisville, Kentucky. You've been herea couple of times. We're in the

(02:14):
douldrons of summer. Right now,it is probably somewhere near ninety degrees outside
with like thirty percent humidity, andit's just you just step you look outside
and your shirt starts to get allmoist and sweaty. It's the humidity right
now is pretty bad. One ofthe best things I'm looking forward to getting
off when I get off of workhere is not the brand new college football

(02:35):
game that just came out, becauseI will be on that, but the
pool in the backyard. Ever sinceowning a pool, it's been the light
at the end of my tunnel onthese summer days. Dude, above ground
or in ground, it's an aboveground. It's like one of like a
little wayfair Walmart one that we gotprobably about fifteen thirty feet. It's got
like the little PVC pipes that holdsit up, and you know, I
take care of that shit. It'sall mine, and I love the girlfriends.

(02:58):
I look forward to the day whensomething breaks it and the water goes
everywhere and you get a video ofthat. I love those videos. All
right. I gotta ask you beforewe get get going talking, right,
ask me anything so whenever, becauseI'm Southern myself. Okay, well,
I noticed you say Louisville Louisville.I'm sure plenty of people come in Louisville.

(03:25):
What is it? Obviously you thinkit's Louisville. What's the correct way
to pronounce your city. We alwayshave every hardcore Louisvillion, Louisvillion seven little
Villa say it like there's peanut butterin your mouth. Louisville, Louisville.
That's Louisville right there. It's youknow, when I used to live in

(03:46):
Arizona all my life, and it'sjust kind of like one of those things
once you get around people that talkabout it all the time, and then
you kind of just start to talklike them. It was Louisville when I
lived on the West coast, andever since I've been indoctrinated back here in
the last ten years, it's nowthe right way Louisville. And we had
a we had Jade Cargill on aWWE Superstar not too long ago, and

(04:08):
she was calling it Louisville, andthat got a lot of people hot.
But who am I to stop JadeCargill from saying what she can and can't
say. People do get mad.And I went back to Virginia for my
goddaughter's graduation. And I've been,you know, in the New York area
for shoot, since twenty thirteen.And when I got when I first got

(04:30):
here, everybody just thought, Ibecause I sound, I don't look the
way I should sound. I getthat, and but it's it's just the
way it is. But when Icame back from being back in Virginia for
a week, evidently my accent kickedkick back in, and I it comes
right back. I sounded more Southernthan I do right now. So is

(04:53):
that where you're from. You're fromVirginia originally from Tennessee. Okay, gotcha.
Oh that's south right there. Yeah, but that was just like the
beginning of my life. My Igrew up in Virginia in the Waynebergh Charlottesville
Harrisonburg area. Yeah, And ohmy gosh, I didn't move. I

(05:14):
didn't. I don't think. Inever saw New York till I was twenty
one. I literally was. Isaw by about five states my entire life
growing up. Dude, I'm likethe Jack the same way. I didn't
go to New York until about twentytwenty twenty two was the first time I
ever been to New York and stillprobably one of my favorite cities too.
And this is just New York City, like Manhattan, and yeah, probably

(05:35):
one of the favorite places that evervisit. I don't know why, just
something magical about it. Now someonelike you that's just kind of been around
it the whole time. Everyone alwayskind of seems fed up with it,
but me, uh, the smallcity boy. And I feel like Louisville
tries, not tries so much,but like it wants to be not it
sort of wants to be Chicago.And Chicago's sort of like Many or New

(05:56):
York, and it's they're just tryingto have that metropolitan area to kind of
make it get big city feels.But once you get to a huge city,
it baffles me. Dude, theskyscrapers all that. And I'm just
a tourist. Anyways, my girlfriend'salready been there a few times. I
want to go check out the nineto eleven thing, the Statue of Looking
thing, and she's like, no, let's get away from the touristy stuff.
Yeah, dude, that's Time Square. I see that on SNL,

(06:19):
like miss on this movie. I'mjust booming. Yeah, New Yorkers.
New Yorkers avoid Times Square like it'sthe central hub, like it's ground like
gives ground zero for COVID literally andit's seriously And if you mentioned the nine
to eleven Memorial my office, Ilike, that's literally where my office is.

(06:40):
I'm a nine iron away from there. That's why my office is.
But the thing that sucks about thisarea is everything cost everything. Yeah,
you mentioned football. I have abuddy who I watch a lot of football
with who lives as a crow flies. He lives twelve miles from me,
and then it cost thirty five dollarsto go to his house. Sheesh,

(07:03):
thirty five bucks. That's just intolls, that's right. And everything parking,
the parking cost, everything is justAnd that's what just sucks about being
around here, Like you're stay inside, huh. Like later on tonight,
I'm gonna go to the gym,like after probably about an hour or so
after we get done with this,and it might take me fifteen minutes,

(07:25):
it might take me an hour.Just I just you just don't know.
And that's what's tough about this area. Yeah, yeah, and it's it's
all it's a little bit different fromthem when you're actually staying at the Hilton
somewhere outside of Manhattan and all you'rejust doing is taking just a couple of
subways or whatnot. Hey, eventhat's a cathartic experience. Getting on a
subway can be kind of sketchy butalso kind of thrilling in the same time.

(07:47):
It's just it's weird. It's notweird, but like it's one of
those things where I think I'm ina simulation. I'm like, how are
all the everybody in here is different? So you're telling me, I see
a guy with three what would youcall them Dolly's full of groceries that they
just got inside the city and they'retaken back home and who knows how many
subs subways that they have to take, And it's wild how people live their

(08:09):
life like this. I used towork for the Brooklyn Nets a couple of
years back before I got into intofinance, and on my my daily commute
to the city was about an hourand forty five minutes. That's if everything
went well. Yeah, we hada snowstorm and I was leaving Brooklyn coming

(08:30):
back home and one of the trainlines was down and it took me four
hours to get home. Think aboutthat and again as a crow, as
a crow flies, I was abouteight miles from my Yeah, it's just
it's just tough. It's everything's astough. And if you would have,
if you, if you would haveasked me twenty years ago, I would
have rather lived in an Afghanistan havelived here in New York that night.

(08:54):
That just goes to show never neversay what you won't do in life.
So of course life led me here, and I'm probably better for it because
I was forced to get out ofmy own comfort zone. Yeah, and
just learn something different. Absolutely well, life's led you here on the baby
Faces Podcast, the official for Wrestlingpodcast, Down in Louisville. It's downhill

(09:18):
from here this podcast. Now it'sdown here. Might as well just be
saying you're goodbyes at this point,So just let everybody know where else they
can find you while they can.It was fun, guys. Thank you
from the w WE and the Undertakerall the way down to Austin on four
Street and Louisville. What the hellhappened to you? Dude? You know

(09:39):
what that's gonna be something I'm gonnabe trying to unpack for the rest of
the day. Well, like Isaid, dude, I certainly appreciate you
coming on. You've been always,always been a huge fan of wrestling growing
up, and everyone kind of watchingyou pop up on the on the wrestling
scene. Of course, tough enoughand it's crazy to think that tough enough
just my goodness, twenty more thantwenty years ago is when this happened.

