Maven reflects on a 2003 squash match with Triple H and why "The Game" actually apologized to him before the match.
On an episode of WWE Raw in March 2003, Maven faced WWE World Champion Triple H one-on-one. Maven did not get much offense in as the match was booked to be an enhancement bout for "The Cerebral Assassin," set up to give him a strong win ahead of his match with Booker T at WrestleMania XIX. By that point in WWE, dominant squash matches like that had gone out of style, and even Triple H wasn't a fan of the move, according to Maven.
In a recent YouTube video where he reflects on the match, Maven revealed that Triple H spoke to him early in the day and apologized for what was going to be happening, saying that he's not a fan of those types of matches.
"Hunter would pull me aside and explain to me, and apologize in advance. He would say, 'Listen, Maven, normally, I don't like doing squash matches.' By 'squash matches,' that's just a term in our business for, 'I'm going to get every ounce of the offense, and you're gonna get nothing in.' The way you build a character, and the way you help yourself is by building your opponent up. If I go out and just squash someone, what have I done? Absolutely nothing," explained Maven.
"So Hunter explained to me earlier in the day, 'I don't like doing squash matches. I'm sorry I'm doing this squash match. Normally, I want you to get some offense in.' On this night, leading to WrestleMania in a few weeks, Hunter was just trying to expand on his heel persona. He had a big match coming up with Booker, and he wanted as many people as possible to hate him, to want to see Booker get the better of him, and what better way to do that than to beat the hell out of the Tough Enough kid?"
As everyone knows, Triple H would go on to beat Booker T at WrestleMania and wouldn't lose the title until September of that year, when Goldberg defeated him at WWE Unforgiven.
Maven also explained that The Rock spoke to him after this match, offering to work with him because he didn't like that Maven was squashed. Read more here.
