Maven parted ways with WWE back in 2005. He recently revealed that in early 2020, he had an opportunity to return to the company.
While speaking on his YouTube channel, Maven Huffman shared the story about how he almost made his return to WWE. The former WWE Superstar mentioned he reached out to D-Von Dudley and wanted to see if he had an chance in WWE as an interviewer or ring announcer.
“I reached out to D-Von, and knowing D-Von still had a great relationship with the WWE, I reached out and I said, ‘D-Von, I see a path forward. I see an opportunity, and I know I could work with the company, the company that I love, the company that brought me into this business. I see my opportunity, not as a wrestler, age wins, but I see my opportunity with maybe announcing, maybe backstage interview segments.’ D-Von agreed, and D-Von said, ‘Give me some time.” [H/T Fightful.com]
D-Von Dudley connected Maven to Top Phillips, who was one of the commentators at the time.
“Let me make a few calls.’ Week or two goes by, and D-Von calls me back and says, ‘I have a gentleman that I want you to talk with. His name is Tom Phillips.’ Tom helps find talent, along with Michael Cole running the whole thing. That kind of caught me off-guard because I remember Michael Cole’s role when I was in WWE, and to see that he had risen to where he was running that entire department, I was ecstatic.”
Maven on his conversation with Tom Phillips
Maven shared how his conversation with Tom Phillips went.
“So I speak with Tom, and I think that our very first conversation was at last about an hour, and it was just an opportunity for the two of us to get to know each other. So Tom told me that there was an opportunity to perhaps get into the commentating side of the business. To do that, I would have to come down to the training facility.
“Now, it was going to be all expenses paid. They were going to fly me down, they were gonna take care of my hotel. I was gonna spend an entire day pretty much in Orlando, where NXT is located. To be honest with you, I was excited to go down, and I had heard just how amazing the facility was, but I had never seen it. So I knew it was going to be, if nothing else, just a good day,” Maven said.
Maven reflects on how his life has been since getting fired by WWE in 2005
During the same episode, Maven took walk down memory lane to share how his life was when he was fired from the Stamford-based promotion in 2005.
“2005, WWE fires me, releasing me and ending a dream. 2008, they call back, they call back. Johnny Ace gives me a call, says, ‘Might have another opportunity for you to come back.’ This time, I wasn’t ready. After that, I went into other avenues of entertainment. BET, HSN, and I hope you saw the worst day of my life and watched my arrest video from 2012.
“So where was I at after that? What happened after that? So I took a lot of time off after the arrest. I basically just had to get myself together. I find myself in New York and working jobs that I wasn’t proud to admit I was working, coming from where I came from. By 2017, I had pulled myself out of a hole pretty well, and I was working with the Brooklyn Nets. I was with the Nets up until they signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Once they signed those two, a lot of us were shown the door,” Maven said.