(10:03):
You were a part of the firstone, and then you went on to
go make your make a name foryourself. I can't. I know they've
done a couple of tough enoughs afterwards, but I don't think any of them
have even really and I like,you know, you like to humble yourself
and a lot of people say youkind of knew your position on the card
and where you stood. But Idon't think anyone from tough enough. And
that's just new in the wrestling businessover in the last than the last couple

(10:26):
of years, like the Pat McAfee'sor the Logan Poles have really made like
an impact or had had a namethat that you have when you got into
the business. So that's that's stillgot to be something cool. Well,
I mean, I will humbly disagreewith you. I tell I laughed with
my my my partner, my YouTubepartner, Zach all the time. I
tell them I'm not even my I'mnot even my favorite tough enough contestant or

(10:50):
winner. Wow, like I'm notlike I love like Johnny Nitro, He's
my favorite. But I almost forgotthat Johnny Nitro was on Here's what here's
what I can say. I wasthe first. And there's nobody that's ever
going to be able to take thataway from me. No one's ever gonna
be able to say they were thefirst. And that's something that I do.

(11:11):
I do hold in high regard.And I'm I'm you know, at
the end of at the end ofall this this, it's that's still pretty
cool. It's still pretty cool tothink that I did something like that.
And I mean, I'm the kidthat chased a dream. I'm the kid
that that saw something and said,man, how the hell do you do
this? And you know, hadenough belief in myself to say, I'm

(11:35):
going to take a chance. Ifthe answers no, I can live with
that. I can live I II try to tell people all the time,
be able to live with rejection,because I've made more mistakes in my
life not not knowing how to handlesuccess. Not no handling rejection. That's
the easy part. You figure outhow or handling failure. You figure out

(11:56):
what you did to make you failand you do something different. Learning how
to handle success, that's the hardpart in life, and that's usually where
I've made my mistakes. But I'mvery happy that you know, there's a
little bit of wrestling history that thatI'm gonna I'm gonna be able to have
in my back pocket for the restof my life. Sure, and some
of it is just even talking aboutand exposing on your your YouTube and on

(12:20):
social media. You've really made abig groundbreaking statement ever since kind of switching
and making your name onto YouTube overthe last year. How's how's that been?
I know you mentioned your partner,Zach. It's a guy that you
know, I got in touch withand helped took me up with you a
little bit. So like, what'swhat's this whole YouTube thing been like for
you? I know you on afew videos you you've said you notice how
you kind of started off and you'vemade mistakes, edits here and there,

(12:43):
and now you're like I would thinkthat you're a YouTube pro. You know,
you and Zach seem to work everything. Everything looks really good from thumbnails
to like subject matter and everything likethat. So what's this experience, what's
this this ride like in almost gettinglike a second life in wrestling. Over
the last year it has been asecond life and then almost has been like
a resurrection of my wrestling career.And it's funny. Al Snow actually texted

(13:09):
me probably a month ago just thathe was proud of me, and he
said, enjoy the second run,and then he said, like, don't
f it up like you did thefirst one. That's all for it.
It's it's constantly it's just constantly beingopen, open into learning, and there's
times we'll do stuff that's something thatwon't work, and just being able to

(13:30):
evolve, being able to do somethingyou know, different the next time,
and just always being able to justlearn. I had no clue a year
ago, because it's what's the daythe sixteenth, we're four days away from
our one year anniverse? Look atthat. Yeah, And a year ago,
if you would have asked me whatmy goals were with the channel,

(13:52):
I would have told you very simply, I want to have hopefully in a
year, I'd love to have onehundred thousand subscribers love and I would love
to be making a couple thousand dollarsa month. And like we've we've blow
blow blue, We've blue past that, so it's constantly Now it's okay,

(14:13):
now we've got this. How dowe make it better? How can we
constantly grow, constantly evolve, becauseif you're not if you're not moving forward,
then you're standing still. And ifit's still someone's passing. Yeah,
yeah, that's what we're trying todo. Well, congratulations on that day.
It's been awesome. I want tosay I was definitely part of like

(14:33):
your first five hundred subscribers, youare it's I totally that one thousand percent
was okay somehow you know it's it'sI even remember texting one of our fans
on the show, a huge hardcorefan of Marcus. We we talkin text
about wrestling all the time. Iremember sending them a thing saying you remember

(14:54):
mavn bro, And he's like,you don't remember maving. I'm like,
dude, you got to check outsome of his content. It's like pretty
cool because I would always watch itwhile I'm like shoving down some Panda Express
or doing some work here, andI'm beautiful head and plug on like a
thirteen minute video and just learn acouple of things. So it's it's it's
been pretty spectacular. And that's anotherreason why I think we have found success.

(15:15):
Podcasts are tough, Like like thepeople out there, like the Kevin
Nashes who puts an hour out andthe Conrads and all those people. Yeah,
that's that's tough to do an hourand to do it consistently. Yeah,
you know, that's another reason whywhat we give we give you know,
anywhere from around eight to twenty fiveminutes of bite size, yeah,

(15:41):
morsels of knowledge that hopefully people didn'thave going into it. I always,
I always like to think that Imake people, you know, few wrestling
a little bit different. You know, they might they might watch the show
a little bit different after they learned, after they learned something from our channel.
And again, like I said,hold you my biggest the best comment

(16:03):
I can get is when we eithera bring a former fan who doesn't watch
the product when we bring them backto wrestling, yeah, or or when
we have someone who I get allthe time. I don't know who you
are. I've never watched wrestling,but I love what you do. That's
like the that's that's the holy Grailcomment for me. Yeah, because they

(16:26):
don't they have no clue who Iam. But we're entertaining enough that they
still stay and watch. Yeah,you bring them in and make them listening.
It's in radio call the time spentlistening right when you just have Hey,
dude, I've been listening to thisfor like an hour straight now.
I went through four different episodes.Yeah, you know exactly exactly. I
talked about your subject matter on yourshows. I think it's really really cool

(16:47):
because I'm not singling any other podcastersout. You know, you have your
Kevin Ashes, you have your conrades, and anybody that's also other workers like
yourself that's been in the business.And I'm sure you can already every wrestling
fan knows a lot of egos anda lot of personalities in the wrestling the
world. So like, I think, who would have ever thought, right,
Well, when we come to yourcontent, everything just seems to be

(17:08):
a little bit more positive. Everything. There's really kind of no sway,
there's really kind of no bias,kind of tell it how it is,
whether if you've ever been done dirtyby somebody, or even if you have,
it's just like, you know,I'm wishing them the best. I
hope that they're doing all right.Usually you don't kind of get that with
everybody else. And like I mentioned, there is some bias. There is
some I'm not going to talk onthat, but and in some of these

(17:30):
old schoolers, it seems like thelast thing that they actually want to talk
about is wrestling because they see italready done, fed up with the business.
But you kind of make wrestling seemslike I think I kind of want
to go do that now. Yeah, well, I look at it as
the and I try to live mylife with a few philosophies. One of
the philosophies actually, oh man,I know they where I put my phone

(17:51):
a here we go. Here's oneof my philosophies. Here's one of my
philosophies, never let someone waste yourtime twice for visual audience right there.
That's one. That's one of myphilosophies right there. And another one is
how someone feels about me, whetherthey like me or dislike me. Orf
someone's saying something bad about me byyou know, it's none of my business.

