"He hated me" - Former WWE star on D-Von Dudley
Former Hardcore Champion Maven has revealed that D-Von Dudley "hated" him when he first joined WWE after winning the Tough Enough competition.
Maven was a recent guest on D-Von Dudley's Table Talk podcast where he narrated an anecdote from his early years in WWE. He said that Dudley deliberately ignored him backstage after a match.
“He hated me. He can say what he wants, [but] he hated me. So I don’t know how he tells the story, but let me tell you the truth. So I come out of Tough Enough and I’m young. And I’m already terrified. Like, I’m literally in a full locker room with as many alpha males as you can possibly imagine being in one location. I was scared to death, I was like 23, 24 years old. And you know, all I wanted to do was to just have people earn respect for me, that was it. D-Von comes out of a match, I don’t know who him and Bubba were working. But he comes down, he walks down past Gorilla position. And I go, ‘Hey D-Von, good match.’ And this was his reaction. [Scoffs]. And he kept moving. Not a thank you, not a, ‘What did you like about it.’ Not even a slap,” said Maven. (H/T 411Mania)
D-Von Dudley revealed that the incident happened following a match between The Dudley Boyz and The Rock. He said that he was disappointed with a spot in the match.
Maven's WWE career
Maven was the co-winner of the inaugural season of Tough Enough, alongside Nidia Guenard, following which he received a contract from WWE.
He went on to have a four-year career in the company where he won the Hardcore Championship three times and memorably eliminated The Undertaker from the 2002 men's Royal Rumble match. Maven last wrestled in 2016 but he is no longer an active wrestler.