How Eliminating The Undertaker Made Maven’s WWE Career Forever Memorable
It seems like nearly every Royal Rumble has a predictable winner. You can always narrow it down to two or three men or women who are going to win each match, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of excitement and unpredictability leading up to the ending. We tune in for those surprise returns from injured and past stars, shocking debuts, wild stunts, and for the surprise eliminations. Many times a huge superstar has been put in the Royal Rumble just to be eliminated as a setup for their WrestleMania opponent, but the most shocking Royal Rumble elimination of all served no real purpose other than that shock. In the 2002 Royal Rumble, the most revered wrestler on the roster, The Undertaker, was eliminated by a rookie named Maven. Almost a quater of a century later, Maven and Taker still talk about it.
Maven Eliminated The Undertaker At The 2002 Royal Rumble
Going into 2002, The Undertaker was in his new “American Badass” gimmick as the Hardcore Champion. This version of Taker had dropped the supernatural aura, which made what happened to him next plausible. Can you imagine Maven tossing the zombie like Undertaker out of the ring? Taker might have been one of the biggest stars in the business in January 2002, but Maven was the exact opposite. He didn’t even start wrestling until the year before, when he was a contestant on Tough Enough. He eventually won the competition and made his debut in October 2001. Two months later he’d have the biggest moment of his career.
During the Royal Rumble match, the Undertaker was in the ring alone, having just eliminated the Hardys, when Maven made his way to the ring. While Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross joked about how fast Maven was going to get thrown out, the Hardys got back in the ring to attack Taker. He easily fought them off, but with his back turned, Maven dropkicked Taker in the back, knocking him over the ropes and to the floor. As the crowd and Maven went crazy, a shocked Undertaker looked on. It was then that Maven looked terrified at what he had just done. The Undertaker proceeded to get back in the ring and beat down Maven. The Tough Enough Star didn’t win (that went to Triple H), but it was Maven’s moment that everyone remembers most.
It Was The Undertaker’s Idea To Be Eliminated By Maven
So, just who in the world would decide to have Maven throw the Undertaker out of the ring? That had to be a wild Vince McMahon idea, right? Nope, it was Taker himself who came up with it. He talked about it with Maven on his Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway podcast. WWE was trying to turn him heel at the time and it wasn’t working. The plan was to just have a usual superstar eliminate Taker, but bored by that idea, he decided to shake things up with a shocker. The Undertaker said:
“No one sees this coming. What if I’m cleaning house, doing boom, boom, boom, and I said, the kid comes in and dropkicks me in the back, whatever, and he eliminates me. And everybody’s looking at me like, are you crazy?”
Those who Taker told his idea to couldn’t believe that he’d volunteer to be eliminated by some green rookie, but The Undertaker thought this would help to turn him heel. Meanwhile, Maven showed up at the arena assuming he’d make a quick, ceremonial appearance in the Rumble, before Shane McMahon told him during the ringside run through that he was eliminating Undertaker. Wanting to mess with Maven, Taker pretended to get mad about the idea like it was the first time he’d ever heard it. Maven said he was terrified, but then Taker winked at him to show he was having fun.