(18:15):
I'm not gonna be able to changetheir mind. Let them think whatever
whatever they want. They're not gonnamove my needle either up or down.
And I just don't care. Whenwe started, I told I told Zach,
I was like, there's a coupleof things I want to adhere to.
I'm not gonna be the guy that'sthat's burying everybody. That's just not
my personality. I view everything Iwas able to do in wrestling as a

(18:40):
luxury. It's just I was.I was fortunate to be there. There
was no privilege. I didn't likethat. It's not like I once I
won tough enough, they guaranteed mea shot and someoney held me back.
Now, if anybody held anybody back, it's me holding myself back. So
I'm not gonna get on the channeland bury anybody being in that industry.

(19:00):
And I told this the Taker whenI was sitting with him. And there's
not many things you could probably tellTaker and have him be like I didn't.
I've never looked at it that way, but I said this. I
said at the time I was there, there was probably And tell me if
you agree with these numbers, Isaid, there was probably about sixty sixty
men that had this job of beinga traveling wrestler with the WWE and WWF.

(19:26):
That's pretty cool. Sixty people inthe entire world have this job,
and I was fortunate enough to beone of them. Yeah, how am
I gonna be bitter about that?Sure? Like, that's that's to me.
That's just that's cool. Odds Andanother thing I did, I'm not
gonna along with not burying other people, I'm not gonna tell other people's stories.

(19:47):
I'm not gonna get on there andbe like yo, all right,
so the booker, T and Batistafight backstage. Here's what happened, right,
It's not my story to tell,right, you know. And if
I can bring people on, likewe brought Devon on, and Devon talked
about the mass transitence incident, well, that's his story to tell. That's

(20:08):
why we brought him on. Tellyour story, get your side of it.
We brought obviously got Undertaker on,which and you know Undertaker everybody thought.
You know, we talk about thethe Hell and the Cale with Mick,
He's done that a million times.So we talked about the one with
Sean. That's again that's his story, his story to tell. So that's

(20:30):
again where we're just trying to bea little bit different with what we do.
Yeah, I'm not saying hey,and I'm not saying that I disagree
with the way others do their chamber. I'm a huge Kevin Nash fan.
I'm a huge Conrad fan. I'ma huge Stevie Richardson Renee Depri fan.
Oh. Yeah, there's enough roomon this platform for all of us to
succeed. We're not fighting for atime slot. We're not fighting for the

(20:52):
Thursday night at eight o'clock timeslot.Yeah, there's we can all succeed,
and we can all you know,in the in the end make money exactly.
You mentioned Stevie Richards too. Ilistened to him a lot, and
Stevie richards is just from I've nevermet the guy, but from all accounts,
seems like a really, really,really good dude. I love his
mind for the business, I lovehow he talks kind of you know,

(21:12):
I was listening to him obviously kindof a long before you did. He's
on Vince Russo Show. If you'rea I'm sure you're familiar with Vince Ruso.
I'm a huge Vince Russo fan.I mean, I like, I
like, I like them all.I like everybody's I like everyone's different,
everyone's different view and let me addingmore to the pot makes them more fun.
Let me ask you, because yeah, I'm a Russo fan too,

(21:34):
How did how did you like?I? I kind of felt bad for
him with the whole w c W. Yeah, I felt bad for him.
I feel bad for Goldberg. Idon't me personally like everything in life
has a life cycle. And theone thing I do know about life is
we we leave with nothing and there'snothing that on this earth that lasts forever.

(21:56):
Right. I think WCW just hadits life cycle. I don't think
it was I don't think it wasKevin Nash or Scott Hall or mis taking
money that killed it. Don't again, Bill, I don't think it was
Bill Goldberg. Goldberg was what theycreated, and the same with I don't
think it was Vince Russo. Ithink they just it ran its course and

(22:18):
it's had its life cycle. Yeah, I agree, what do you think?
I agree? I watched that.You know, the Vice usually does
a really good job at doing stufflike that, and I know that they
even had a book not too longago with the death of w c W
and Vince Russo's face was just kindof plucked up on it, and for
whatever reason, he's been a awhooping stick over like ever since he's been

(22:41):
done with wrestling. Of something badhappens, and let's just blame Russo or
you with the benefit of hindsight nowand we just go see something like a
clip of old wrestling that was silly. Oh that's Russo. And you know,
you have people like Jim Cornett.I'd like hearing some of Jim Cornett's
stories. That's really fun. Butyou know when I hear him talking about
pissing on people's graves, and andit just at the end of the day,

(23:03):
it's wrestling, it's it's a it'sa television show. It's it's it's
supposed to invulk reactions. And theseare humans that are from everyone involved,
from the talent working, from theproducers, from the people on the behind,
from the writers. So you justhave a swede opinion of this guy
because he didn't write your favorite wrestlerto win this match or and then and

(23:26):
they they he's really easy to pickat, and he's just I I love
the New York Action. I lovethe bros. I think it's I think
it's fantastic stuff and shout out tohim. We follow each other on a
Twitter. I've reached out to hima couple of times and I said,
Hey, Vince, I just wantyou to know that I don't think that
you had part in you know,any of this. Of course do the
whole w c duf it. Itcould have been a collaboration of everybody.

(23:49):
There was just you know, itwas it's like one person just like stab
that everyone had the well, Vincewas sent by McMahon to go kill that
company and no these it. Likeyou said, everything has a life course
and I think that was just kindof done with it at the while.
I don't. I don't know ifw c W would still be going strong
today if those guys were never there. Everything was going to have a life

(24:12):
span. And at the end ofthe day, w w E with their
record numbers now and how they justkeep going up. I don't think it
still would have held up. Idon't either. And Russo just was a
He's an easy bull tie. She'san easy, easy person for for you,
for fans or for whoever to totarget and say there, there's the
reason. Yeah, that's the reasonthat it failed. And again, I

(24:34):
uh, I encourage anybody out there, the only person and I love Cornette
stuff too, sure, but whenCornett goes off on a rant and and
and tirade on other people, allhe's doing is up upsetting himself. Yeah,
I doubt, I doubt. Idoubt these people care. They I
wouldn't care. They just like thesound bites because he's quippy and he learned.

