20 Awesome WWE Royal Rumble Moments

13. Maven Eliminates The Undertaker (2002)

CM Punk
WWE.com

When WWE partnered with MTV to create its reality television program Tough Enough, the company was entering uncharted territory. The competition’s first male winner, Maven, would last about four years with WWE, most of it as a mid-card talent or a jobber.

But one of his earliest moments in WWE would be one of his most memorable. In the early stages of the 2002 Rumble, the Undertaker was on a roll. (At this stage, this was the biker version of the Undertaker.) He would clear the ring of the Hardy Boys (who were feuding with Taker at the time), only for the rookie Maven be the next entrant. What happened next would send Jim Ross into hysterics.

Maven eliminated a distracted Undertaker with a dropkick in one of the most shocking eliminations ever. Unfortunately for Maven, the Deadman didn’t take it too well and pummeled him right out of the match. But for one brief moment, Maven had an entire arena in a frenzy.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.