Anything can happen in WWE, and sometimes, that means performers can be injured at any time during the show, not just when they are competing.
Maven was a WWE Superstar from 2001 to 2005. Throughout his career, he suffered some injuries. Some injuries are easier to see, such as when he broke his leg on a 2002 episode of WWE SmackDown, wrestling Christian Cage. However, an injury can sometimes come unexpectedly, and audience members might not realize it.
In his most recent YouTube video, Maven ranked the severity of the pain he felt during some injuries. He explained that his most painful injury actually came from a match that featured Val Venis taking on Tyson Tomko. The match occurred on the episode of WWE Heat before Vengeance 2004 and featured Nidia in the corner of Venis to neutralize Trish Stratus, who is in the corner of Tomko.
Maven explains that he had to save Nidia from Tomko after the match. During his slide into the ring, he banged his knee on the apron, notoriously the hardest part of the ring. This left him with unbelievable pain that he still feels to this day if he tries to put full weight on that knee.
"So I would find myself running down, sliding into the ring, clearing Tomko out, saving my Tough Enough co-winner, and riding off into the sunset the hero of the day. So, where did the injury take place? So, as I'm in a full sprint going to save Nidia, the move called for my momentum to carry me into the ring, using that momentum to duck Tomko's first punch. To gain that momentum, I needed to be in a full sprint, and I was in a full sprint," he recalled. "The only problem was, as I go to slide into the ring, I squarely banged my knee on the side of the iron beam as hard as I ever have. "The pain that went through my body, had I been by myself, would have crippled me over. I would have been writhing, screaming, possibly led to tears. But we all know I was in an arena full of people. You can't cry, no crying in wrestling, so I had to play it off. But if you look close enough, you actually see me avoiding putting pressure on it at any time. You actually see me almost hopping around. What you don't see is the intense agony, the pain that is coursing through my body at that moment.
"The only saving grace I had was knowing once I got backstage, my night was over, but that would not be the end for that painful experience," continued Maven. "To this day, I still cannot walk up steps and put full pressure on that knee, and it gives out on me from time to time. I don't know exactly what injury I did to it that night. It didn't take me off the road. In fact, I was out wrestling the next match, but oh, that pain. I can still remember standing in that ring, thousands of people cheering for me, and not one of them knowing I was in the worst pain of my life."
Learn more about how much Maven was paid over the course of his career at this link.
As for Nidia, while she's largely out of the wrestling business, she did do an interview with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp once. Check out the full interview here.
Use our injury resource to keep up with real-time updates on injuries affecting today's talent across the world of wrestling.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Maven's YouTube channel in addition to linking back to this article and giving Fightful credit for transcription.