(24:56):
He throws these metaphors out that Inever heard of before. That he's
the funniest, one of the funniesthuman beings I've ever been like. He
He's got more one liners than thenext ten people that I know. He's
He's very, extremely, extremely quickwith it. But I just, I
mean, I don't I'm a fortyseven year old man that has bills and

(25:21):
responsibilities. I don't care what othergrown men think of me. That don't
help me pay those bills, right, don't help me meet the needs of
those responsibilities. Other than I don'tgive a shit. Pay for what you
want. If you like what wedo, great love to have you.
If you don't like what we do, but you're still watching hell you're still
helping our algorithm. That's right.It's all it's all about. It's all

(25:44):
about getting the eyes on you andhey, if they had different opinions,
and that's fine. You know,I'm not one of those people, especially
when we're in a such a binarythis side or this side, Like I
mean, who cares. I'm stillgoing to live my life. I still
want to treat you as a regularhuman being. If we had this disagreements
and that's fine, We'll go dothat. We'll still go out and hang
out and have a good time andjust try not to talk about it and

(26:04):
make a stressful situation come out ofit. Absolutely, and life's all about
having disagreements, disagreements, disagreements andseeing being able to see things from two
different sides is how you get toa good result in the sure, I
don't want I don't want to havesomeone that agrees one hundred percent with everything
I say. The good thing aboutmy partner and I, the reason we

(26:26):
do work is because we don't seethe best route sometimes to get in to
a video, and it takes uspitching ideas back and pleading our case for
why we think it should be thisway, and then we come come with
a solution in the end. That'sthat's literally I think how the best product
comes out. Yeah, No,you're absolutely right, Mayben. I also

(26:48):
wanted to well, well, we'lljust kind of go and bring it back
to uh. I mentioned h Imentioned your your YouTube partner Zach kind of
reaching out and kind of helped facilitatethis. But it really all started for
my guy friend of the show,Al Snow, also a friend of a
friend, a mentor of you throughoutyour wrestling career. I just kind of
wanted to talk about that. Imean, obviously you guys have a good

(27:10):
relationship. Is it always has didthat relationship as have you guys always been
in talks and connections over the lastcouple of years since your exit from the
WWE Have you always been checking oneach other or has it just been kind
of like re established here recently.He's the one guy. There's a few
guys that I never lost touch with. Devon Dudley I never lost touch with,

(27:30):
Yeah, and Al Snow is anotherone. Like like the guys that
I've recently got back in touch withis like Mark Jendrack, like Jen Drack
and I a great great friends.And then we probably lost touch for the
better parts of fifteen years. Andrecently he and I saw each other at
the convention a few years back,and now we're back, you know,
texting each other every day. Cool. And Al's the one guy that I

(27:53):
just never lost touch with. That'sawesome. Al is He's truly one of
the just best human beings, youknow, not just people in this business,
but just human beings. If Iif I told out I need you
today, he find a way tobe here. Absolutely. There's not many
people you can say that about.And vice versa. If Al told me.

(28:15):
If Al called me up and said, hey, I need you in
ov W to do a sign,and yeah, when you need me there,
my answer wouldn't be let me seeit would be when do you need
me there? Yeah? Same withDevon. You know, whatever you need,
I'm there. So and that there'snot many people that you run into
life, you know. You knowthat that you could probably say that about
Al. Yeah. And Al,I mean you talk to anybody. I

(28:38):
mean you even see him around.He's like a local celebrity now. Everyone
everyone respects him. Everyone just kindof everyone just loves to talk to him.
And even I'm sure you watched Wrestlersand it's funny love. He just
kind of comes off very very,would you say, begrudgingly kind of older
guy. You know. I thinkMick Foley said he makes squid word seem
pleasant in that whole series, butcouldn't be one of the more more nicer

(29:03):
dudes. And don't get I Idon't know how he does it. I'm
not going to even try to speculatehis age, but my god, the
dude's still built like a tank.I don't know how he does it good
clean living that I mean. Isee he's got these big clubs, hundreds
of pounds and he's doing that thingthat gimmick with it. It's like,
my gosh, dude, I seehis post where he's he's like, you

(29:26):
know, twisting the bam bam.Yeah things to Alice is also one of
the guys who he doesn't miss it. He doesn't miss a workout. He's
going to be in the gym tillthe day he's no more. It's just
a part of something that's ingrained inhis psyche. Like I've gotten now that
the like I figure like I've Ihad my run, you know, kids

(29:49):
trying to be big and now I'vemay mainly focus on stretching. So one
thing I wish I wish I wouldhave focused on back in the day.
And I stretch now every day foran hour. I mean two weeks ago.
Two weeks ago, I had twoneedles this long stuck in my shoulder
and in my lower back, likemy days of my days of being you

(30:12):
know, in the gym, benchingon everything I can, They're just gone,
They're just done. Right If Iif I can get my flexibility raised,
I'll be happy. You'll be readyto go by Mania Vegas next year.
Bro, Hey, listen, Iain't saying I wouldn't. Somebody gave
me a call and said, we'regonna start putting this amount of money in

(30:32):
your bank account. I try anything, I pray and manifest that into the
universe that we get you back tothis someday, because I'm waiting on it
and I think I think it getI think, dude, don't underestimate yourself.
I think you get a huge pop. Well maybe, but here's what
I do underestimate is my ability tokeep up with today's wrestling. Sure,

(30:56):
like, and I've said it onpodcasts and stuff like, I think like
I'm a rickish ricky. She doesstuff I wouldn't do in a swimming pool,
Like I just like I can't evendo in a swimming pool. Yeah,
like I can't imagine that type ofathleticism. And I just think,
can I watch the guys work now? And I'm like, Okay, the
business has officially left off your list. It's but you. But you never

(31:23):
know. There's more in the wrestlingbusiness than just wrestling. Sure, if
if someone I apologize my work,my work, if you hear that my
work computers on, I turned offmy notifications off. How unprofessional. I
have no idea how to do that. I literally how to do it.
Right now, I turned I justturned the whole computer off. That's how
I get them off. But ifpeople, and the funny thing is is

(31:45):
people are always like you know,if would you go back? If the
w W asked you, I wouldlisten to anybody. Sure, I would
listen to If AW contacted me,I'd listen to them. I would listen
to any any business opportunity. BecauseI didn't say no. This kid reached
out to me on LinkedIn about doinga YouTube channel. That's right, and
look how that's changed my life.Yeah, exactly, And you're not letting

(32:08):
any He didn't waste your time.He's certainly not gonna do it twice,
right, No, No, AndI very easily because I get I probably
get more and and I hate itthat I can't do everything that people want,
but I get more requests now thanI obviously have in years. But

(32:28):
it would have been very easy tosee this kid's request and just be like,
uh, that that's enough. Butlook look at what I would have
missed out on. Sure, exactly, Well, I'm glad that I'm glad
that I'm glad the shoot or shootright? You know you missed ninety nine
percent of the shot you don't takeThat's what Wayne, I think. Or
Mike was not one of the two? Now, how not y nine?
How not one hundred that I'm listen, I'm not good with math. I

