47-year-old was "honored" Brock Lesnar beat him up in WWE

Brock Lesnar made one of the most destructive WWE debuts of all time on the March 18, 2002, episode of RAW. Maven, one of the men The Beast Incarnate beat up that day, recently reflected on the memorable moment.

One night after WrestleMania 18, Maven's Hardcore Championship defense against Al Snow was interrupted by Spike Dudley and Lesnar. The latter, accompanied by Paul Heyman, slammed Snow through a trash can before hitting Maven with an F-5. He then took out Dudley with a Clothesline and three consecutive Powerbombs.

In an interview on Rewind Recap Relive, Maven said he enjoyed being a part of the classic RAW moment and was "honored" that he was chosen for the historic segment.

"He's gotta destroy everybody, he has to leave an impact," the 47-year-old said. "And I was honored the fact that they felt comfortable enough with me [to work with Brock Lesnar] because you only get to debut him once, you know? And the fact that they were gonna do that during my match showed that they knew I could handle him taking that [F-5] bump good." [35:32 – 35:55]

The F-5 went on to become Lesnar's iconic finisher. Five months later, he used the move on The Rock at SummerSlam 2002 to win the WWE Undisputed Championship.

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Original idea for Brock Lesnar's WWE debut

According to Maven, Brock Lesnar's impactful first WWE appearance was supposed to feature more Powerbombs on Spike Dudley.

Maven added that the plan changed when WWE's higher-ups decided Lesnar did not need to hit more than three Powerbombs to make an impression:

"Like I said, I had it easy. Poor Spike. Oh my God. I still remember watching it and thinking because originally they had the plan, I think they might have even wanted to do a couple more Powerbombs. But Spike was obviously [beaten up]. Brock probably would still be Powerbombing him if it was up to him!" he said. [35:55 – 36:21]

In the same interview, Maven also revealed how his YouTube channel inspired a WWE Hall of Famer to start a podcast.

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Please credit Rewind Recap Relive and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.