Jim Ross was fond of Rob Conway and Maven.
During the latest edition of his “Grilling J.R.” podcast, the WWE Hall of Fame legend and AEW commentator spoke about how he feels Conway was misused by WWE and how he always enjoyed Maven.
Featured below are some of the highlights.
On why Rob Conway not making it big in WWE: “Reliability because he’s a true pro. I don’t recall Rob being late for work, uncooperative, lazy, or anything like that. I just don’t know what the exact reason was. Timing is one thing you can say you can attribute it to. But he had a great skill set and it was a very underrated talent. And I don’t know if his coming out of OVW was a negative for him or not, I don’t know. But in any event, he should have done better than he did because his skill sets were outstanding. And the good guy, Rob Conway, had been good in anybody’s locker room in any era that I’ve ever been in because he was a pro and a good pro. So I think we missed him. I think that he could have been better. To your point, he could have been utilized a lot more effectively. And that wasn’t the case. But he was a really good talent, really good talent. A good hand, and I wish he had had a better run. I think, like I said, I think we misued Rob Conway. I think he could have been a really good wrestling heel. And those are heels that can wrestle, can exchange holes. And when they’re trumped, so to speak, they can cheat to gain an unfair advantage. So, a wrestling heel was what Rob Conway, I think, was best suited for. And I just wish that we had been more intuitive to his skill set so we could have used him better. He deserved to be used better.”
On Maven’s WWE tenure: “I was listening to Busted Open the other day, and they had Maven as a guest. Yes. And boy, what a great talker he is. He was articulate. He knew he understood what a soundbite was. He was just so he was always really intelligent. He had a college degree and he was a school teacher and all these things, and so was Spike as a matter of fact. So, we delved into the college graduate situation, but I was really happy to hear from Maven. He’s back in Virginia and makes a few appearances here and there. But really, I’m surprised that somebody in the Indies especially hasn’t tapped into his skill set. And he’s got a great name identity. That one thing he did with Taker where he eliminated Taker from the Royal Rumble. He’s a made man, baby. Yes. So it was good. It was good. But I’m glad to have heard from him. It has been a long time.”
Check out the complete episode via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