(32:52):
don't know. I didn't I didn'tmake this thing up. I just I'm
just one of those people that searchedmotivational posters and I just go with that,
all right. I'm not questioning yourmath skills. I'm definitely not questioning
your math skills. Well two plustwo equals I don't know. I don't
have I that's what I got myfingers for. Once they started throwing the
alphabet into math, that's when Ichecked out. Bro I said, no,

(33:14):
yeah, yeah and parentheses. Yeah, please excuse my dear aunt Sally.
Not for me. I kind ofwant to get back a little on
I guess sort of tie into OVWAl Snow in a little way. Obviously,
Al Snow one of the most notorioustrainers of just wrestling history. And
we had the American Nightmare WWA undisputedchampion Cody Rhodes on about a month ago

(33:37):
and he says he's always going tobang the drum for Al Snow being the
one that trained him forty four hundredShepherdsville Road. You got Al Snow back
when they were doing they were launchingthe reality show Tough Enough. And what
was kind of like that journey foryou when you got in, Like,
were you really I know you werea fan, but were you did you
really kind of understand what you weregetting into and the sort of backstages like

(33:58):
that. I mean, you're you'remeeting guys like a You're meeting guys like
Build DeMont, You're meeting guys likeAl Snow, these larger life characters.
Did you understand like kind of whatyou're getting into and what was your mindset
like do you think that kind ofseparated you from the other competitors during that
first season. Well, I no, I didn't know what I was getting
into, but I knew I wasall in at the time. I had

(34:21):
a sixth grade I was a sixthgrade school teacher. I had a career,
I had a profession. I hadresponsibilities back then as well, and
I my option if I didn't win, if wrestling didn't become my vocation,
my option was to move back into my mom's place and just start life
over again, which I was okaywith. I was good, I was

(34:44):
willing to do. I was atan age I was twenty four, so
it's not like, you know,I couldn't start over, and but going
into it with the mindset of Igot to put everything in on this.
I got to do one hundred percent. And I don't think others went into
it with that min mindset. Youknow, some of them went into it
with with significant others, with girlfriends, and they weren't they weren't ready to

(35:07):
leave that. Some of them justdidn't. I don't think under understand what
the you know, what the lifeof a professional wrestler on the road is
like. Yeah, once they heardHunter talk about what it was like,
because everything he said was accurate,you know, then it then it did
it hit home. But I washonest with us, if nothing else,

(35:27):
from day one, honest with usto a fault. And I didn't know
if I had what it took,what it would take to you know,
to make it in the wrestling careeras a career full time. But I
knew I was going to give itmy all. And I've been in enough
sports locker rooms to know I canwheel through a locker room. I can
find my way around a locker room, right And and I wasn't going to

(35:52):
you know, be playing there,talking behind people's backs or whatever. You
know, I'll make my home ina locker room. I know that much
about my personal But I just didn'tknow do I have it physically and do
I have it psychologically? Yeah,because the in wrestling, the moves aren't
the hard part. The psychology ofit's the hard part knowing when and at

(36:14):
what time to do the move.That's what's Al's the best at right,
the best the best and Al willhe One of the earliest ways he taught
us that was he made us doa headlock match, literally a five minute
match with you just put a headlockon and there's a way to put that
one move on and still tell astory. And that like showed me that

(36:38):
there's more than one ways to skina cat in this business. Yeah,
there's nobody better than Als teaching that, like and like like Cody, I'm
honored to be able to say thathe was my key, was my teacher,
and I learned from him. Yeah, and he's he's still doing it
now. You know at ov Wand that that that goes through its ups

(36:58):
and downs, and it's got andrevitalized over the last year with the introductions
of Wrestlers on Netflix. You mentionedthat you watch what did you necessarily think
that everything seem on par with Yup, that's Al Snow for you. And
just when we're talking about like anindie wrestling show and obviously OBW doesn't have
the ties that once had to theWWE, they're still trying to stay afloat

(37:19):
and they have been and it's allbeen some of the genius of Al Snow
keeping the wrestling traditions going you seea whole cast of characters on there,
HollyHood, Haley, Jay, CalHero, We even had certified Luke Curtis
on and you even got the visitcome back, Like you said we were
talking about right before the show,you got to come back and talk with
that and go through OVW You thinkyou could talk about that a little bit.

(37:40):
What got you to come back andwhat Al snow necessarily wants you to
do. Did you get to talkto any superstars that you like or Yeah,
So Al's wife actually reached out tome. They were getting ready to
do a roast of Ol and shewanted me to come and just be one
of the people that roasted him.And obviously, again I was more than

(38:00):
happy to be, Like, Wendyneed me there, and they were able
to keep me hidden, so Aldid not know I was coming, and
I think I shocked a lot ofnot only Al, but I saw you
mentioned Haley j Yeah, I was. You know, I was outside the
hotel and she gets out of acar and walks by and didn't know I

(38:22):
was gonna be there. She went, Hi, didn't realize it was me,
and then walked about ten steps andwent, oh my god. Then
turned around she was and came runningback and she was like, I didn't
even I didn't know you were gonnabe here. But I was able to
spend a few days at OVW andwatch their set up the way Al came
across in wrestlers obviously, you know, anytime a television show is being put

(38:44):
forward, they haven't it. Theyhave to have an agenda, and you
know, they made Al out tobe more I think of the you know,
just like he was fighting to keepa business afloat, which he probably
is. But I didn't think theytarred it enough on OL's just how amazing
of a wrestling brain he has.But again, they have a show to

(39:06):
put on. Yeah it was.They did a good enough job though that.
I think the show was one ofNetflix's, you know, most highly
rated shows at that time, sothat I'm happy about. But I did
I got to spend a couple ofdays with the with a lot of the
guys there, and and and mancash Flow, I got to speak with
him. Yeah, you know,the who was the rocking the rocker guy

(39:28):
was that? Uh oh, Iknow here talking about Man, it should
get It's in my phone, itshould come. It should the top of
my head. But yes, theywere giving out ear they give out they
give out ear plugs at the showfor merch for them to such a good
given. But I got to Igot to spend a little bit of time

(39:49):
with with a lot of them there, and just you know, a I
hope if nothing else, I wasencouragement for him, you know, showing
them because I was older than mostof them. But I'm where not only
where you hopefully could get to,but man, you could blow by the
career I had, and there wasno better place that you that that you're

(40:10):
you could possibly be in. Youknow, there's there's three schools that I
think of whenever anybody asked me,you know, hey, I want to
get into wrestling. You know howdo I do it? There's three schools
that come to my mind. AndI would send anybody to O v W
obviously, and I don't mean thedevelopmental territories. Obviously. If you get
to the developmental down in Florida,you're hired, You're you're hired, You're

(40:32):
where you're wing. But the schoolsis ov W. Then I think of
Bookers R O W and yes,and what Booker's doing. And then I
think of in this area. Uh, create a pro with Brian Myers,
I mean creative Pro. You know, he's the one that you that trained
m j F And yeah, youknow, He's just those three schools do

(40:55):
it the right way. They runamazing schools. And I'm not saying that
there's not other schools out there thatdo it. I just I'm not familiar
with them. But those are thethree schools I'm familiar with that. If
pro wrestling is something that you trulywant to get into, I would find
a way to get into any ofthose schools because you're gonna be You're gonna
be trained by three guys that's beento the top of the mountain that knows

(41:20):
what it takes to create a televisionstar. And that's what that that's the
same link that Booker and that Alhave. I'm teaching people how to be
television stars because wrestling on the indiesand wrestling in front of a television audience,
man, that's too. That's twodifferent horns on the same goat exactly.

