Former WWE star Maven has opened up about his struggles with addiction and how WWE helped get him back on his feet after he had been arrested.
Maven joined the world of WWE when he competed on the first series and won their reality series, Tough Enough. From there he spent time in the developmental territory of the Heartland Wrestling Association before shocking the world when he eliminated The Undertaker from the 2002 Royal Rumble.
Now speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, the former WWE Hardcore Champion has discussed a darker time in his life. Maven has struggled with addiction to pain medication but refuses to blame wrestling for it.
Maven explained:
“It started in wrestling but wrestling didn’t do it. I wouldn’t even take Tylenol for a headache back then. The first pill I ever took I was like ‘yeah I am onto something here.’ I was in pain at the time, I just had hand surgery. But that’s life man. One pill turns into two, turns into thirty. When that happened, I was taking forty to fifty a day. But here’s what’s crazy, I could function on them. I could do them and then do two hours on HSN (Home Shopping Network) and sell the hell out of some football merchandise. I knew this ends bad, just not today. Next day, this ends bad, but not today. Then you are three years later and it’s still the same thing.”
Maven then discussed WWE getting in contact with him to send him to rehab following his arrest in 2012 for “doctor shopping” – the practice of visiting several doctors to obtain multiple prescriptions:
“They reached out to me. It hit the news on TMZ and they reached out to me a day or two later. Johnny Ace and D-Von Dudley reached out to me on the day. No one knew I had a problem. I could maintain and I could hide it. I said it wasn’t a problem for me, but yeah it wasn’t sustainable. I needed that. It also hit me financially pretty difficult, but that’s just life. You are going to get kicked down, but it is about falling forward.”
During the conversation Maven also discussed using steroids during his wrestling career, admitting the effect they had on his body was “addictive.” Thankfully Maven has turned things around and currently finds himself working in the finance sector on Wall Street.