(41:42):
It's just it's there's it's not it'sjust a different animal. And you
have to learn from someone who's beenthere on how to do that and those
guys are I mean, they're justyour classic workers. I mean, I
think pro wrestling in the air theage of twenty twenty four, I think,
And it's completely fine if you're intoit, if you take the wrestling

(42:05):
part way too literal. Sometimes peopleget caught up in the whole five star
stuff, and some people get caughtup and well, there's three hours of
wrestling on and really only twenty oneminutes and thirty six seconds. We're actual
wrestling, and they just kind oftake it's supposed to be a show a
television it's a television show, andwe've seen our work before. It's it's
how you sell facial expressions, it'show you sell moves. How once you

(42:29):
do a move to get up andlook at this camera, look at that
camera, because you're trying to getan audience at home, and that's what
you're captivating more or less, ratherthan the scripted simulated fights. I hate
to, you know, use thatword, but like that, that's not
it is, And that's what I'malways arguing with people about. And you
know, I mean, Al Snow, those guys, Brian Meyers and Booker
t they're the best net They're classicworkers. There's you could be a good

(42:52):
wrestler but not a great worker.Would you agree with that a thousand gazillion
percent? Absolutely? And Brian Myers, Brian's one of the best workers that
I've ever been around. And obviouslyBooker is probably one of the funniest human
beings I've ever been around. Andthrow on top of that that he was

(43:13):
a hell of a worker, sureand he and then on top of that
with what all three of those guyshad is they can entertain. They could
take their wrestling knowledge, they couldput a five star match out and be
entertaining. And if you're if you'rewanting to get into this business, that's
what you want to be around.That's the people that you want to learn

(43:35):
from, because I don't want tolearn how to I don't want to learn
how to do something from someone whois hasn't been where I want to go,
you know, like that's it's justbecause for wrestling, schools aren't cheap,
not free, and you just wantto get the most bang for your
buck and the most for your timethat you're going to be there. I

(43:57):
remember when I was on one ofthe craziest things I had to learn.
We were out at the ring,you know, before we're all and one
of the cameraman came up to meand he had to teach me how to
find the camera to sell to wow, because you just mentioned it. He
was like, stop watching it becauseand it's just all guys watch the monitor.
They watched the flight and trun It'sjust it's second nature. You can't

(44:20):
help it. It's like when youwatch a running back that's that broken eighty
yard run and look, yeah,you see him looking up watching themselves.
It's the same in wrestling. Buthe taught me to you know, if
they have a handheld and you seethe red light on, you know how
to sell and sell with your faceup, you know, and how to
if you don't see a light camera, then that means the hard cameras got

(44:43):
the shot shot, So sell themback around to where you're facing the hard
camera. And that kind of stufftakes time to learn. Yeah, that's
always been so fascinated with me andme being in radio and production, the
production of wrestling and especially WWE,to be exact, is amazing. And
when I go to a live show, I am also just as fascinated in
with how they do these this productionstuff and you know, like they a

(45:07):
lot of people. I don't meanto go off on a side street.
Here. We were at WrestleMania.It's teld by my hat in Philadelphia.
One of the greatest times I've everbeen to. We got credentialed media,
we got to go sit in thepress box. But at the end,
when they were doing the Undertaker spot, everyone on the internet can swear to
you that that's the Undertaker waited underthe ring for three hours a whole show.
No, they kind of rushed himout through the crowd, but they

(45:29):
do so much at distracting you fromwhen they actually pull somebody out that you
don't even know what you're like.I was sitting there looking at that,
yeah, and I would have neverguessed it. It's a magic It's a
magic show. Literally is look overhere, here, look at here,
what's in this hand? And thetricks taking place down in this van.
And I know it wasn't because Iknow Undertaker's partner Matt Lida, who told

(45:53):
me Undertaker was up in the boxfor the whole show. And then at
one point we had to be like, all right, I gotta go down.
Got the call and Taker's wife,Michelle didn't even know he was gonna
do it. Wow, only ahandful of people knew, so they thought
Taker was going to the bathroom orwhatever. But then next thing you know,

(46:14):
he shows up at you on Maniaand he definitely wasn't under the ring
for the three. No, that'swhat, that's what, and it's and
Cody even came one said that dudewas in and out like that. You
would have never guessed the Undertaker beingas I won't even want to say,
as old as he is, butin his older age. He said,
he rolled into the wing ring quickerthan I'd ever seen anyone do it.

(46:36):
So, I man, I waswith him, you know, a month
and month and a half, twomonths ago, and I was at his
property. He's in phenomenal shape,O man like, phenomenal shape. Like
we filmed. We filmed for twohours and then I spent five hours there
on his property. And he lookslike obviously he just had his hips done

(46:59):
and I think he had both hisknees done, you know, so his
body's probably hurting him. Yeah,he looks like he could run. He
looks like he could get out thereand go right now. Like want to
meet him in a dark alley Man. He's the nicest guy on earth.
It's funny. We were there andwe got done, and you know,
I was he's got two kids there, and you know, I'm playing his

(47:22):
foot. His daughter is a hellof a football player. She's a quarterback.
And I was like, I waslike, throw me a few and
I was thinking she was gonna,you know, throw like a girl or
what. Oh no, She's wearingback and whipping it to me. And
I was like, damn you.And after a few hours we were you
know, we were there. Hetook me around his whole property on his

(47:42):
side by side and then we're stilloutside and we're just you know, talking,
and his daughter and his son says, Navin, you want to see
my bedroom. And I'm like,I doubt your dad wants me, you
know, trying through the house andtake He was like, no, it's
fine showing your bedroom. And Iwas just like thinking the us. I
was like, man, I'm intaker's house. Nuts. This is nuts.

(48:05):
And then his daughter and then hisdaughter said, you need to see
my dad's steam shower. And Iwas like, I'm the one hundred percent
sure your dad doesn't want me tracingthrough his bedroom and he's like, guy,
just take his shoes off, youcan look at it. Wow.
And then the five minutes later Igot Taker. I'm in his steam shower
and he's explaining to me what histhoughts were when they were building the house.

(48:27):
Wow. He was like yeah,He's like, and I'm just and
in my mind, I'm just like, what is what is happening? Like
like a year ago. A yearago people just didn't even remember I used
to wrestle, and now I'm inUndertakers Undertaker and it's amazing. And you're
on a show, the six FeetUnder podcasts, and obviously you have history

(48:49):
with the Undertaker, one of themore infamous. I don't know, how
is it infamous famous? Which one'sbad? I don't I don't. To
me, they're both the same.But you had this thing moment with the
under Taker, that Royal Rumble wherehe kicked his ass right on out and
it can't be explained too much.You guys can go back on the Maven
Huffman YouTube channel. He's got severalvideos where he talks about it, how
was all conducted, and how youwere basically hand chosen by him or Shane

(49:15):
McMahon basically to do that, andnow it's almost kind of full circle around
with them on his podcast and especiallywhen Undertakers always protected his character right,
and it seems still seems surreal todaythat he's kind of breaking the fourth wall
with podcasts when twenty years ago,like he only wore black when he is
outside or he wouldn't even like toexpose that side of the business. But

(49:37):
that had to be really really coolfor you to be there and just kind
of be boys with him, youknow that seems especially they were doing a
good job that year of making Takerjust seem like an absolute unhinged dickhead,
and good you did a good sellfor him by taking that ass whoopan Well,
I'll tell you what the world needsto see this side of Mark Callaway

(49:57):
because he is one of the youknow, only most gracious people from this
business, but he's just one ofthe most entertaining. We were out and
we had dinner, but the nightbefore we started everything and it was uh,
you know, Taker, Midian godfather, me, Chris van vliet Zach
my partner, and a few otherpeople that work one Taker's side for his

(50:21):
channel. And after the restaurant cleared, Taker starts telling stories and it was
like when you were in kindergarten andyour teacher was holding up the book,
you know, and reading the storyand like everybody's getting on the carpet Indian
style legs. Christ That's how greatof a storyteller he was. And it
would be it would be a sinif his partner Matt Laida did not talk

(50:47):
him into, you know, showingthis side because two things can be true.
You can still be a fan ofthe Undertaker and what he accomplished,
and a pre she ate Mark Callawayfor telling his version of his career.
Yeah, because it's just like it'sjust unlimited information that he has to give.

(51:13):
Like I apologize to my partner allthe time, Zach. I'm like,
man, like, there's like wehave a we have a shelf life
on the number of stories I cantell. But he he doesn't right,
Like he doesn't like it's unlimited.I've always wanted to just like and it
always seems I remember him on theStone Cold Steve Austin's podcast about a couple

(51:35):
of years back, and they toastedwith some whiskey and and just the Mark
in me as like, my gosh, him and Steve, they just seem
like two dudes that just kind ofwant to tell stories now that they're kind
of out, and I would aperson like me would love to hear that
kind of stuff. So I hopeone of these days I get to meet
and talk to Undertaker, because Iwill probably be his favorite. I would
sit down, shut up, andlet him talk for hours, dude,

(51:58):
because I would just love to hearthat side. The funny thing is is
when I got to his studio todo his show, to do six Feet
Under, he made me. Yousee me holding the whole time, I'm
holding a blue like drink and andyou know he he told me beforehand.
He's like, he's like, I'mgonna make you a cocktail and what I'm
gonna be like, No, I'mlike okay, And it actually was good,

(52:22):
really yeah, it was damn goodunder cocktail, right. Yeah,
But it's just like cocktail again andno. And it's funny because I know
people are like, why is maybeyou know, why is maybe in the
Undertaker together. I know I wasn'ton his level in the in the ring,
like we never like we had ourrun in the beginning of my career
and that was it. It's notlike I was a main eventor or Hall

(52:44):
of Famer or nothing. But itstill just shows his graciousness that you know,
we can still be boys. Yeah, I'll argue Midian wasn't on his
level either, But Midian's still aMedians, still a fan BSk member,
They're still yeah, just because Midianwasn't a uh main event or are you

(53:07):
doubting what he knows? Of courseMidian was naked on TV before that.
The Undertaker wasn't doing that, boys. Uh. Midian talked about what they
put in that bucket that they pouredon the slop oh little slop old Godwin
days, right, yeah, God, you know, I might I might
have quit. I might have beenlike, nah, you're not pouring out

(53:30):
of my head some of the stuffyou know that just went into it back
in the day. And once again, fascinating stuff what they did, he
says, like bread and milk andoatmeal and stuff like that. I may
be wrong on those, but Iremember seeing I remember watching and seeing the
cliff. Are you a big fanof like today's w W Do you find
yourself like watching or SmackDown or kindof paying attention to any of the p

(53:51):
ls that go on or any ofthe stories. Don't watch it. Don't
watch it. It's too tough.It's like, and I've said this also
on the channel, It's like it'slike watching the love of my life my
ex girlfriend on a weekly basis,you know, take her new boyfriend to
dinner and being invited. You know, I don't want to know. I
don't want to sit and watch youat dinner and you know making out across

(54:15):
from that's great, right, gladyou guys are happy. It's just too
tough, Like because I still Istill love and like, I still love
wrestling, and i still look atit and obviously I'm still human, like
the jealous part of it, Yeah, is gonna wish I was where these
people are. So it's just easierjust to not watch. And I got

(54:35):
I get on my feed like I'ma huge Like I'm a huge MJF fan.
I know he's not a w youknow, but he will one day.
Yeah, sure he'll be there oneday. He'll get that tattoo covered
up eventually. I just I catchup on my feed and yeah, it's
just sometimes it's easier to do thattoo. I've I've discovered, like the

(55:00):
Hulu version when it comes out thenext day. You can kind of skip
through what you don't want to see. But I me personally and my love
for wrestling has been reignited over thelast couple of years just because. And
I'll go ahead and ad minute.You know, it was a little low
and lackluster during the late twenty teens, and it got into twenty twenty and
of course a pandemic and everything likethat, But what turned into one of
my favorite wrestlers. And I neverthought it would be happening. But everything

(55:22):
the Roman Reigns has been doing withthe Blood Mine, it's been phenomenal.
I'm so glad I've got to bea part of so many shows to where
he was featured and that whole storywas played out, and hell, even
seeing it, I guess one ofthe chapters closed with the WrestleMania forty at
at with Cody getting the belt.So like it's it's been hot. It's
been probably just as popular as it'sever been. I was just gonna ask

(55:44):
you, Maven, if if youknow whenever you do, because I have
no doubt that one of these daysa major promotion will go ahead and call
you. I think they'd be sillynot to have you somewhere either either as
a writer, booker or some sortof producer agent to a show because you
had that sort of knowledge that mostof these kids can use. And I
say kids because they're all younger thanme now, but do you think that

(56:04):
you probably take that like that Alsnow Roll And if you could have like
any superstar going now, like whowould you like to take under your wing
and really kind of just show themthis is how it's done. Honestly,
Oh my gosh, putting you onthe spot. Yeah, probably an MJF
just because and I don't think he'sdoing anything incorrectly or role. I just

(56:29):
I really believe. I think hecan be a generational type type. Like
I think he's just different. Butlike I hope he doesn't get in his
own way, and he will.I just I know that. It's just
it's it's easy to start believing yourhype when people are telling you how great

(56:50):
you are. Yeah, I trulybelieve he could be one of those guys
in twenty years we're looking back asone of the best to ever do it,
and probably one of the best heelsever do it. Because he's different,
Like he's just different, like hegets he cuts a promo and people
literally are like, man, washe being serious? Yeah, and that's

(57:12):
an and that's an art and that'san art. Yeah, I think,
I think, like I love whatRoman's doing. Hell I worked with his
brother, I mean, you know, and you know I worked with his
family and New Maga. Hell wasone of my best friends. Yeah.
I still I still remember, youknow, being on the road with Echi,
you know, and that whole familyis just, you know, so

(57:35):
super talented. So yeah, tosee, you know, so to see
what he's become, I mean tolook at the guy. The guy looked.
The guy literally looks like if CentralCasting. He looks like if Central
Casting said we need a professional wrestlerchampion. He looks like who you picked,
you know, he looks perfect forit. Absolutely. And you mentioned

(57:55):
and I know you've you've mentioned yourbig, big friend of Aki and the
amazing person when he was you know, he was still with us. But
when you're kind of going around duringthe promotions and especially down there with Booker
T, you got to meet hisson, Zilla, right, Yeah.
Yeah, and that kid's another one. Okay, there's the one I would
take under my wing. Oh awesome. Zilla shout out to Zilla. We

(58:17):
hope to have him on the podcastsoon because and trust me, all the
talent in the world again saying,I hope he doesn't get in his own
way, right, that's I justhope he doesn't get in his own way
because he literally has the world beingready to be handed to him, like
absolutely, and he's doing great stuff. Yeah, and super talented, just

(58:39):
I mean just amazing talent and canwork, can go like just like his
dad. He's got the Samoan spikenow where he jumps up and does like
a super spike now. And theguy he looks the part, he plays
the part, he sounds like it, and to me, that's all it
is. The wrestling can come afterwardsif I can put you up or on

(58:59):
on what's the old old Vincent man. Put him on a Marque pal It
looks exactly like he that's where hebelongs. So we're over for him.
I hope that everything's played out sofar right now with what the WW is
doing with the Samoan dynasty, thebloodline, where I can only imagine that
he's going to get a piece ofHe's around the right guy too with Booker.

(59:20):
Yeah, oh yeah, there's noone better that he could be around
Booker because Booker and you know,when I was there, Booker was telling
me, He's like, man,I got to tell these kids, I'm
not your friend, Like like,I'm like, I'm trying to get you
prepared to be to get where youneed to go, and sometimes that includes
hearing some hard truths. Yeah,so I I Yeah, he's another one.

(59:40):
It's it's crazy though. All thoseSamoans Rosie and Ecki were two of
the most athletic guys in the ring. Huh, and both of them were
big men. Yeah, you know, and Zilla is the exact same as
big as he is. He's justsuper athletic. Yeah, I'm excited to
see where that takes him. Andlike you said, he's he's under uh,

(01:00:01):
real professional worker, he's under realguidance. And hell, if we
want to talk about the territories andin Houston and that's wrestling country down there,
dude, you should be able toexcel. Yeah, and he's right
in front of the right person.Absolutely well, Dude, I feel like
we can just keep on talking forhours. We are just joking about how

(01:00:22):
al Snow can rant for a littlewhile. But trust me, my cost
Billy always has to cut me off, and sometimes I think I scare off
some of the WWE people because Ijust want to keep talking and I'm with
it. But that means just exactly. And then listen, they know I'm
a mark, so they don't mindit. And and here in radio,
I do a lot of country musicstuff too, so I'm always hooking people

(01:00:44):
up with tickets and meet and greetsand stuff. I'm more willing to give
out the experiences to people who Isee actually care about it. So I
just it looks like that's kind ofreciprocated with me. Well, may even
since you had this this life changingplatform of coming on the Baby podcast on
iHeartRadio, is anyone that you'd liketo shout out maybe tell people where they
can go buy some merch wherever theyelse can they can check you out on

(01:01:06):
social media? I'm My social mediaplatform consists of my YouTube channel, which
is my most important and my Instagram, which I have to drive people to.
The YouTube platforms. Right, bothboth of them are just under Maven
K. Huffman. Yeah, checkit out, man. We have a
new video coming out every Friday,and we're we're about to actually start a

(01:01:30):
membership side where we're gonna put someextra videos out. Zach and I are
going to do a weekly just recIt's gonna be pretty cool because I'm gonna
one of the things I don't getto do is answer questions, and I
want to have something where I cananswer questions. And there's just some videos
that I think only the hardcore fanswant to see, and you know,

(01:01:52):
a membership platform will be perfect forthat, So expect that coming soon.
Absolutely, you heard it from theman first. I'm excited to see what
other kind of content you have comingout. Like I said, I've been
a fan since the start of theshow, and I'm looking forward to seeing
what goes along with and especially lookingforward to you, uh possibly being back
a part at w W E somedaythat this year. Don't don't start that

(01:02:16):
rumor because people will be like,he's coming back. I said, I'll
listen to whatever. I'll listen toany opportunity, absolutely, but but I'm
certainly not expecting right. Well,you know wherever life takes you, dude,
I'm glad that it brought you hereand I hope to see you.
Uh. Your your your fun mind. You're a great person to talk to.
And I'm I'm excited to see,uh where this where this whole uh

(01:02:37):
Maven Revenge tour kind of like takeit pretty cool? I am too.
I've I've learned that life, uhyou know, life can end something at
a moment's notice. So I'm tryingto ride this as long as I can.
That's right. Well, dude,hopefully we ever get to do it
again. We'd love to have youon the show. Love to shoot some
ship because dude, we can talkabout so much much more and I would

(01:03:00):
love the opportunity to do that again. Well definitely will brother, Thank you
so much. And that was MavenHuffman And this is the Babyfaces Podcast.
Make sure to follow us on allInstagram pages social media. Everything's Instagram,
Twitter, x whatever you want tocall it now, Instagram X, Facebook,
YouTube, TikTok. We're all onit. It's at Babyface Pod.

(01:03:20):
You could see it on the screenright there. Go ahead and give us
a follow, like, comment,retweet, whatever. And we appreciate all
the feedback, everything all the fanshave done for us and making this platform
just grow a little bit more.And of course we appreciate Maven for taking
time out of his busy data.Just come talk to us for a little
bit, maybeon you have yourself.Good day, Bud, Thanks, thank
you my friend, thank you.Care gus